Books
The author discussesLark & Kasim Start a Revolution and gives readers an exclusive first look at its cover.
And theyre only getting started.
I have to catch them all.
Also like Callender, Lark dreams of becoming an author.
Certain that Twitter fame will land them a book deal, the 17-year-old sets out to gain 50,000 followers.
Little does Lark know that Kasims posts were about them all along.
Another thing Lark doesnt get?
What it really takes to launch a writing career.
Social media, Callender warns, can easily hurt rather than help a budding authors career.
In other words: Trust yourself, and the rest will follow.
Do you think this is your most personal novel to date?
I feel like they’re all equally personal in that sense.
But this one does have the most personal identity pieces [compared to] the others.
Have you ever gotten pushback from someone in publishing about including characters with multiple marginalized identities in your work?
So I was very excited to be able to write about polyamory in the story.
Do young writers need to be cautious about revealing whether they’re non-binary, neurodivergent, or polyamorous?
I think it’s all going to be very personal.
I don’t want to give advice for every single individual.
Sometimes I feel like there are implications that to come out, you have to be brave.
It’s always been something that’s been welcomed from the publishing side when it comes to my identities.
I think also about theIsabel Fallsituation that happened a couple of years ago.
That is actually a part ofLark & Kasim.
Kasim is also trans.
Do you feel youve been targeted in that way before?
As a queer and trans person, not a soul has messed with me in that way.
But I have unfortunately seen it happen.
That’s my personal take.
Do you feel like the market has changed a lot from when you first began reading YA?
I mean, it changes with every generation, I think, as every generation evolves.
Gen Z is the most badass generation so far and I love writing for them.
I mean, I guess maybe it isn’t fair to generalize because of my experience.
Every person’s single experience as a teen will also be very different.
And every millennial queer person who saw it was like, Our experiences have been so different from theirs.
It just shows how much has changed.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Kacen CallendersLark & Kasim Start a Revolutionis out on Sept. 27 and is now available for pre-order.
This article was originally published onFeb.
