An interview with M. E. Kerr, author of numerous GLBT YA books, for the September 2007 GLBT Month at YABC.

No one author influenced me the most although reading The Well of Loneliness when I was a youngster certainly did. Then there were books like We Too Are Drifting, Orlando,Loveliest of Friends,The Illusionist, Diana and Olivia.

Compared to when you started writing, how do you feel the YA market treats GLBT lit today? How about GLBT authors?

The YA market is far more simpatico to GBLT lit these days. I felt the critics were harsh when they blamed authors for unhappy endings. What kind of reality is that?...In my experience with Harper/Collins I was never given any cautionary advice, or any advice for that matter. Thanks to the gentle wisdom of Charlotte Zolotow, my editor, I had no second thoughts when I wrote Night Kites, the first hardcover (adult or YA) book about AIDS in which the protagonists were gay. All of my gay YA's were also well-received by the Sunday NYTimes.

Name and describe 3 must-read books for GLBT teens (and yes, one of your books can be in there!).

Annie On My Mind by Nancy Garden...Am I Blue? collection by Marion Dane Bauer, Rainbow High by Alex Sanchez.

If you weren't an author, what would you be doing?

If I wasn't an author I might be a psychoanalyst or a private detective.

Has a fan's story ever touched you as much as your stories have touched them?

Many kids' stories have touched me, gay and straight, but I can't think of a "fan's" story that has.

Do you have any advice for young GLBT writers? Teen writers in general?

My advice to all writers is read read read. Learn how to rewrite. Write write write...and it sometimes helps to form a club of peers, writers to share with.

Early GLBT YA books were often categorized as "problem" novels and primarily featured characters that were white. Today's books feature many minorities and, in many ways, can be looked at as more "mainstream". What do you think will happen in GLBT lit in the next five to ten years?

I think in the coming years diversity will rule in all literature. But until the law and the church/synagogue recognize gays as legitimate people we will always have a problem with gay literature in some parts of the country.

Even today, there seem to be fewer books published about lesbian or bisexual teens than about male homosexual teens. Why do you think that is? Do you think this will change?

I hope there will be more books about lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people. I don't know why there isn't now. But I feel that the early Naiad Press lesbian novels were so bad that they single-handedly ruined the idea of a serious, good story about lesbians...Then,too, there was such a dearth of lesbian literature for so long that when lesbian novels did start to appear they were grabbed by a hungry audience that gave the wrong signal to publishers (they'll read anything) and for awhile there was an abundance of awful stuff. Publishers couldn't sell it and decided there was "no market" so it's hard now.

Many straight teens devour and enjoy GLBT YA lit just as much as the GLBT teens it is ostensibly targeted towards. As an author, has this surprised you? What do you think it means for our future and the future of today's GLBT teens?

I am surprised to read that "many straight teens devour GLBT YA lit. It's hard for me to believe it since my experience talking to kids at schools tells me the opposite.