Another interview today to grace your screens/emails/however you read these posts. Lindz Amer’s new picture book, illustrated by Kip Alizadeh, Hooray for She, He, Ze, and They! releases next week, and to celebrate, we have an interview for you with Lindz themself! If you’re looking for the perfect picture book purchase, look no further than this one.
Before we start with the interview, remember you can also keep up with Lindz on instagram!
Related: Middle grade & picture book releases of 2024.
Have you always known you wanted to be a writer? How old were you when you wrote your first story?
For me, it’s less about writing and more about storytelling in all its forms whether it’s through writing or performing or music. I’ve wanted to do that—tell stories—for as long as I can remember. Writing has been one really important mode for that self-expression, especially since I was such a voracious reader as a kid. I’m honestly not completely sure how old I was when I wrote my first story, my mom would probably know better than me! But I do remember that I was probably around 9 years old when my sisters and I put on an extremely cringe-worthy play for our parents for the first time on a family trip!
What pieces of media would you say were formative for you? Do you see any of their features in your own writing?
I’ll be honest, the most formative piece of media from my childhood is one I can’t talk about because it was written by a horrific transphobe. But something that story gave me was a sense of wonder and magic about the world around us. And the boundless imagination we are all capable of when we allow our inner child to run free and fearless. I see that a lot in my writing.
When you close your eyes and imagine an apple, what do you see? An actual apple, a sketch of one, a blackness? Do you think that impacts your writing process?
I see the platonic ideal of an apple that sits on a wooden table right before I pick it up to peel for an apple pie I used to make with my dad every fall. The vividness of my imagination impacts my writing incredibly. Whole scenes play out in my mind’s eye. Writing can be almost like going on the adventure itself!
If you wanted to learn about craft, which three authors would you suggest reading?
I love Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic. I also try to revisit Rilke’s Letters To A Young Poet annually. For an example of craft it really depends on the project for me, particularly the genre. For picture books I look at classics like Where The Wild Things Are, Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny, and others I loved as a child to help develop the pattern and cadence of the book.
When you’re building your world, what do you focus on? How do you try to make it come to life?
Usually I start with a visual idea or an image and build from there. For this book, the images that came to mind helped me describe a specific feeling that I wanted to evoke and I let the emotion I wanted to capture take me from image to image to build a sort of collage of images based on that feeling. My illustrator Kip Alizadeh did a fantastic job bringing the descriptions I translated from my mind’s eye to life!
What projects are you currently working on? Can you share any details yet?
I always have irons in the fire! I’m tinkering with a few new ideas right now for future books, but I’m also focusing a lot on my work through Queer Kid Stuff, my LGBTQ+ webseries for kids and the programming around it! Nothing to share yet, but stay tuned!
Three songs you would put in your book’s soundtrack?
What would be your dream project?
Creating an animated musical tv show or film with a young trans lead character.
Which of your characters would you most want to fight a zombie apocalypse with?
Oh wow! I do a lot of writing for preschool and young audiences so I don’t have a lot of super tough characters to choose from! I wrote an animated musical screenplay that featured a character named Eve Addams who was a real person who lived in the early 19th century in NYC. She was super tough and would definitely have a survival plan.
You’re stuck on a desert island and you’re allowed only three (LGBT) books. What are you taking?
Red, White, and Royal Blue* (but honestly a toss up between that and One Last Stop*). Aristotle and Dante Discover The Secrets of The Universe. The Miseducation of Cameron Post. (can you tell I like YA?)
You can collaborate on anything with anyone in the LGBT community: who would it be and why?
If the Wachowskis ever want to get into children’s media I would be 100% here for it!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lindz Amer (they/them) creates LGBTQ+ and social justice media for kids and families. They wrote, produced, and cohosted Queer Kid Stuff—an original LGBTQ+ educational web series for ages three and up—which The Huffington Post called a “groundbreaking YouTube educational resource.” They host the Rainbow Parenting podcast and wrote Rainbow Parenting, a queer and gender-affirming parenting guidebook for grown-ups, and the picture book Hooray for She, He, Ze, and They!. They also write and consult for preschool television. You can find them online at lindzamer.com.
Follow on Goodreads | Preorder Hooray for She, He, Ze, and They!
*Please note: some of the titles mentioned here are published by St. Martin’s Press or an imprint. As there is a boycott in progress against this publisher, we have elected not to include links here.
