TCNJ

FACILITATOR: EMILY MEIXNER, PH.D. Emily S. Meixner is an associate professor of English and the coordinator of the secondary English education program at The College of New Jersey. Dr. Meixner regularly teaches undergraduate courses on English Language Arts reading and writing pedagogy as well as graduate and undergraduate courses on young adult literature. She also works regularly in local school districts providing professional development on such topics as reading/writing workshop, reading strategies and close reading, reading in the content areas, literature circles, and young adult literature. Dr. Meixner's scholarship has been published in a variety of scholarly journals including Radical Teacher, English Leadership Quarterly, and Multicultural Perspectives. Her most recent essay, "Finding Just the Right Story: Motivating Readers with Middle Level LGBTQ-Themed Literature" is featured in the September 2015 volume of Voices in the Middle. SEMINAR 1 NEW TRENDS IN YOUNG ADULT LGBTQ (LGBTQIA) LITERATURE October 7 and 14, 2015 In 2010, John Green and David Levithan's co-written young adult novel Will Grayson debuted at #3 on the New York Times best seller list for children's chapter books. It was the first young adult title with explicitly LGBTQ characters ever to appear on the list. In 2013, another novel by David Levithan, Two Boys Kissing, depicted – for the first time – two boys kissing on a young adult cover. In September 2014, Simon & Schuster published two memoirs by transgender teens: Katie Rain Hill's Rethinking Normal: A Memoir in Transition and Arin Andrews's Some Assembly Required: e Not-So-Secret-Life of A Transgender Teen. And, this past April (2015), I. W. Gregorio's None of the Above, joined the ranks of the small but growing number of young adult titles about intersex teens. Each of these events was a watershed moment in the developing body of young adult literature about, for, and by LGBTQ youth. Together, they suggest a fundamental shift in the availability of LGBTQ young adult literature as well as in the narratives these texts now offer. But are LGBTQ texts more widely available? Are the stories they tell new? is session will begin with an overview of the history of young adult LGBTQ literature. Using evaluative criteria developed by Michael Cart and Christine Jenkins, we will examine the kinds of narratives available to YA readers between 1969 and 2003, the year David Levithan's first novel, Boy Meets Boy, was published. is will be followed in the second session by an analysis of more contemporary offerings as we focus our attention on shifts in content, structure, and audience. Participants will have the opportunity to read and discuss two novels, David Levithan's Two Boys Kissing and Amy Polonsky's Gracefully Grayson, as well as other selected essays and excerpts from such authors as Francesca Lia Block, Katie Rain Hill, Bill Konigsberg, Malindo Lo, Alex London, Benjamin Alire Saenz, and Jacqueline Woodson. 2

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