Author’s YA novel draws partly on her experience as a school sex educator

Surya feels like a bad queer. When an ice-cream seller misgenders them, they say nothing. When a classmate mocks them for not looking like either a boy or a girl, they wish they had a sharper tongue.

Surya is the central character in Bad Queer, a young adult novel in verse by London-based Tamil British author Gayathiri Kamalakanthan, with illustrations by Chicago artist Chi Nwosu. Surya is entering their final year at school. They have come out to their parents, who are queer and non-binary, and to their close friend Maha, but not to everyone. They have also never had a romantic relationship.

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I would really like to like someone. But I know I can’t force it.

“I would really like to like someone. But I know I can’t force it,” Surya reflects. Kamalakanthan has said the book is about “queer futures & the worlds we’re building together.”

Nwosu’s line drawings follow Surya’s movement toward self-acceptance. Some images reproduce details from the text, such as journal-writing hands or tiles from a family Scrabble game. Others express emotions that the words cannot contain, including stars and swirling shapes around Surya as they practice deep breathing in a bathroom stall.

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I think poetry and illustration are a beautiful match because they’re both asking the reader to interpret and really be part of co-creating the story.

“I think poetry and illustration are a beautiful match because they’re both asking the reader to interpret and really be part of co-creating the story,” Kamalakanthan says. Nwosu, a Black, non-binary, queer Nigerian American artist, connects with Surya’s search for queer and non-binary representation in Tamil culture. Nwosu describes a similar search in Igbo history and says Surya’s story reflected their own experience of not fitting neatly into a binary.

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I find myself looking towards Igbo history in a similar way. I want to know where are the others? Where are the outliers? How did folks treat people who were different or had a different orientation towards the world?

The artist also enjoyed learning about Tamil symbolism and incorporating it respectfully. Their own work uses cultural and spiritual symbols to learn, remember and honor Igbo culture, as well as histories of global and queer solidarity.

Surya’s life changes after they spontaneously audition for their school’s youth theatre. The audition feels like “a mini protest against all the times I’ve said nothing.” Led by the enthusiastic Mr Ali, the group becomes a safe space where Surya can explore and embrace their identity. There, they befriend Akhil, who wears a “GAY AF” badge, and Sade.

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It’s as if this one audition is a mini protest against all the times I’ve said nothing.