Queer Young Adult Literature Conference to be held April 25th at CU Boulder UMC

Daily Camera, Staff Writer

Boulder has never seen a conference like this. Organizer Mike Wenk doesn't think the world has, either.

On Saturday, the University of Colorado campus will play host to the Queer Young Adult Literature Conference, organized by CU's National Council Teachers of English student affiliate group.

The event will feature award-winning authors, who specialize in the genre, reading excerpts from their books and participating in discussions about queer visibility in literature, identity exploration and other social and educational issues relevant to the queer community.

In the past two decades, about 200 queer-themed novels have been published, according to event organizers.

The conference aims to raise awareness about these books — with a positive bent, to inspire as well as educate youth and allies.

Wenk, who is working on his education doctorate at CU, taught middle and high school for 16 years.

"If you look at what's happening with the curriculum in schools, we're finding that teachers are kind of narrowing their focus to meet standards and step up to the new assessments," Wenk says. "What happens in those situations is some important cultural issues get lost — important issues around gender and sexuality."

Queer literature often is excluded from the list of pre-selected literature for students, he says.

Associate professor of literacy studies, sj Miller, developed the idea for the conference as a way to raise public consciousness about queer literature.

He says the conference is as much about the authors and students as it is for teachers.

"The way I see it is it's a pedagogical tool for teachers to really disrupt hetero-normative practices in classrooms that censor the voices of queer people and youth who are typically marginalized, and bring this to people's attention in a positive and affirming way," Miller says. "We still don't see enough teachers who know how to do that."

The full-day event is open to the public and includes various workshops, including how to explore queer themes through writing, what it means to be an ally and even a general discussion about transgender-student issues, led by LBGTQ advocacy group Out Boulder.

Featured authors include Malinda Lo, originally of Lafayette, who writes fantasy novels with queer characters and themes, and Julie Anne Peters, of Lakewood, whose area of expertise is transgender youth.

Authors Sara Farizan and Alex Sanchez also will participate in the conference.

Aimee Heckel: 303-473-1359, heckela@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/aimeemay

See the Boulder Weekly article on this topic.