YA LGBT Books discussion

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message 1: by Lizzy (new)

Lizzy The Boston-Area Homeschoolers' Queer-Straight Alliance (BAHS QSA) is proud to announce the start of The HEDA Project! This project aims to provide LGBT youth with stories starring LGBT characters who get happy endings. You can read more about The HEDA Project and its mission here.

After the recent slew of LGBT character deaths on television and the most recent tragedies faced by LGBT people in the real world, we recognized that it was time to take a stand and provide LGBT individuals with a place to hear and tell positive stories about characters like themselves.

We accept submissions in the form of short stories, poetry, and art from LGBT youth ages 12-21 who want their stories to be heard. However, we are also accepting submissions from guest authors, who may be older than 21 - all content must still be appropriate for young adult readers. Submissions should be sent to bahsqsa@gmail.com, and should follow our submission guidelines.

We want to provide a safe, happy place for LGBT youth where our stories can be heard and told without fear. We hope you will consider submitting a piece or two, and we hope you enjoy the project!

I'll post the submission guidelines here as well for anyone who wants to see them!


message 2: by Lizzy (new)

Lizzy Submission Guidelines

Please send all submissions to bahsqsa@gmail.com. Include your name and age, as well as the title, word count, genre of your work, and where on the LGBT spectrum your main character falls. Please also include warnings for potentially disturbing material, including suicide, sexual assault, bullying, etc.

Editorial Selection Criteria

Submissions up to 10,000 words will be published in their entirety. Longer submissions will be serialized.

Submissions should include main characters on the LGBT spectrum. Submissions with main characters who are both straight and cisgender (not transgender) will not be considered.

All submissions must end happily. Happy endings are not all alike and we would like to see what a “happy ending” means to you, but the editors will have the final say in whether your story has a positive ending and can be published.

Characters may be of any age, race, nationality, or socioeconomic background.

Submissions may be of any genre.

Other Requirements

Submissions from authors between the ages of 12 and 21 will be considered. However, we are also currently accepting submissions from guest authors and artists, who may be over the age of 21. All content must still be appropriate for a young adult audience.

Warnings and Guidelines

We will not accept any submission which contains gratuitous or pornographic sexual content or other extreme material.

We will also not accept any submission which contains gratuitous depictions of violence or gore.

Minor grammatical corrections may be made by the editorial board in the interest of clarity. The editorial board will never make changes to the content of a submission. We ask that all major revisions, including revisions to content and major grammatical revisions, be made by the author.

Any author whose work does not comply with the guidelines will be asked to revise their work to meet our guidelines. In the event that the piece is still in violation, the piece may be declined entirely.


message 3: by Kaje (new)

Kaje Harper | 17376 comments Sounds like a cool project - good luck with it!


message 4: by Lizzy (new)

Lizzy Kaje wrote: "Sounds like a cool project - good luck with it!"

Thanks, Kaje!


Linda ~ they got the mustard out! ~ (linda2485) | 344 comments This sounds like a great project, and hopefully, it'll get show runners and writers to put the "kill your gays" trope to rest.


message 6: by Lizzy (new)

Lizzy Linda ~ chock full of hoot, just a little bit of nanny ~ wrote: "This sounds like a great project, and hopefully, it'll get show runners and writers to put the "kill your gays" trope to rest."

Thanks, Linda! That's definitely what we're trying to do - LGBT kids have it hard enough without having to repeatedly watch LGBT characters die in books/movies/TV shows. Hopefully that trope gets laid to rest soon!


message 7: by Lizzy (new)

Lizzy The HEDA Project is proud to announce that we've posted our first story from a guest author - the YA LGBT book group's very own Kaje! Her story, "Dangerous Wishes," from the December 2015 Writing Prompt, has been posted to The HEDA Project and can be read here.

Click here to learn more about The HEDA Project!


message 8: by Skye (new)

Skye | 14 comments What a cool project.


message 9: by Lizzy (new)

Lizzy Skye wrote: "What a cool project."

Thank you!


message 10: by Kaje (new)

Kaje Harper | 17376 comments <3 I'm glad you found one of mine that fit your project. Good luck with it gong forward.


message 11: by Adelle (new)

Adelle R. (adele02) | 9 comments Whoa, it looks great! I'll maybe write something :)


message 12: by Linda ~ they got the mustard out! ~ (last edited Aug 17, 2016 07:08PM) (new)

Linda ~ they got the mustard out! ~ (linda2485) | 344 comments Romeo and Jude - Not YA (I don't think), but this is the audible daily deal today and made me think of this thread and this project. Of all the Shakespeare plays to queer up, why did they pick this one? Why not A Mid-Summer Night's Dream or The Taming of the Shrew or Much Ado About Nothing? *sigh*


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