By Amy Lutz, MCWC Operations Manager
With scholarship applications rolling in, we are thrilled to see MCWC 2021 off to a positive start. Scholarship applications are open till February 15th and we encourage all interested writers to apply. Visit mcwc.org/scholarships for more information. MCWC will be hosted online again this year.
We’re kicking off this year’s series of faculty interviews with MCWC 2021 Middle Grade/Young Adult (MG/YA) workshop instructor Alex Sanchez. Alex has published ten MG/YA novels over his twenty years as a writer, including the American Library Association “Best Book for Young Adults” Rainbow Boys, the Lambda Award-winning So Hard to Say, and Bait, which won the Tomás Rivera Mexican American Book Award. His latest novel, The Greatest Superpower, releases this month. Alex shared with us some insight into the success of his writing career.
Your first book, Rainbow Boys, published in 2001, was selected as an American Library Association “Best Book for Young Adults” and led to a three-book series in which all three books were Lambda Literary Award Finalists. What was it like for you writing YA fiction about LGBTQ characters twenty years ago?
Scary. Lonely. I didn’t think anybody would want to read what I wrote. And if anyone did read it, I thought they’d get mad at me. At the same time, I felt I had to write the story that was in my heart even if nobody read it. Because I didn’t imagine I’d be published, I didn’t think of myself as writing YA. At the time, LGBTQ characters in YA fiction barely existed. In the very rare case when a gay character appeared, they usually died tragically or committed suicide. Since no one died in my story, I doubted it would ever be published. But times were changing, and my manuscript found a home with the right publisher at the right time.
Middle Grade/Young Adult is a genre that has exploded into one of the largest publishing markets. What do you like about writing MG/YA and what do you hope to see for the genre’s future?
I write MG/YA because that’s where my “voice” speaks the loudest. Growing up can be challenging for a lot of people, and it definitely was for me. I didn’t have the words to put to my feelings back then. Now, I do, and my “inner teenager” voices all the things I couldn’t express when I was growing up.
You’ve published ten novels, including your newest book, The Greatest Superpower, which releases this month. What would you say is the key to your career’s success and longevity?
Some of it was due to things I had no control over: Having a writing instructor who recommended me to an awesome agent. A publisher and editors who believed in my stories. A publicist who did everything he could to make my debut a success. The things I did have control over included: Finding supportive people who believed in me. Sticking to a daily writing habit. Always striving to improve my writing. Taking writing workshops like those at MCWC!
You have a master’s degree in guidance and counseling and worked as a youth and family counselor. What advice do you have for writers juggling a career with their writing?
Make writing a priority. Write every day, even if it’s only for fifteen minutes. Make yourself close the door, sit down, shift all your devices to airplane mode, set a timer, and don’t let yourself do anything else except write for those fifteen minutes. Eventually writing will become a habit. It’s amazing how much you can accomplish in as little as fifteen minutes a day.
Last year you published a graphic novel, You Brought Me the Ocean. What interested you about this project and was the writing process different than your other novels?
I love creative challenges and trying new things. I’ve always been a visual thinker. My mind sees images. So, the idea of writing a graphic novel excited me. The process turned out far more collaborative than I ever imagined—not only collaborating with the artist but also with the editor, constantly going back and forth as I wrote the script. I loved that creative synergy. I learned a lot that I look forward to sharing in my MCWC seminar!
To find out more about Alex Sanchez, visit his website at www.alexsanchez.com.
We are now accepting scholarship applications for MCWC 2021. The deadline to apply is February 15. General registration will open March 1, and you will be able to register for the morning workshop of your choice after that date; there is no application required to attend MCWC. We recommend you register as soon as you can after March 1 to secure a spot in the workshop of your choice. Workshops are limited to ten participants this year and all spots are first come, first served.