Photo by Jennifer Ivings
Interview by A.N. Higgins
Tanya Boteju’s first book, Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens, published in 2019, is a Young Adult (YA) novel about a 17-year-old queer, mixed Brown girl who, over the course of one life-changing summer, becomes immersed in the sparkly world of drag.
Boteju is also a high school English teacher and a former colleague of mine. We spoke about the power of freewriting, the joy of queer community, and the magic that happens when you step outside your comfort zone.
A.N. Higgins: What would have it meant to you as a teenager to be able to read a book like Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens? What is it about this story that makes it the one you would have needed or wanted to hear?
Tanya Boteju: I had no books that spoke to my identity or experience as a teenager. Anything at all that had brown characters or queer characters would have been awesome. This particular story is not a coming-out story—Nima’s queerness is not really an issue for her in any sort of big way (though she’s uncomfortable with herself in other ways), so just seeing a young queer POC’s comfort in her own body would have been really powerful.
I was really committed to this book having an ending that’s believable and realistic, but joyful. I wanted it to show readers, especially young readers, that you can be queer and have joy and community. If you could give me a pill today that I could take to be straight, I wouldn’t take it—there’s no way. There’s real magic to being queer. As a teenager, I literally had no human beings around me who identified as queer that I knew of. I had movies that I would secretly watch, but there was no internet to access at this point, and no books. So reading a book like Kings and some of the other books that are coming out right now would have created possibility.
ANH: What surprised you most about the process of writing Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens?
TB: One of the really pleasant surprises was how organic the process was of allowing the characters to tell me their story. Although I teach writing, I hadn’t realized how naturally the writing process would happen, as long as I trusted it. It was important to get to know my protagonist, Nima, and understand her really well before writing the plot of the story.
I was surprised by how much she took on a life of her own and became this whole other entity from me, and told me her story. It was really magical.
ANH: Rejection, and fear of rejection, are major themes in the book. Nima feels rejected by her mother, who left the family, and subsequently by two different love interests. What made you want to explore this theme?
TB: Everyone fears rejection on some level, especially young people. Nima’s not exactly like me, but there’s some of her in me and vice versa. Some of her insecurities are about feeling not interesting or exciting enough, not lovable, and that that’s why people aren’t interested in her—some of that was pulled from feelings I had as a young person. The kids that I’m surrounded by, some of them are pretty confident, but there is constantly that fear of doing things wrong––of making mistakes, of having people not see them as capable and perfect and always on it. As a teenager, even the most popular person is constantly feeling like they’re going to topple off the top. I don’t think anyone’s immune from fearing rejection.
ANH: I thought it was a great craft choice to set the story in the summer, versus during the school year, because that removes the whole element of having to deal with school. And, there’s something about high school summers—it’s one of the last times in your life when you don’t have a lot of responsibility.
TB: That dynamic of high school was a whole other layer that I think would have complicated things a bit too much. Summer also seems to fit with the magic and festivity of drag. And it gave the story a finite timeline.
ANH: There are some REALLY cringey moments in the book, like when Nima is in the hot tub with her crush and then throws up. Was it hard to put her in those situations? Did you feel an instinct to protect her, and have to push yourself to write those scenes? Or did it feel easy to lean into the awkwardness?
TB: I found it hard. I had written another version of that scene, in which things actually go pretty well for Nima, and then a friend of mine suggested—what would happen if something went really wrong? Like, what if she barfed?
It didn’t come naturally to put my characters in these really awful situations. I had to mentally force myself—like, what is the worst thing that could happen right now? But you have to put your characters through these things so they can grow.
ANH: I thought it was very funny in that scene, when Nima used the phrase “break the seal,” because she knows that’s something people say when they’re drinking.
TB: She’s so naive, right? And everything feels big as a teenager––high drama, magnified (I don’t say that with any judgement).
ANH: What do you appreciate most about YA? Is there anything in particular that you think is really exciting about the queer YA being published today? Is there anything YA can achieve that adult fiction can’t?
TB: I didn’t set out to write YA necessarily. It just felt like the most natural fit once I started thinking about character and the story I was going to tell and the people I work with the most. One of the reasons for writing the book was certainly to reach queer kids. It’s allowed me to develop relationships with young people outside of my classroom and connect with kids all over the world.
YA also forces me to try and understand young people. Obviously I do that as a teacher, too, but to really get inside their heads and speak in that voice forced me to do it on another level.
The number of queer stories that are coming out now, including those with BIPOC characters, is tripling or quadrupuling every year, so that’s an awesome trend. There’s a lot of diversity within queerness that’s represented, too—not just in terms of BIPOC, but in terms of the different types of sexualities and genders. YA is still definitely lacking in terms of certain representations, like asexuality or aromanticism, but we’re starting to see a bit more range––it’s not just the gay white dude story, or the coming-out story. And let’s get even more!
In terms of what YA’s doing better than adult fiction, I think that YA is doing diversity better to some extent, for queer and BIPOC representation. As YA writers, because our main audience is young people, there’s a real responsibility we feel in speaking to their wide range of experiences.
ANH: How has your writing influenced your teaching?
TB: It’s definitely a two-way street. I’m really lucky that the two things I’m most passionate about work so well together. When I started writing, thankfully, I realized that a lot of the things I’d already been talking about in my classroom (when it comes to writing) really did work. It was very satisfying. I’m a huge proponent of freewriting and I have been for years and years, so I use that a lot in my own writing. I’ve realized even more how powerful it can be, and is for me. The amount that I use it in class and really try to push it with kids has just grown. Everybody’s writing process is different, and maybe it’s not for everyone, but I really believe if you trust the process of freewriting, it’s one of the best strategies for getting through challenges and accessing new and original ideas.
Before I started writing, I felt a little bit hypocritical as a writing teacher. Having my own writing practice gives me a bit more confidence around teaching it, and maybe a bit more legitimacy in the students’ eyes. Though, who knows what the kids are thinking most of the time! There’s just something you learn in the practice of doing your own writing that you wouldn’t learn otherwise.
ANH: What do you love most about Nima? If you could talk to her, what would you tell her?
TB: I love that Nima doesn’t lose the core pieces of herself. She’s introverted, she loves reading in a hammock, she’s not always the most exciting person—and I was committed to not losing that by the end. I really love that she molds more into herself; drag becomes a new, huge, colorful piece of her life, yet she also maintains who she was before.
If I could talk to Nima, I’d tell her that I’m super proud of her. She rocked the stage, and that’s amazing, considering how insecure she was. I would definitely acknowledge her for stepping outside of her comfort zone, which is what we’re always encouraging kids to do. In writing, you need to let go of doing it right … try new things and take risks, because that’s where the most exciting and interesting writing will happen. For Nima, getting outside of her safe zone meant doing drag. It was a big risk she had to take, and obviously she had to fall down a few times along the way, but she took that step to create something new and different for herself.
ANH: And you took that step too!
TB: I did!
Tanya Boteju is an English teacher and writer living on unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations (Vancouver, Canada). Her debut novel, Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens, was named a Top Ten Indie Next Pick by the American Booksellers Association, as well as selected for the American Librarian Association 2020 Rainbow List. Her work appeared in the short story anthology Out Now (Inkyard Press) and Boteju’s next YA novel, Bruised, is due out with Simon & Schuster in 2021. Tanya is continually inspired by the brilliant young people she teaches and hopes to continue contributing to the ever-growing, positive representation of diverse lives in literature.
A. N. Higgins is a queer writer living on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. She is an MFA Candidate at the University of British Columbia. Her work is forthcoming or has appeared in CV2, untethered, and Pandemic Publications.