With so many amazing contemporary Queer authors, it can be easy to forget that Queer people have been writing stories for generations. Writers like Emily Dickinson and Virginia Woolf penned classic works that have withstood the test of time. However, they often had to disguise their Queer characters and themes to sell books at a time when homosexuality was treated as a crime.
Today, LGBTQ+ authors can write openly and honestly about Queer characters and experiences. Still, author Molly Horan was inspired by the works of great Queer writers from the past, and decided to do something different when coming up with ideas for a debut novel. She wanted to do something new — by repurposing something old.
Recycling with Earnest
"I, as an author, am more interested in character development and dialogue than plot, so I found that I wanted to steal a plot from someone else," she explained. "So, I took a look at things that were in the public domain...
"I've always really loved Oscar Wilde's work. The Importance of Being Earnest was the first play my high school did when I was a freshman, so I wanted to [update] an Oscar Wilde story... with teen characters and Queer characters."
Horan decided to make a new — and Queer — retelling of the classic farce and so created Epically Earnest. Of course, to update the story to fit the 2020s, she had to change a lot of the original setting and premise, which readers took notice of. "The honest Goodreads reviewers say I did drop a lot of the plot of the main story," Horan said. "The Importance of Being Earnest, in the end, [is] a farce, and I think that is hard to translate into a novel form, although I'm sure some authors have done it well."
While bringing Earnest into the 21st century led to a lot of creative changes for Horan, one thing that wasn't a stretch was making the story Gay. "As far as doing a Queer adaptation, all Oscar Wilde stuff already has the Queer vibe, so that was pretty easy," she said with a laugh.
One update to the original story Horan enjoyed adding was viral videos and meme culture. "Once I got the idea to do an adaptation of The Importance of Being Earnest, the biggest idea after the Queer retelling is that the main character was part of one of the first viral videos," she said. Studying internet culture has always been an interest of Horan's, and she was very excited to include it in her debut novel.
"That came from my early twenties, when I worked in web media writing about memes. I was an intern at Buzzfeed for a while, I was an intern at Mashable for a while, and then my first real grown-up job was at a site called Know Your Meme, so I have that background in having watched and looked at how videos go viral for years and years. I saw a lot of memes with small children or babies, and I wondered, 'What would it be like to grow up and become a teenager and realize that a good portion of the internet-using world has seen your face?' So that was where that came from."
No more coming-out stories
With the backdrop of growing up in the digital age, Epically Earnest follows teens exploring their identities. The main characters struggle with finding their places in their families, their school, and the greater internet-loving world. One thing they don't struggle with, however, is their sexualities.
"It was really important to me, for a bunch of reasons, that this [not be] a coming-out story," Horan said. "All of the characters are very out and very comfortable. And of course I know that is not possible in a lot of places in the country, but it's set in a corner of New York City where I think that would be pretty feasible."
The story reads as a cozy look into the life of modern teens, without the trauma that can often accompany growing up Queer. "All the characters have a myriad of insecurities, as all humans do, but none of them are tied to their sexuality," Horan said. So she chose not to include plotlines around coming out or Queer trauma.
"I think that is just because that [ease] has largely been my experience as a person, which is incredibly lucky," she said. "I came out as Bi in high school and college to my friends, and by my twenties, I was writing about it. I have been in very accepting communities.
"Also, I've had two relationships in my whole life, and they have both been with men, so I haven't faced the same day-to-day prejudices someone in a same-sex relationship would. My experience as a Queer person has just been taking a lot of joy in that identity. So that is what I wanted to be reflected in my book, and all I could reflect from firsthand experience."
There are many books for teens who are looking to read more about the struggles people can face growing up as a part of the LGBTQ+ community, but Epically Earnest is not one. The book is pure fun. "I hope they laugh. I hope that it's funny," Horan said of readers. "Of all the reader feedback, I have gratified [by] any comments that say it was nice to read a Queer book where the characters weren't in danger.
"Again, they're navigating relationships, they're navigating stress, there are worries about not being accepted in family and friend circles, but that doesn't stem from their queerness. So, I hope that's something readers get out of it."
Queerness, like the original plot of Earnest, is used more as a backdrop to telling the bigger stories. "The main character, Janie, and her parents accept her. She has a good relationship with her parents. The only tension that arises — and it's dispelled pretty quickly — is... over her looking for her biological family or not. It does not stem from [her] Queer identity. Gwen's parent... wants Gwen to date other wealthy people, but it is implied that she doesn't care if it is a wealthy young man or a wealthy young woman. She is [classist], not homophobic.
"I... felt I have the expertise to explore a lot of things, [but] the potential tension or rejection that a lot of Queer people face is just not something I explore in the book."
I Have Seven Dogs
While Epically Earnest is a fun retelling of a classic by a Queer author, Horan's second project is much more personal. "I would say that that is probably the most autobiographical project I have ever written," she said of her second book, I Have Seven Dogs. Unlike Epically Earnest, it is aimed at young readers. "It is a picture book about a girl who is not allowed to have a dog, so she kind of de facto adopts the dogs in her neighborhood," Horan said.
The story is loosely based on her dogless childhood. "I, as a kid, was not allowed to have a dog, desperately wanted a dog, and grew up in a neighborhood where there were a lot of dogs in yards, either [behind] electric fences or tied up. I would walk with my grandfather, and we would go in and pet all the dogs, and I just felt like, 'Okay, these are all my dogs now.'"
Even though I Have Seven Dogs is Horan's second book to hit shelves, she wrote and sold it first. "The weird way that publishing works is that my picture book sold first. So, [it] was the first book I ever sold, back in 2020. It just takes a long time for a picture book to come to fruition.
"But I studied children's book writing in grad school, and I have always loved picture books. Whenever I go to a bookstore, I'll still gravitate towards the table — even though I really don't have any children that young in my life to buy books for — just to see what's out there, and they're always so beautiful and touching, so I was excited to write one."
Even though Horan has a passion for picture books, she still plans on writing more YA and Queer stories for readers of all ages, and her future projects will also explore LGBTQ+ identities. "I am currently working on a new YA novel that is about a teenager who is the stage manager in her high school drama department," she said. "She feels like she isn't listened to ...so she begins to use a kind of TikTok-like app to give advice anonymously. So, this... takes off in her school, but nobody knows it's her.
"She's Ace, and she's starting her first romantic relationship and trying to figure out what that means for her as an Asexual person. Ace representation in YA is increasing. There have been a lot of great recent books."
For readers looking to revisit a Queer classic, Epically Earnest is out now and will be featured as our book of the week in the SGN Book Club. Read along with us on Instagram!