Something to be Proud of by Anna Zoe Quirke

We enjoy reading blogs from debut authors and today’s blog is from Anna Zoe Quirke, a new talent in Young Adult publishing. Something to be Proud of is their debut novel.

I started writing my book, Something to be Proud Of, in 2020 – famously not a wonderful time for humankind… I desperately needed a form of escapism, so I decided to try to write something that was funny, joyful and full of hope.

Pretty much instantly, my main characters, Imogen and Ollie, burst into my head and demanded that I write their stories.

Imogen Quinn is an autistic, bisexual, aspiring stand-up comedian. When she experiences a meltdown while attending her first pride event, she decides instead to set up her own pride festival in her town – one that’s accessible to all types of LGBTQ+ people.

I’ve been out as queer since 2017, but I only attended my first pride event in 2021, because until then I knew I didn’t have the skills to navigate an environment that, yes, would make me feel incredibly seen as a queer person, but would also potentially make me feel very unseen as a queer disabled person, with most events being really inaccessible for people like me.

We’ve made a lot of progress with LGBTQ+ and disability rights just in my lifetime, but often we’re still lacking the acknowledgment that a lot of people exist at the intersections of multiple marginalised identities, and we need to get a lot better at making people feel seen for all of who they are, rather than just one part of them at a time.

This was a big driving force for me when writing the story. I wanted my characters to read as real, nuanced people, who refused to separate themselves into different pieces and instead demand to be seen for everything they are at once.

I also didn’t grow up with any authentic representation of autistic people like me. All I saw or read were very stereotypical, usually male characters, who were the complete opposite of me.

That’s why it was important for me to write Imogen’s character. Imogen is incredibly passionate, empathetic, and they have a really strong sense of justice. Through Imogen, I wanted allistic readers to have a better understanding that autism really is a spectrum, and there are as many different ways to be autistic as there are autistic people, and I wanted to hopefully make other autistic people – especially autistic women or non-binary people – feel seen in ways we very rarely get to.

Ollie’s story was also a really meaningful one for me to write. Ollie is the openly-gay captain of the football team, he’s British-Japanese, and he’s trying to navigate relationships with both of his parents after they announce that they’re getting divorced at the beginning of the story but won’t tell anyone why. He also has to navigate his complicated feelings surrounding his gender and queerness, and how he wants to express both of those instead of just performing what he thinks he needs to in order to be accepted.

Over the course of the story, he learns how to stand up for what he believes in and figure out how to accept his emotions – including the intense anger he feels at times. He does this both through a lot of self-reflection, but also his relationship with Imogen.

Imogen and Ollie’s developing friendship is incredibly important to them both and helps both characters realise that they deserve to be loved by others for who they are, not in spite of it.

Ultimately, I wanted to write a story that highlighted the importance of platonic love not just as a consolation prize for a lack of romantic love but as something powerful and magical as its own separate thing, that had characters that are proud of every aspect of who they are, that discusses inaccessibility and intersectionality, while also still being that joyful, hopeful story full of ridiculous jokes that I’d really wanted (needed) to write.

I had so much fun writing this story, scaring my dog by laughing out loud to myself as I wrote at my desk during lockdown, and I’m so glad (and proud) that I finally get to put it out into the world! I really hope readers enjoy meeting Imogen and Ollie when Something to be Proud Of comes out on June 6th.

 

Anna Zoe Quirke is a queer and autistic author and librarian from the North of England. She currently lives in Manchester with her partner, Rachael, and their very angry tortoise, Sheldon. They’re at their happiest writing stories about queer and neurodivergent people finding and claiming their place in the world, exploring the literary wonders of the UK, or making a big ol’ mess in the kitchen baking things for their loved ones. Something to be Proud of is their debut novel.