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Oh well, listen to that harmony. My god, you should be in

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a band, but this ceremony is
hopefully a music manager is listening. I

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got to tell you that this is
a moment. And what I mean by

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that is is that readers from all
over the world, when they tune in

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to hear all three of you at
the same time, is what are the

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chances that anything like this would ever
happen. It feels pretty special. It's

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really great to be sitting here with
I mean, certainly when I was growing

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up, you know, I wrote
about my teen years and they marketed a

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historical fiction. So I'm all,
when I was growing up to three queer

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authors of diverse backgrounds, representing different
members of the community, I mean,

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you have been unheard of. What
you're doing is you're taking that brave step

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forward because, let's be honest,
in this real world, there's a lot

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of people that are being shoved back
into silence because they're afraid that people are

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going to judge them. And we
need you, We need you badly,

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you guys. Thanks zero. That
really means a lot, especially as you

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know, as you know right now, it's like a hot and heavy book

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banning effort so it's really nice to
hear people say that we are needed and

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appreciated and wanted. Yeah, it's
really it can feel kind of like the

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opposite sometimes, so so it is
really nice to hear that, like from

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people who actually do want us to
be speaking out. Well, there are

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so many of us that are in
love and support and it's like, okay,

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well, you know what, we
need to come out and use our

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voices as well. And so what
we do is because when we hear your

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passion and your drive to be not
just authors, but you are sharing stories.

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Look at the covers of all three
of these books, what does it

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show you people together? Every one
of your books is about people working together.

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Yeah, I love that. That's
beautiful. That's right, and it

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is I mean, really, you
know, art is about creating empathy,

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and it's about building bridges, and
of our books, I think really is

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working to do that both within the
stories themselves but also within the outside world

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of readers and educators and families.
Yeah, if you could have seen all

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three of our faces when you said
that, Errol, we were all like

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ah, because nobody's pointed that out. And you're completely right. Yeah,

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really nice, And I do think
that's something that all of our books have

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in common, is like finding your
community and your people that are going to

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keep you going. Absolutely love that
you know in reading the stories each of

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them. The one thing that I
feel as that reader is the fact that

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it's like you know who your reader
is because you're you're sharing the story with

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them. You're not just giving them
a story. I feel like we're having

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a moment together of sharing. I
love that. Yeah, Like I feel

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like that's so true. When I
write, I want it to be kind

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of in conversation with the people who
it's about, So that's so true.

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Definitely to have that moment where we're
sharing with our readers like a little bit

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of ourselves or a little bit of
how we view the world. And I

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think that's needed now more than ever, is where we can just like actually

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talk with each other or share our
thoughts and feelings with each other, and

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instead of just like instantly demonize or
make monsters out of each other, it's

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like actually having that back and forth. And I think our books are for

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that. I hope listeners just picked
up on that when you talk together,

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that that because so many times creative
people like to live in their own little

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world and to protect their own space. And but but I love the idea

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talking together once again. This is
the this is the reason why I love

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being in this moment with all of
us together. Absolutely, and these books,

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I mean, look, I feel
like my book Only This Beautiful Moment

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is about three generations of men in
the same Iranian family, and two of

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them are queer. One of them
is not, and he's actually quite homophobic.

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And he was very much inspired by
my father's generation of men. And

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I wanted to find a way to
emphasize with how they got to where they

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were and the trauma they went through
and honor their experience in order to build

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bridges in my own community. And
so it is, it's all about listening,

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It's all about curiosity. We can
make a better world, in a

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more unified world if we just listened
to each other with with with a situation

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like that, one of the things
that that I've learned is sit down with

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a writing with a writing instrument and
start asking questions and questioning answers, because

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when when people are in their own
zone, and the one thing that I

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get tired of it, well,
you know, it's it's how old they

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are now. That has nothing to
do with it. We all should be

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loving each other. Yeah, I
mean my grandmother, like before she passed,

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like she in her last few weeks
changed her mind about you know,

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gay people like and like it's just
like it has nothing to do with how

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old you are, Like it was
just you know, we finally had the

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conversation. I was afraid to have
the conversation with her. Um, we

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finally had it, and she changed
her mind. And like, you know,

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it's possible that like people just need
to be like talk to and like

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we Sometimes I definitely make assumptions sometimes
about how bad someone is or how badly

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they think of me, um,
when it might not actually be the case

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and they might just need to understand
a little bit. Yeah. I'm often

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accused of being you know, stop
being a drama queen. It's like it's

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what I am. I love emotion. I when I when I like something

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or dislike something, I'm going to
turn that drama into some energy. Yeah,

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I love it. I love that. I think I think it's beautiful

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that you're shining a light on all
of this, and I would agree.

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I mean, I think my own
Iranian family has come a long way,

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and I think, you know,
sometimes what we need is patients. It's

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not about age, but it isn't
about having giving people the grace of taking

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their time as they question themselves and
grow. Yeah, ask the questions,

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question the answers. I mean that
that's you know, and it's one of

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those things. Also, you know, share your story or someone will write

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it for you. And the fact
that the three of you were together is

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you're sharing your story. And I
just, I just I would like to

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be a fly on the wall of
the listener as well as the reader hearing

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you know, when they get to
hear your voices, and because you already

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have a voice on the page,
but hearing your voice now puts a new

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voice on that page. Yeah,
it's it's funny because like I people have

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asked me before, like how do
you develop voice in general, not just

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like my specific voice, but how
for me? I can't help but have

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the voice in my head come out
onto my page, and like it's the

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voice that I talked to myself in
is the voice that is what ends up

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on the page. And so it's
it's it's really fun when we offers get

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to get together and we're exploring a
lot of the same things and a lot

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of the same themes, but saying
it in such different ways. It's really

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exciting to see just how varied the
human experience can be. I I was

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with the Speaker of the House recently, New Gangridge, and one of the

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things that he shared with me was
was was life changing? He says,

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When I speak, it doesn't it
doesn't include you unless you're willing to listen.

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But it's what you listen to and
how you react to it that makes

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the movement. Is it the same
true when it comes to to your writing,

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is that you are speaking, But
how we receive it is what's going

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to change it. Yeah, I
would say so. Um, like I

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think that you know, a lot
of the times I will be really anxious

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about being misunderstood. So all I
can do is, you know, say

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what I have to say in the
most authentic ways that I can, and

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however it's received is how it's received, um, And I just have to

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hope that you know, people take
me at my word and um, you

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know, don't misunderstand me. But
of course it's like we can only go

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from there and continue the conversation.
Do you do you see it as being

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still a little bit underground, and
I you know, because eventually it's got

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to come above ground. Man.
It just feels like, you know,

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people are trying to step on it
again and push it even further underground.

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It can't be that way with authors
like yourself. Yeah, I wouldn't say

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that it's underground anymore because of how
loud and vocal our opponents are that they

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know we're here and we're very much
above ground, and they're trying to make

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us underground. Yeah, but that's
just like, that's just not going to

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happen. And it ties back to
your question before about it depends on how

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people are listening to you. Yeah, And I call those bad faith readers

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if they're trying to distort our books
to say like, oh, it's pornography

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for kids, or we're trying to
turn people gay or whatever they want to

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say, or even people who are
within our own communities and want to warp

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our words in our themes to mean
something that was not at all ever in

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the book to begin with. That's
a bad faith reader. And what's nice

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about the latter about people within the
community that be trying to kind of manipulate

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what was going on in the book. It's nice that we actually get to

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have that discussion out in the open, queer readers talking about queer books.

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That's amazing. And anybody can hate
my book or interpret it however they want,

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that's their right. But then it's
also it's the bass after that is

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the people that are trying to ban
us because we are so above ground right

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now and trying to warp our books
into something for their agenda. Do you

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walk into the store, the bookstore
and and just take a look at where

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it's position, because I mean at
the at the Little Professor Bookstore at the

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Park Worad shopping center here in Charlotte, they don't hide anything. And I

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love that that they that they stand
up for the author and the words within

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those pages. I love that.
Yeah, I do. I do tend

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to notice, you know, when
walking into a bookstore, like if they

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have like, you know, queer
books front and center face out, or

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if they're you know, not like
you can kind of tell from walking in.

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You know, sometimes they have the
pride display right up. Pride.

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Sometimes it's just like integrated through all. But it does bring me a lot

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of hope to see when they have
it. Um, you know display,

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and I mean when something is made
invisible, the message is clear that it's

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something to be ashamed of. And
you know, I know for me,

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I'm very aware that my book,
a lot of it is about the queer

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community with an Iran who don't have
the privileges we do, who don't have

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the privilege of going to a bookstore
to read queer books, and so I

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think it's often our job to stand
up for those in our community who don't

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have the privileges we have. Do
you ever do you think we'll ever see

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the day instead of having a pride
month, it's a pride every day.

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I mean, for me, that's
hardest pride all year. We got to

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speak it so that other people believe
it. Then, Yeah, completely,

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man, what a moment today.
Thank you so much for your time.

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We're all going to get together again
very soon because I know that this is

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my God. Your journeys are just
fantastic. Thank you. Will you be

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00:11:07,519 --> 00:11:11,559
brilliant today? Okay, guys,
you two, thank you so much.