1 post tagged roving pack

Cover art for Sassfras Lowrey’s new book - ROVING PACK 

Morty:  Hi Sassafras!

 Sassafras:  Hey!

Morty: So, first question is about your new book. What type of book is it?

Sassafras:  My upcoming novel, Roving Pack, will be released in October.  It’s a fictional account of homeless queer teens searching for community and building families in punk houses and queer youth centers

Morty:  It’s fiction? Based on your own experiences in some way?

Sassafras:  Yes, it’s fiction very much rooted in my own experiences as a teen. I like to say that Roving Pack is my fiction, but also the memoir of the crusty punk boi I was.

Morty:  So, there is a crusty punk boi protagonist?

Sassafras:  Absolutely. Hir name is Click (which is also my former name) and ze is a XXX (straight-edge) trans kid.

Morty:  Can you tell me a little bit more about your background? You were a homeless trans teen?

Sassafras:  I was kicked out when I was 17. I couch surfed and moved around a lot building community with other homeless queer kids. While Roving Pack is fiction, it is in many ways rooted in the experiences I had and the worlds I was part of during that time in my life.

Morty: Do you currently identify with the word trans?

Sassafras:  I do identify with the word trans. I even have a big trans symbol tattoo on my wrist from back in the day! Though, at this point in my life, people don’t necessarily assume I’m trans when they see me on the street for instance.

Morty:  Yeah, I’d like to talk a little bit about that. Can you give me a short timeline on what your trans history has been?

Sassafras:  Sure. Gender for me has always been a complicated journey. Pieces of that journey have involved living and passing as a trans man. I went on and off T twice. I was on T for about two years the last time. For the last several years I have presented as femme, though I still hold a genderqueer/trans identity.

Morty:  Right, I appreciate those in the community who have a “nontraditional” trans history.

Sassafras:  Mine is definitely “nontraditional”. 

Morty:  Have you considered yourself a writer for a long time?

Sassafras:  Writing, like gender, was something I only found once I was safely on my own.  I’m not one of those writers who has written all my life. Growing up in an abusive home I knew that words were dangerous. I didn’t begin writing in earnest until I was on my own. I found writing and zine culture and the stories just started breaking through and thankfully have never stopped

Morty:  You have an anthology out as well, Kicked Out. When did you begin working on the anthology?

Sassafras:  Kicked Out was released in early 2010 and was twice honored by the American Library Association and was a Lambda Literary Finalist. It brought together the voices of current and former homeless LGBTQ youth. I first began dreaming of that book when I became homeless, but started working on it about 3 years before its release

Morty:  Was the anthology your first published book?

Sassafras:  I’ve been a contributor to numerous anthologies over the years, but Kicked Out was my first book

Morty:  Did you find it hard to get a publisher? For the anthology and for your new novel?

Sassafras:  I was very lucky with Kicked Out and found a publisher very quickly which I know especially for someone’s first book is rare. The experience with Roving Pack was a little different.  I had a tremendous amount of interest from publishers in the novel due to the success of Kicked Out in the last couple of years, but then they discovered that the content was significantly more edgy

Morty:  What do you mean by more edgy?

Sassafras:  I like to say that if Kicked Out was groundbreaking, as many have called it, (Kicked Out was the first book to really grapple with queer youth homelessness in this way) then Roving Pack is edge play. Roving Pack is in your face complicated gender and leather and sex. It’s messy and complicated just like the world I grew up in

Morty:  Do you think because Roving Pack is based on a trans character that it is a “hard sell” for mainstream publishers? Or is it more the sex / leather component?

Sassafras:  I think it’s a combination. I think it wasn’t so much the main character being trans but having a nontraditional transition that was difficult for publishers to wrap their marketing plans around. The world I’ve written about in Roving Pack is bubbling over with really intricate complicated genders and that can be scary for folks who have a binary experience with what trans means. Leather is a huge part of how the characters in this book make sense of their lives, and ultimately I wasn’t willing to remove that in order to make the book safe enough for some publishers

Morty:  Right, I’m glad to hear that! I think, personally, the work coming out now about trans experience is still very tame. Especially when it comes to sexuality and being trans.

Sassafras:  Absolutely, I agree completely.

Morty:  And I am thankful you’re willing to go there and open it up some more.

Sassafras:  Thank you. I did consider taming down the book but ultimately that wouldn’t be true to the trans punk world I came from and the last thing I think we need is another watered down version of our worlds.

Morty:  I agree. Are there queer/trans writers who have inspired you?

Sassafras:  Oh goodness! Absolutely! I wouldn’t be where I am today were it not for the queer/trans writers that inspired me and my writing. I had the chance to work with Kate Bornstein when I was a very young, very angry, trans writer and she really is responsible for a lot of shaping my work to this day. There is also Toni Amato,co-editor of ‘Pinned Down By Pronouns’, Leslie Feinberg, Dorothy Allison, Ivan Coyote, Bear Bergman, Jeanette Winterson, Susan Stinson…so many!

Morty:  That is a great list!

Sassafras: I feel very blessed that so many of these authors who inspired me when I was first beginning (and to this day) are friends of mine now

Morty: So, are you self-publishing Roving Pack?

Sassafras:  I am. It will be coming out this autumn through PoMo Freakshow Productions. It was a difficult decision for me to come to because at the end of the day I do really believe in traditional publishing. I also believe that each book is an individual and what was right for Kicked Out, and what may be right for my future work wasn’t right for Roving Pack. I made the decision with the support and encouragement of many folks (authors, booksellers etc) in the queer literary world and have been thrilled and overwhelmed with the support this book and I have received so far.

Morty:  That is wonderful to hear!

Sassafras:  When I made the decision to self publish Roving Pack I created an editorial committee to ensure what goes to press is the very best version of this novel.

Morty:  Even with the support it probably feels a little daunting to self publish a book.

Sassafras:  I think, at this point, it’s more exciting than daunting. I feel like I’m in the best possible place to be embarking on a project like this. I’ve got an excellent personal and professional support system. I also handled all the promotion and marketing of Kicked Out, so fresh off that experience I feel pretty prepared

Morty:  Right on!  What do think the state of affairs with trans literature is like now? Once Chaz Bono wrote his memoir a lot of people thought well, we’ve gone mainstream. Specifically, trans fiction seems to be stuck…

Sassafras:  Well, I wasn’t such a fan of Chaz’ memoir. I can send you the review I wrote on Lambda (Link is here). I think that like queer publishing, in the broader sense, it’s complicated. Some work has more mainstream legs, and some is fringier stuff. It’s the later that Roving Pack is part of. I think both are ultimately very important, but as a trans writer I’m much more interested in the more dangerous work, which more closely resembles my world

Morty:  Do you identify as a “trans writer”?

Sassafras:  I do. And a queer writer. It’s very important to me that my identity and the work that I do be connected.

Morty:  So, in no way do you feel pigeonholed when you are discussed as a trans and/or queer writer?

Sassafras:  Not at all. I see myself primarily, and certainly with Roving Pack, as an author writing by/for a segment of the queer/trans community.

Morty:  Something publishers often say, at least to me, is: who is the audience for your book and how can we make that audience bigger? But sometimes the work doesn’t fit with a larger audience.

Sassafras:  Exactly! Roving Pack won’t be at the top of the New York Times with mainstream appeal because it isn’t designed to. I write from within and for our community. I don’t define words or identities in the way I have to when I write for straight audiences.

Morty: Well, I’m certainly looking forward to seeing this book published. Thank you for the interview!Where can the readers keep in touch with you online?

Sassafras: Folks can stay in touch with me online via twitter at www.Twitter.com/SassafrasLowrey or Facebook www.facebook.com/SassafrasLowrey and online at www.PoMoFreakshow.com. Thank you! 

About the new novel - Roving Pack

‘Roving Pack’ is set in an underground world of homeless queer teens. The stories follow the daily life of Click, a straight-edge transgender kid searching for community, identity, and connection amidst chaos. As the stories unfold, we meet a pack of newly sober gender rebels creating art, families and drama in dilapidated punk houses across Portland, Oregon. Roving Pack offers fast-paced in-your-face accounts of leather, sex, hormones, house parties, and protests. But, when gender fluidity takes an unexpected turn, the pack is sent reeling. Click is left picking up the pieces, forced to again face the possibility of losing the home and family he worked so hard to create.