20 Questions is a Q&A interview series with authors, musicians, and everyone in between, celebrating experiences both shared and individual in the messy game of being human.
“Being queer or LGBTQ+ or whatever label you prefer offers an opportunity to learn and practice empathy. I am grateful to be gay, because it’s made me a better person.” Bill Konigsberg is the award-winning author of seven young adult novels. The Porcupine of Truth won the PEN Center USA Literary Award and the Stonewall Book Award in 2016. Openly Straight won the Sid Fleischman Award for Humor, was a finalist for the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award and Lambda Literary Award in 2014 and has been translated into five languages. His debut novel, Out of the Pocket, won the Lambda Literary Award in 2009. The Music of What Happens, released in 2019, received two starred reviews, and has been optioned for a film. The Bridge, released in 2020, received two starred reviews and was optioned for a film by Amazon. His latest YA novel, Destination Unknown, was published last fall.
In 2018, The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)’s Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (ALAN) established the Bill Konigsberg Award for Acts and Activism for Equity and Inclusion through Young Adult Literature. Prior to turning his attention to writing books for teens, Bill was a sports writer and editor for The Associated Press and ESPN.com. He lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with his husband, Chuck, and their Australian labradoodles, Mabel and Buford. I got to get to know him for this week’s edition of 20 Questions.
Growing up, did you always want to be a writer? Did you consider any other career paths?
I always wanted to be a writer. When I got out of college, I worked in journalism not because it was my great love, but because it was a job in which I could write. As I got into my late twenties, I began to realize that I needed to get back to my first love, which was fiction writing. I’m so glad I took the chance to do that!
What inspired you to want to write books?
It’s hard to say, in some ways. How do you speak about inspiration when something feels like it’s part of your DNA? I always loved using writing to try to work out my feelings and thoughts, and it was a natural progression to write books. It was always my dream.
If you could pick one author that’s inspired you the most, who would it be and why?
It’s tough to pick just one! I guess I’d have to say Armistead Maupin, because his Tales of the City novels were the first I ever read in which I saw my own heart, in which I felt represented and seen. I wanted to be that writer for other people.
Favorite book of all-time?
It would be easy to say Tales of the City, but it might be more true to say either Sula by Toni Morrison, or This Book Will Save Your Life by A.M. Homes. Both of those books I read over and over because I am enchanted by the language and inspired by the craft as well as loving the stories and themes.
One movie that will always make you cry?
As Good As It Gets and Longtime Companion and The Color Purple. Sorry, couldn’t stop at one. The line in As Good As It Gets where the protagonist says, “Stop! Why can’t I just have a normal boyfriend, a normal boyfriend who doesn’t go nuts on me?” and her mother responds, “Everybody wants that, dear. It doesn’t exist,” gets me every time. So does the end of Longtime Companion, when all the dead folks run out onto the beach for a celebration, and so does the “only death can keep me from it” moment in The Color Purple.
You rose to fame as the author of gay YA novels with Out of the Pocket and Openly Straight over a decade ago. (Openly Straight, in particular, I remember being one of the most prominent LGBTQ+ novels for young people in the early 2010s.) What do you make of the landscape for queer literature now versus then?
It’s changed a lot, and for the better! Back then, there were so few books for LGBTQ+ youth. Now, there are so many, and that means that more young LGBTQ+ people are finding representation, are seeing mirrors into their own lives. I remember getting an email early on from a young person saying, “You should write a book about a gender fluid teen who is on the spectrum,” and I thought, “Yes, that book should exist, but it shouldn’t be me who is writing it!” I am very glad that publishers are beginning to see the value in intersectionality, and in “own voices.” The We Need Diverse Books movement has drastically changed the face of YA literature for the better.
What’s one piece of advice that you would give to your younger self?
You’re alright, kid! I spent so much time thinking I was less than everyone around me, only to find, in my forties and fifties, that this was a story I was telling myself. Coming from a place of understanding that I am like everyone else is such a liberation! We are all just folx on the bus. Everyone has the same insecurities, the same frailties, the same challenges. No one is above me, no one is below. How freeing!
The last series you binge-watched?
Jury Duty. Hilarious and uplifting. I’m so tired of cynicism. We live in an age of cynicism, and sometimes I just want to see and experience open-hearted vulnerability.
If you could have one writer, dead or alive, to compose your obituary, who would it be and why?
That’s a tough one! Someone funny, for sure. David Sedaris? I’d be okay if I were roasted in my obit, so long as it was done with love.
The best book you’ve read in the last year?
Probably The Ministry For the Future, which is about climate change. In terms of fiction, I adored Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. The best YA book would probably be Jeff Zentner’s In the Wild Light.
One song that you will never be sick of?
“Destination Unknown” by Missing Persons, or better yet, “Mental Hopscotch” by Missing Persons. Turn it up, loud!
Your latest YA novel, Destination Unknown, is set during the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, a crucial period in time for the gay rights movement and specifically for survivors. What do you make of the ways that young gay men had to deal and confront such matters at a time when gay visibility was just barely accepted to begin with?
It was heroic, powerful, kick ass. And let’s include gay women and trans people and bi people, too! We came together in anger and strength, and our lives and our existences were on the line. It might be hard for younger people to understand what that was like, because it was a time of invisibility and shame, far more than it is now. But I am convinced that if it happened again, young LGBTQ+ people would rise to the occasion again. We are resilient and powerful.
What’s the most challenging part of writing for you?
Self-doubt. When I am engulfed in self-doubt, I forget all of my successes. I begin to question my ability to write a good sentence, let alone a full manuscript. It’s so hard to overcome!
You’re stuck on a long flight. Which world-famous musician would you want sitting next to you and why?
Aimee Mann. Her lyrics, her sharp wit, her ability to delve deeply into other characters. I would adore having a long conversation with her, though I’d be afraid to start it. Other possibilities would include Brandi Carlile and Matt Alber. The latter because he’s cute.
As a writer and artist, what would you say is the best way to rest or decompress?
Pickleball. I love that game. I can go and laugh and enjoy myself and slam a ball to get out my anger and it’s just the best. I’m addicted.
Favorite social media app?
None of them. Sorry. I don’t like social media very much. It makes me feel anxious because I worry about saying the wrong thing, or hurting someone’s feelings, or being attacked by a hater or a troll. But if I have to choose? Instagram. I like looking at photos a lot.
In an age where it seems as though LGBTQ+ rights are under attack just as much as they were half a century ago, what do you make of the ways that being queer offers a different lens of the world?
Being queer or LGBTQ+ or whatever label you prefer offers an opportunity to learn and practice empathy. I am grateful to be gay, because it’s made me a better person. If I weren’t gay, I’d be a straight, cisgender white man. And not to say that such people can’t have empathy—some of my best friends are straight, cisgender white men!—but it’s far harder. And empathy is everything. Being sensitive to the plight of other people is what makes life good, is what makes connecting with others special.
How would you describe the importance of storytelling, especially in an age of isolation?
God. What would we do without storytelling? It’s become so important. Stories connect us. I love to get engrossed in a story because I connect with the characters. And I mean that both as a producer of stories and an enjoyer of them.
One thing that kept you sane during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic?
My husband. My husband, my husband, my husband. I got really depressed back in 2020. Without him, I don’t think I would have made it through.
What can we expect to see next from you?
I’m not sure! I’m simultaneously working on two projects, one for adults and one for teens. The teen project is high concept and speculative, taking place in the near future. It’s a departure for me as it is more full of action than my typical writing. But it’s what I need right now. I need to have fun with my writing!
Follow Bill Konigsberg on Twitter and Instagram, and buy his latest novel Destination Unknown wherever books are sold.
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