Today we continue the series in which award-winning nonfiction
authors discuss the joys and challenges of writing narrative nonfiction
and expository nonfiction with an essay by Lee Wind. Thank
you, Lee.
How can I explain a
concept that’s huge and detailed? Not one story, but multiple layered stories
that combine into something bigger than the sum of their parts? How can I change how my readers see both history and
themselves?
That was my challenge writing No Way, They
Were Gay? Hidden Lives and Secret Loves, my debut nonfiction book for
readers ages 11 and up.
There’s
a façade of history that’s still mostly taught today, that what’s important
from the past is the story of white, rich, able-bodied, European, colonizing,
straight men. Our culture has erased the stories of people of color, of people
without resources, of disabled people, of people globally and from non-colonizing
lands, of women, and my focus: the stories of men who loved men, women who
loved women, people who loved without regard to gender, and people who lived
outside the gender binary.
The
first crack in that façade, for me, was learning about the letters Abraham
Lincoln wrote Joshua Fry Speed. Digging into the research, I became convinced
that Abraham had been in love with this other man. I knew that was a story I had to tell—finding out about it as a closeted
gay kid would have changed my life.
Reclaiming
Lincoln’s gay love story could have been a narrative nonfiction book. But what interested
me more was exposing the larger, ongoing campaign to erase the legacy of an
entire people. I didn’t want to just crack
the façade—I wanted to take it down
I
set out to build a case around twelve surprising stories that together show how
history has been manipulated to erase queerness, and let the voices of these
people from the past be heard in a celebration of their authentic lives and
loves.
Expository
nonfiction meant I got to play with multiple elements and techniques to meet
the challenge, including:
Voice
I
aimed to make No Way, They Were Gay?
fun, fascinating, and empowering. To embrace readers with the understanding
that they belong, just as they are.
When
I was a teen, history was taught like medicine—names and dates to memorize. I wanted
to present history more like chocolate.
I
focused on the most surprising stories—like Mahatma Gandhi (and the man who was
the soul mate of his life, Hermann Kallenbach), Eleanor Roosevelt (and the
woman she loved, Lorena Hickok), and Christine Jorgensen (the first person to
become world-famous for changing her body to match her gender).
I
invited readers to make their own call about the evidence presented, shifting
the power to them. And the interior design kept it all feeling fun.
Six
Levels of Text
1)
The main text gave context and made
my case. Like explaining how Sappho’s love for another woman, Anactoria, is the
reason why all those movies end with the kiss of true love breaking the evil
spell.
2)
Primary source materials (bolded to distinguish them) let these
people from history speak for themselves. Like Sonnet 144 where William Shakespeare
wrote, “Two loves have I of comfort and
despair, / Which like two spirits do suggest me still; / The better angel is a
man right fair, / The worser spirit a woman color’d ill…”
3)
Pop Up Commentaries were bubbled text
with arrows that acted as chatty, less-formal footnotes. Space to interpret
those opening lines of Sonnet 144 as: “I
have two loves. One’s a man, and one’s a woman.”
4)
Sidebars allowed the occasional detour,
like the secret code Anne Lister used in her 1820s diaries to write of her love
for other women.
5)
Image captions explained how ancient
artwork can reveal Queer history. These three
statues of Hatshepsut show the Pharaoh’s progression over 22 years of ruling
ancient Egypt from publicly presenting as a woman, to an in-between gender, to
finally presenting as a man.
6)
Endnotes encouraged readers to jump
in on the research themselves. With every fact and quote accounted for, they were
also proof I didn’t make any of this up.
Meta-Themes
Multiple
moments asked readers to pull back from the text and consider the challenges to
what they think they know. Including the opening image of the world map shown
upside-down (with the Southern hemisphere on top) and the caption “It’s our same world. Only looked at from a
different perspective. Just like the history in this book.”
Ultimately,
readers are invited to recognize that with the façade down, all this amazing
light from history can shine onto the systematically denied stories of other
communities, too.
I
hope No Way, They Were Gay? empowers
each reader to know they have a place in the past, they deserve a place at the
table today, and their future can be full of endless possibilities—no matter
who they are or whom they love.
Lee Wind, MEd is passionate about
untold history and how it can empower young people today. In addition to No Way, They Were Gay?, Lee is the
author of the award-winning YA novel Queer
as a Five-Dollar Bill and the picture book Red and Green and Blue and White, illustrated by Caldecott Medalist
Paul O. Zelinsky (Levine Querido, October 2021), inspired by the true story of
a community standing up against hate.
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2 Responses
Making nonfiction fun, fascinating, AND empowering! That's a wonderful mission statement! I love the way you incorporate sidebars and commentary bubbles. And I agree: captions are a valuable way to provide important information to readers.
What a terrific way to structure this eye-opening book! I hadn't thought about biographies as expository nonfiction and am grateful to Lee for sharing his insights and methods.