International best-selling Adelaide author Sophie Gonzales’ book banned
Sophie Gonzales was aimlessly scrolling Twitter when she came across her book on a list of banned novels in what she calls a “targeted” attack.
Entertainment
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International best-selling Adelaide author Sophie Gonzales was aimlessly scrolling Twitter when she came across of list of books banned in schools – and saw hers on it.
“There was a big old list, a 16-page list of books that had been banned,” she said.
And her novel, Perfect on Paper, was one of them.
The books are banned in Texas schools, preventing libraries stocking them and teachers using them in their curriculum.
The list, released in October last year, featured more than 800 titles published from 1969 to 2021 that deal with issues of race, gender identity and sexuality – some of which have won literary awards.
“They’re not extremely violent books, these aren’t books that I would consider obscene material,” the 30-year-old author said.
“These are just stories written for kids that happen to star children who aren’t white, cis and straight.”
After seeing the list – which Ms Gonzales called a “targeted” attack on minority writers – she spoke to her colleagues who “are all marginalised authors in one way or another”.
“Most of my friends had a book that was banned,” she said.
“I want to say it’s a shock, but it’s not as much of a shock as I would like it to be, but it’s still so ridiculous.”
Despite her book being banned, Ms Gonzales continues to write queer fiction. Her latest release, Never Ever Getting Back Together, was inspired by The Bachelor Australia scandal that saw two female contestants fall in love with each other instead of the Bachelor.
“This novel was definitely obviously took inspiration from The Bachelor,” Ms Gonzales said.
“Certainly what came to mind when I was writing was that a couple from the Australian Bachelor ended up dating after the show which was such big news at the time and such a wonderful piece of representation for a lot of Australians.”
On Richie Strahan’s season of the show, two contestants Megan Marx and Tiffany Scanlon fell in love, causing Megan to quit the show after Tiffany was eliminated.
Ms Gonzales has always been inspired by “our obsession with celebrity, especially young celebrities”.
“I became very aware of how obsessed we are with the daily lives and the personal lives of literal teenagers in the real world,” Ms Gonzales said.
Ms Gonzales who now lives in Sheidow Park, originally grew up in Whyalla before making the move to Adelaide.
“I’ve been writing queer fiction since I was about 18,” she said.
“I think it’s really important to provide different types of stories and different types of representation so that everyone gets to see themselves starring in their own adventure, romance.
“I’m really blessed and privileged to be able to write the stories that I want to be writing and hopefully bringing some representation to some people who, when I was young, didn’t get to see themselves so much in books.”
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