Hello Readers & Writers, and welcome to Teazurs Blog,
I am glowing and super happy to introduce you all to one of my all-time favorite teachers. Some teachers can make you become a better writer. While others might help you become braver about what you are willing to put on the page. Alex Sanchez did both for me.
I had the privilege of working with Alex as my advisor at Vermont College of Fine Arts (VCFA), where we often discussed emotional truth. I was hesitant to write about certain events in my life. I asked questions like, "Where is the line between emotional honesty and emotional overwhelm?" and "How much of myself is safe for me to bring into my fiction?" and "How will this affect the children I respect and write for?" Alex understands these concerns from both sides. Before he became an author, he worked as a counselor with young people and their families. He carried that compassion into his fiction and, later, into the way he mentors writers. And I am forever grateful for being a recipient of his guidance.
It's been twenty-five years since Alex's debut novel, Rainbow Boys, was gifted to the world. This book gave queer teens hope and something they had been missing—the chance to see their own story in print.
Now, as Simon & Schuster prepares to release the novel's 25th-anniversary edition, I wanted to talk with Alex. I wanted to ask about what he has learned from a lifetime of listening to young people, writing difficult emotions, and guiding readers and writers to feel less alone in this world.
So let's get right to it.
You came to writing through counseling. How did listening to young people's fears, hurts, and secrets change the way you tell stories on the page?
Working as a counselor taught me so much about being compassionate and understanding of other people, especially their fears, hurts, and secrets. As a writer, I now get to practice that compassion with characters so that readers can better understand and connect with them.
You were an amazing mentor and advisor to me in my second semester. I was nervous because at VCFA you are known as the advisor who helps writers with emotional truth. What do you advise first when talking with a student on this subject?
Thanks so much; you were an amazing student with a remarkable willingness to receive and incorporate feedback. In terms of exploring emotional truth, what I advise students is to be willing to gently push themselves to the edge of their emotional comfort zone, but not so far that they teeter over the edge!
Many of your books grew from real adolescent pain, yet they are not memoirs. How do you teach writers to utilize their past hurts in a fiction story?
In order to capture emotion on the page, honestly and authentically, we need to be willing to remember and reexperience our pain. It’s by no means easy to sit with challenging emotions, but as the poet Robert Frost famously said:
Rainbow Boys was a book that really stuck with me during our semester together. It's been said that this book changed the YA landscape. What do you think that book understood about teens that adults were missing?
Rainbow Boys showed adults that queer teens have similar growing-up struggles and joys as other teens, but with one big, very real difference:
They face a society and culture
that often judges them as bad and wrong
and fails to accept them
for who they are.
That experience can be so hurtful.
You've written for middle grade, YA, and graphic novel readers. What stays the same across these age groups for you, and what must always change to write them authentically?
What stays the same no matter what story I write is my need to connect emotionally with the characters I’m creating. What changes are the specifics of each individual multidimensional character.
Your works help open people's eyes and change lives. What do you wish readers – especially adults – truly understood about LGBTQ+ teens?
That being queer isn’t the problem; the problem is a society and culture with deeply ingrained homophobia, transphobia, and biphobia that hurts young people.
Some people think their "real" lives aren't good enough to write about, that the small stuff isn't big enough. What makes a realistic story powerful rather than not enough?
Regardless of whether a story is about big stuff or small stuff, its power comes from the emotions its author is able to convey.
For writers mining childhood memories: what's the most important – accuracy of the experience or something else?
Regardless of how well we claim to remember things, memories solely exist in our minds. So, they can never be fully accurate, no matter how convinced we are. While I strive to be as accurate as I can be, the emotions are what readers will connect with. That’s what I focus on.
When a young reader feels seen from one of your books, what do you hope they carry with them in their hearts and into the larger world?
For readers who may be discovering you for the first time, which book is the one you recommend to start with?
Read the one that calls out to you. Trust your intuition.
You've spent a lifetime supporting teens and those who feel like outsiders. What can my readers do now to support you?
I’m ecstatic that Simon & Schuster is releasing a 25th anniversary edition of Rainbow Boys this September, 2026. It’s now available for pre-order wherever books are sold. Share a copy with a teen!
Do you have any upcoming book signings, conferences, or anything where my readers might be able to meet and connect with you?
The anniversary edition’s official launch will be at Writers & Books literary center in Rochester, New York on September 30th.
You can sign up here:
https://writersandbooks.org/tribe_events/rainbowboys/
I’ll be ‘in conversation’ with Newbery Award-winning author Linda Sue Park, and we’d love for you to join us, in person or virtually.
Hope to see you there.
And you can always keep up with me at https://www.alexsanchez.com/
Thanks so much!
________________
No, thank you, Alex!
I love this interview, and your beautiful answer for what you hope young readers carry with them after reading your book is:
You are not alone.
That's it. Three words that convey trust and compassion.
Maybe this is the thread running through all of Alex's work.
I've come to learn that stories cannot erase the difficult parts of our pasts or make the world and those who love us immediately understand us. But they can reach across time and space to say:
I see you.
I've been there.
I've hurt, too.
And I made it through.
Thank you, Alex.
If you would like to support Alex in his endeavor to spread love and compassion around the world... check out these links.
25th Anniversary Chat RAINBOW BOYS with Linda Sue Park: https://writersandbooks.org/tribe_events/rainbowboys/
Alex Sanchez Website: https://www.alexsanchez.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authoralexsanchez/
Other Books by Alex Sanchez on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/53974.Alex_Sanchez
_________________
Write~on,
Angie
If you would like to be on Teazurs Blog - reach out. I'm always cheering authors on.
angazur @ gmail
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