Speaking Out: LGBTQ Youth Stand Up

Speaking Out features stories for and about LGBT and Q teens by fresh voices and noted authors in the field of young adult literature. These are inspiring stories of overcoming adversity (against intolerance and homophobia) and experiencing life after "coming out." Queer teens need tales of what might happen next in their lives, and editor Steve Berman showcases a diversity of events, challenges, and, especially, triumphs.

Steve Berman sold his first short story at the age of seventeen, so he's always considered himself a young adult author. His novel, Vintage, was a finalist for the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy as well as named to the GLBT Round Table of the American LibraryAssociation's Rainbow Project Book List, which is recommended reading of queer books for children and teens. He has edited the young adult fantasy anthology, Magic in the Mirrorstone (a Parade Magazine Pick), aswell as Lambda Literary Award finalists Charmed Lives (co-edited with Toby Johnson) and Wilde Stories. He regularly writes queer spec fic short stories for teens—his most recent being a lesbian retelling of the Swan Lake story for The Beastly Bride (Viking Children's, ed. by Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling) and a gay vampire tale for the April release Teeth (HarperCollins, also ed. by Datlow and Windling). He has spoken about queer and young adult fiction at numerous conferences around the nation but always returns to New Jersey, as his cat Daulton demands it so.