rent Hartinger would like to accentuate
the positive. “Adults always remember
the angst of being a teen,” says the 38-
year-old from Tacoma, Wash. “But they
don’t remember the fun and humor.”
So, in his new bcxsk Hartinger explores the
world of gay high schcxilers with a twist.
"There’s always a hashing, or someone commits
suicide," he says of most gay teen bcxiks.
“They’re such downers."
Instead, Hartinger has written Geography
Club, a comic page-turner about a group of
very diverse kids who get together and find
they have something in common: They’re gay.
This is a theme that is very close to Hartinger,
as he is a founder and facilitator of Oasis, a
200-member gay teen support organization, as
well as an adviser to a Gay Straight Alliance at
a Tacoma high schcx)l.
Hartinger struggled for 15 years to he dis
covered as a writer. “1 had the worst luck in the
world. 1 learned that when the check clears,
that’s when you celebrate.”
Tixlay the author has plenty to celebrate, as
sales of Geography Club have exceeded expecta
tions, and he’s been signed to write a sequel
and two other young adult novels.
1 caught up with Hartinger as he was finaliz
ing plans to sign bcxrks June 15 at Portland
Pride 2003.
B
Floyd Sklaver: Where did the idea for
Qeography Club come from?
Brent Hartinger: In many ways, it’s based
on my own teen-aged years...and my experi
ence with a group called Oasis. For the first
meetings I’d walk in and see this really diverse
group of kids— suburban kids, farm kids, drag
queens, butch lesbians, fern lesbians— and I’d
Queer as Folk, Iteens] spend time wondering
whether they’re gay, but it happens much
younger. Teens tixlay accept themselves just
fine. The challenge is how to get the rest of the
world to accept me.
Accentuate the positive
Newly acclaimed Tacoma author
sets up at Portland Pride
b y
FS: What was your high school life like?
B H : There was nastiness. 1 remember it
being pretty dog-eat-dog, pretty brutal, physi
cally and emotionally. There was a lot of
name-calling and harassment.... I heard from
a lot of adults who said I liked your book, but I
didn’t really want to go back to such an
unpleasant time.
F lo yd S klaver
think, “This is going to be
a disaster. What do these
kids have in common?"
Then they’d begin to
speak, and it was magic.
FS: Tell me about your
stack of earlier works.
BH : I used to
write...every sort of jour
nalism you can imagine—
for AdvrKate Men, Honcho,
Mandate, every magazine
you can think of. I wrote
pom stories for a while, but
in order not to be classified
as obscene, there had to be
one nonpom article. Those
paid more because every
Young adult author Brett Hartinger thinks it’s the best
one wants to write the
of times and the worst of times for gay teen-agers
pom .... I got a frantic call
from an editor once. “Butt plugs," she said. “I
other. 1 hate books about teens
need a story about butt plugs right now.” So I
where...the adult comes in and saves the
wrote a story about butt plugs. My goal has
day. These are problems of teens, and they
always been to make a living as a writer.
need to be solved by teens.
FS: Why are there so few adult characters
in Geography Club?
B H : I did that on purpose. I believe there’s
the world of teens and the world of adults, and
the two have no idea what’s going on in the
FS: Do you think it’s harder to be a gay
teen-ager today than 2 0 years ago?
B H : When I was growing up, 1
could take being gay, lock
it away and not think
about it at all. There was
no Internet. I never saw a
picture of a naked man until
I was 19. There’s so much
pom on the Internet, and,
when you look at pom, you
know wh ich works for you....
You’re 16, 15, 14 when you are
dealing with these issues, but
you’re still in high school where
people are not necessarily liber
al. T h at’s what I mean when I
say it’s the best of times and worst of times for
gay teen-agers. j n
FS: Why doesn’t the main character strug
gle more over his sexual identity— question it
more?
BH: That isn’t the issue facing teens today.
Because of the Internet, Will & G race and
will sign Geography Club
from noon to 5 p.m. June 15 at Waterfront Park.
B r en t H
a r t in g e r
FLOYD S klaver is a Portland free-lance writer.
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