Read With Pride: Queer Young Adult Literature Mini-Talk

If you find yourself around SDSU on Wednesday, November 7th be sure to stop by Love Library's Juvenile Collection on the 4th floor. Our very own Dr. Angel Daniel Matos will be giving a short talk that will highlight the growing LGBTQ+ young adult literature collection at our library. This collection has been organized by Linda Salem by working closely with the NCSCL and The Pride Center of SDSU. In explaining her goal with curating this collection Linda Salem states, "I want to raise students' awareness of The Pride Center on campus and that they have books at the center and that the library's collection also has an up-to-date collection of rainbow literature for readers of all ages." Some of these books will be put on display at the library for everyone to see, but many more are to be found both in and out of the library. This event will work towards expanding the awareness of anyone who is curious about learning more about LGBTQ+ narratives!

Looking at queer young adult literature, specifically, enables many opportunities for learning and understanding. For this reason, it is important to understand where this genre of literature has grown from and the power that it holds today. Dr. Matos explains the value in reading these books by stating, "Queer young adult literature pushes us to envision outcomes and futures that are sometimes different from our current realities. Many of these novels push us to imagine a future that is bearable and livable for all people." Being reminded that these novels depict the difficulties that many LGBTQ+ people face, but also provide a hopeful and more positive outlook can help readers in their own lives. To encounter these narratives, as Dr. Matos explains, then allows for readers to imagine possibilities for everyone to live as a happy collective, regardless of how difficult reality may be.

After asking Dr. Matos what his talk would be about, he responded, " I aim to provide some historical context for the queer young adult genre, in which I provide an overview of how LGBTQ+ young adult literature has developed over the decades, the state of these novels today, and where I think the genre is heading." So, to learn a little more history of how this genre emerged and bloomed into mainstream society today, come by and hear what Dr. Matos has to say. There will be time dedicated for questions after his lecture for anyone who is curious to learn more about the matter.

If you are interested in studying this genre more closely, Dr. Matos will be teaching two courses in Spring 2019 that are centered on queer young adult novels. First, he will be offering English 502: Adolescence in Literature - LGBTQ+ Young Adult Literature and ENGL 727: Theorizing Queer Young Adult Literature. In these classes, Dr. Matos highlights how "queer young adult literature provides readers and critics with opportunities to see how queer content possesses the capacity to deeply affect the structure, form, and narrativization of young adult texts." Because of the complexity that Dr. Matos mentions,  we can understand that young adult literature is not only important for general audiences, but also serves as a great source of analysis within academic contexts. Check out previous classes that Dr. Matos has taught and the work he has written on this subject by clicking here and follow him on Twitter @ProfAngelMatos!


If you are someone who is already familiar with the genre, or even if you have a curiosity to learn more about it, be sure to stop by on the 7th. Do not forget to bring your questions to Dr. Matos or any one of us present at the event. We hope you see you all there!

-A. Elliott

Event details:

Wednesday, November 7th at 2:30 pm

Juvenile Collection (located on Love Library's 4th floor)

Talk by Dr. Angel Daniel Matos

Free and open to the public

Joseph T. Thomas Jr.'s Lecture, "A Long Talk on Shel Silverstein's Short Plays"

On October 3, 2018, the National Center for the Study of Children’s Literature kicked off the fall semester with a talk given by San Diego State’s own Dr. Joseph T. Thomas, Jr., a Professor of English and Comparative Literature and Director of the NCSCL. Dr. Thomas specializes in poetry and innovation writing for children and adults. He’s especially interested in the points of connection and overlap between innovation and experimental writing for adult and children’s literature. Along with an abundance of encyclopedia entries, book reviews, and essays, Dr. Thomas is the author of the Poetry’s Playground: The Culture of Contemporary American Children’s Poetry, Strong Measures, “Reappraising Uncle Shelby.” He’s currently writing “Aesthetics” a chapter for the second edition of Keywords in Children’s Literature & Culture, “BreakBeat and the New Auditory Avant-garde—for Childen! (Or, that New-fangled Noise the Kids Are All Going on about)” a chapter in The Companion to Children’s Literature.


Thomas’s audience may have come anticipating a talk about Shel Silverstein’s playfully rhythmic children’s poetry. According to some in the audience, they came because they remembered enjoying A Light in the Attic, Falling Up, and The Giving Tree. Before seeing flyers about the event, they were not aware of Silverstein’s plays, so they attended out of curiosity.


Thomas begins his talk by confirming what much of the audience knew to be true already: “Shel Silverstein’s poems for the most part are intended for children.” Thomas moves on to differentiate Shel Silverstein’s poetry and songs from his plays. He says, “Unlike his short plays, the songs for adults which treat adult subjects like sex and violence with humor and candor often involving course vulgar language and explicit depictions of all manner of taboos. His children’s poetry skirts more adult content, especially when taken at face value.” Thomas’s talk examines Silverstein plays to reveal the “queer critique of our dominant heterosexist institutions and ideologies. To illustrate his point, Thomas introduces his audience to Silverstein’s short play Hamlet, “a monologue in verse,” starring Melvin Van Peebles along with The Devil and Billy Markham. Thomas’s reads from and explicates scenes from various short pieces in order to point to Shel Silverstein’s commentary on and “Bohemian resistance to bourgeois institutions” that historically plague people in America.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.
You can also follow Dr. Thomas on Twitter @josephsdsu

-K. Taylor

Introductions to 2018-2019 Academic Year

Greetings to all readers and interested folks!

Thank you for waiting patiently, but it is time for the new NCSCL academic year to kick off! Already this year, we have had a lecture from our very own Joseph T. Thomas Jr. entitled “A Long Talk on Shel Silverstein’s Short Plays.” If you were unable to make it to this event, or if you would like to see it again, we have uploaded a recording onto YouTube. Simply click here.

This academic year brings lots of potential, therefore our goal is to discuss news and upcoming materials that might be of interest to those of us in the fields of children’s and young adult literature. We also hope to give you a glimpse into the endeavors and projects taking place at SDSU. To receive regular updates, be sure to follow all our social media platforms! Please like a post, leave us a comment, or ask us questions about anything. We would love to hear from everyone!

Twitter: NCSChildLit
Instagram: ncschildlit
Facebook: @NCSCL (National Center for the Study of Children’s Literature, at SDSU)
YouTube: National Center for the Study of ChLit

We are so excited for what this academic year will bring, and we hope you are ready to join us on this year’s journey. Be on the lookout for more blogs and posts on all our platforms for what is to come!

-A. Elliott

Welcoming the New Graduate Assistants

Alexander Elliott

Hi everyone!! My name is Alexander and I am currently in my second year of my MA degree in English and Comparative Literature at SDSU. Although I am technically specializing in American Literature, I have been able to really focus on my preferred area of literature: young adult literature. I am mostly interested in young adult literature that discusses various identities and provides a diverse, intersectional discussion of adolescence—while complicating the genre itself. The areas of interest that have come up for me are LGBTQ+ narratives, queer studies (time/space, geographies, and ecology), and cultural/ethnic representations of Latinx individuals in YA literature.

I read many books as a young child, but my interest in the field stems from having picked up a book in the first grade that dealt with loss, grief, and relationships. It is no surprise that I continued on the reading trajectory that I did. Thankfully, SDSU has provided me with the guidance to incorporate this personal interest into my academic studies. My current research has been focused on adolescent cultures of various kinds. I will be presenting at the Literature/Film Association Conference later this year in New Orleans on Were the World Mine, then at the International Girl Studies Association Conference next year on Anna Marie-McLemore’s When the Moon Was Ours. These two opportunities are perfect examples of my interest in film/media and literature that deals with intersectional topics.

I am so thankful to join the team here at the NCSCL! I hope to learn more about YA literature, but finally delve into children’s literature more closely; so, if there are any recommendations as to where I should start, please let me know!

Kiedra Taylor

Greetings fellow humanists! My name is Kiedra Taylor, and I’m a second-year English graduate student specializing in Children’s Literature. While I’m interested in the critical histories and conditions of young adolescent (YA) and children’s literature, I’m also interested in the possibilities of the genres. YA and Children’s literature have the potential to assist its readers with identity formation; it also has the potential to foster empathy and compassion for others through story lines that encourage critical thinking and self-reflection. So far, my focus is discovering how the genres offer readers the opportunity to practice independent critical thinking.

I recall reading Toni Morrison’s coming-of-age novel, The Bluest Eye, at a young age and feeling confused afterwards. Even as an adult, I don’t fully understand the nature of the impact that the novel had on me, but I do recall times in my life where I recollected a particular character or moment in the novel and those thoughts somehow informed how I felt about whatever was happening at the time. I wish my younger self had thought to ask someone for more novels like this one, novels where I had a choice which of characters whom I could identify with, novels where someone whom I could identify with was not in the margins. Now that I’m a mother of four children and grandmother of one, I’m particularly interested in how YA and children’s texts can help readers, especially children to make sense of this complicated world of ours.

I hope that my graduate research and internship with the National Center for the Study of Children’s Literature will allow me to enter into and contribute to a fairly new yet learned conversation about young adolescent and children’s literature. I am humbled by the fact that I am brand new to this field of study, so I have every intention of listening to and considering the suggestions, guidance, and expertise of all of you in the field.  In that same vein, I hope to be heard since I have years of experiences and observations that will allow me develop a voice of my own.