Weekend Pick for August 9, 2024

Weekend Pick for August 9, 2024

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The Letter Q: Queer Writers’ Notes To Their Younger Selves
Edited by Sarah Mood and James Lecesne

Our guest contributor for this issue of Weekend Picks is Roy Edward Jackson, an assistant professor of education at Goshen College where he teaches an array of courses including literacy development and academic voice.

Roy Edward Jackson

​For my last weekend pic this month I wanted to stay in the arena of creative nonfiction for YA readers. As we enter the beginning of Pride Month, and all the culture war narrative that have co-opted our celebrations of progress, I think of younger Queer adults and what a strange time to emerge into adulthood. While I love the it gets better campaign, I do have some fears about the overly optimistic tone of it. I prefer the nuance of understanding all human life has peaks and valleys. The Letter Q: Queer Writers’ Notes To Their Younger Selves is a fantastic collection of writers writing to their younger selves. This collection showcases the nuance I crave between realist and optimist.
 

​Edited by Sarah Mood and James Lecesne, the collected letters, over sixty in all, are from a vast array of Queer writers of all genders, races and ages. From well-known, modern writers like Jacqueline Woodson, Malinda Lo and Brian Selznick to writers I read in the 1990s as a young, gay male like Armistead Maupin and Michael Cunningham there is both a profound individualism, as well as universalism in the letters. Readers will find each letter serves as a reminder that we are not alone in the unique experience of being Queer. Feelings of confusion, fear and rejection are indeed often felt by many of us in this process of coming to terms with who we are and coming out to our world. However, embedded in these letters are not just the negatives of the unique experience of being Queer. There is joy in the reflection encouraging their younger selves to find hope and community in the self-discovery of our Queer identities. There are strong ethos of encouragement and advice that readers will receive regardless of the fact the letters are written from the writer to their younger self.
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Reading this collection I was immediately transported to my fifteen-year-old self-wishing I’d paused to soak in the exuberance of that time of my life. I read these letters as both a writer writing to their younger self, but also writing to me as a reader. And for a young adult reader who is of the age the recipient is of each letter, they will find even more connection. However, it isn’t just Queer kids that this book is for. It provides all students with a mirror and window. There are universals to the coming-of-age story that all young adult readers will nod in agreement that they too will have had that experience. However, while the mirror is there, the window to the world of how hard it can be to be Queer is key to gaining more allyship to our community, particularly when the political arena prefers to make us pawns in the culture wars they elate in creating.
 
The editors have curated amazing writers who wrote significant letters to, and about, themselves. Some in traditional form, others in graphic form. As a reader who loves graphic novels, reading the panels of comic art and text gave me inspiration as to how to present this activity with my young writers. There is a natural nostalgia to the human experience and for me, young adults experience this in manner unlike any other. The idea of a “my reminiscence” in the form of a letter to our younger self is novel, but to ask a young adult emerging into adulthood to engage in this exercise is an insight that they not only crave but may need. While this exercise is indeed meaningful to all students, to those who are pushed to the margins of society, it is part of our social emotional learning commitment as educators. To provide a sense of belonging for our students as well as increasing empathy for those who live with privilege.
 
The editors also provide a brief bio of each writer, and my hope is for many Queer writers and their works to be discovered by younger generations. The editors have also wisely included a note at the end about The Trevor Project. As we enter Pride month, one that sometimes, if ever, is allowed in our schools either by a calendar or by legislation, this book is one that filled me with nostalgia. More importantly, it filled me with hope.