We’re thrilled to welcome one of our new regular contributors, Chiara Sullivan! Chiara will be blogging about all things LGBTQIA+ YA, with a focus on the fun side of it all. Look for more great posts from her in the coming months!
by Chiara
Just in case the title wasn’t completely obvious in the fact that David Levithan indeed owns my heart, I reiterate: he does.
How did this come to be? Well, sit back and I shall tell you the story of how my heart came to be David Levithan’s and not mine, after all.
David Levithan
1. He introduced me to LGBT+ fiction.
I read Marly’s Ghost in my early teens, and it was the first book that I had read that featured a gay couple. And you know what? I fell in love. I fell in love with the story of Marly’s Ghost, Levithan’s writing style, and the relationship between Tiny and Tim.
And such, my love for LGBT+ fiction was born. I wanted to read more of these diverse characters and I wanted to read them now.
2. He’s a freaking fantabulous writer.
Every time I sit down and open a Levithan book, I know the words within the pages are going to completely captivate me from the get go. I don’t have to settle into his writing. I don’t have to wait to become attached to the characters. All of it is just there and I love it. I cannot get enough of anything with his name attached to it.
3. And also a unique one.
I mean, he writes novels that consist of streams of consciousness, song lyrics, wild imaginings, and definitions of words. He writes books that I never thought were possible, that I never thought would work. And yet here they are – and they’re beautiful, and amazing, and completely fascinating in their uniqueness.
4. He writes diverse books.
I guess this is kind of linked to number one, in which Levithan writes about sexual diversity. He’s written about almost every sexuality on the LGBT+ spectrum and I just want to throw confetti in his face (with love and adoration, of course) to thank him. To thank him for being a voice, and unafraid to write the stories that need to be written. He’s a role model if I’ve ever seen one.
5. His Twitter.
I am completely serious. Have you read his tweets? I kindly link you to them here. Every time I see one on my Twitter timeline my heart either fills with some kind of hot fluffy air or it completely caves in on itself with sadness. He just captures the feelings of being in love so truthfully and I love it.
6. He changed my life.
David Levithan changed my life. Not only by #1 and introducing me to the wonderful world that is LGBT+ fiction, but because he has written books and stories that will stay with me forever. I often find myself thinking of Two Boys Kissing (can I please get some trumpet tooting for this piece of preciousness), and The Realm of Possibility (I just cannot even with this book AT ALL), and pretty much every other one of his books that I have read. And I can’t thank him enough for creating these characters and stories which burrowed deep into my not-so-pliable heart. They did an amazing job of capturing me so wholeheartedly (I totally stepped into that, I accept my fate).
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So, thank you David Levithan for 100%, utterly, completely, and ruthlessly stealing my heart. Because I am all the better for it.
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Chiara Sullivan is an Australian self-proclaimed bibliophile with an incurable book buying addiction. She is constantly in the midst of writing LGBT+ YA novels and hopes that one day they’ll appear on shelves so that people can read (and hopefully fall in love) with the words inside. When she’s not reading or writing you can find her tweeting, blogging about books, or watching Merlin.
