Author of queer young adult fiction inspires Molokaʻi High students with career, creative process

When 2021 School Librarian of the Year Diane Mokuau redeemed her prize from Scholastic — an author visit and books for her students — she never dreamed it would lead to a challenging learning experience for her tight-knit community.

The Molokaʻi High School librarian had a clear vision in mind. “I wanted an LGBTQ writer, because the whole focus for my library for a number of years has been to be more inclusive. Acceptance, diversity, tolerance, the freedom to read, that’s what libraries and librarians are all about,” she said.

So Mokuau chose New York-based young adult author Ryan La Sala, who writes horror and fantasy novels centered around queer characters. His bestselling novel, “The Honeys,” follows a genderfluid teen investigating the violent death of their twin sister and her involvement in a prestigious summer camp filled with secrets. The novel is currently in development to become a major motion picture.

“I wouldn’t normally pick it up personally, because it’s horror and thriller, and it has to do with bees and drones, but it’s such an adventure,” Mokuau said. “I talked to one of the students I’d given the book to over the summer and she said, ‘I love it! I read it three times.’ So the kids are enjoying it, and even some of the teachers, we had a really good conversation, and we’re all like, ‘Okay, we want to see the movie.’”

Mokuau then worked with La Sala and Scholastic Book Fairs to create a variety of events on Molokaʻi: a welcome reception, an author presentation, a student writing workshop, a Q&A with AP English students reading his novel, and a community panel on gender and sexuality.

La Sala was excited for the opportunity to connect with the island’s high school students in different ways.

“That’s the brilliance of Diane and the staff that worked to bring me in and make sure that there were opportunities to have a few different types of conversations,” La Sala said, “because it very well could have been just like show up, talk about myself, and leave, but we worked together ahead of time to make sure it wasn’t just that.

“An important part of my job as an author is to facilitate a belief in the power of creativity within the students that I talk to so that they feel enabled in telling their own stories,” La Sala said. “I want them to feel energized and excited about storytelling, specifically the stories that they want to tell, because so much of my own journey is insisting on sort of doing things my way and honoring my background, and I want them to do the same thing.”

La Sala, who is gay, centers his stories around characters who are also queer. “They’re not necessarily about characters negotiating with their identity. It’s more about a queer characters getting to have their own adventures on their terms,” he said.

La Sala uses horror and fantasy elements to tackle real feelings and issues teenagers often deal with.

“Horror is a place where a lot of teens find an interaction with topics that are hard to face in real life,” he explained. “Kids go through all sorts of very heavy activity in their lives. We just went through a pandemic that totally derailed the childhood of many of these kids and exposed them to world-changing events. So teens often need some sort of reflection, even if it’s a dark one, in which to grapple with themes like this, even if they’re themes of identity or death or mortality.”

News of author visit fueled online backlash

Because La Sala writes queer young adult fiction, Mokuau sent an opt-out notice to parents, which is standard Hawaiʻi State Department of Education practice for “potentially controversial matters.”

“My principal had me write a note that went out to all parents that says this author is coming to our school. This is the book he wrote. If you don’t want your student involved in any activities, just let us know,” Mokuau said. “Even the AP English teacher who had him visit her class, she had to write a letter too.”

Mokuau fielded emails and questions, like “‘How did this happen? Is this targeted? Is this for everybody? Are you forcing people to come?’” she said. “So I knew there were concerns and I let Frank (Loose, Scholastic Book Fairs senior manager of program and product marketing) and Ryan know.”

But when La Sala boarded his flight to Molokaʻi, he began to suspect the concerns were much worse.

“I had been tagged in something on Instagram, which was a screenshot of the opt-out form from an account pretty upset about the form itself, saying, ʻCan you believe that they’re bringing this Satan worshipper to the island?’” he said. “Then I checked my DMs and I had a bunch all at once. They were all threats, basically people saying, ‘You better think twice about coming to our island’ or ‘Don’t come near our children.’ People in the comments were also going off, like ‘We’ll handle him the old-fashioned way.’”

When La Sala landed on Molokaʻi, “The Satan narrative had kind of taken off, and people were going through the rest of my photos and finding things that they felt substantiated this. Like I had recently attended a Beyoncé concert, which someone described as idol worship,” he said. “They used random photos of me in my everyday life, like me in a bathing suit at the beach, which I think added to the idea that I’m this grooming, perverted person coming into the school.”

La Sala says while he’s fielded similar online interactions before, he was alarmed by the intensity of the backlash. A subsequent cab ride from the airport to his hotel added to his discomfort.

The driver and a passenger “were really nice, but it was clear that they were there to intervene spiritually with me,” La Sala said. “For the next 30 minutes, I was trapped in a car with two people as they were praying over me, as they were singing praise songs, as they were making me repeat call-and-response prayers. We had a prayer circle.”

Mokuau, Loose of Scholastic Book Fairs, and other organizers discussed potential safety measures, and a plainclothes officer attended the school events and community panel.

Fortunately, other than a few peaceful protesters praying at the school’s flagpole, no additional incidents were reported.

La Sala inspired students with engaging discussions

La Sala found Molokaʻi High’s students incredibly welcoming and enthusiastic. They listened attentively as he spoke about his writing journey and career, and dove into various storytelling exercises with gusto.

“The kids were super engaged. They were paying attention. A few of them lingered after because they had follow-up questions. It was wonderful,” he said.

“A favorite thing that I like to tell the kids is that the very first book that I had published was actually a book that I started when I was 17 years old in my high school’s library, which tends to be the exact seats the kids are sitting in when I’m talking to them as a published author, 10, 15 years later,” he said.

La Sala also fielded questions about finances, deals, and how to make a living as a writer. “I did a quick run-through of how money works in publishing, like ‘Here’s what I’ve earned with just ideas and books’ to basically show them that there’s a viability to this that is not often part of the picture that people have in their head when they think of like, ‘Oh, I’m going to become a novelist,’ or someone who’s creative, someone who knows how to tell a story. That’s never seen as a marketable skill, when really, it is a very marketable skill,” he said.

La Sala, who grew up in Connecticut, told students that becoming a full-time writer required passion and dedication. He wrote the stories he wanted to read, created characters he could identify with, and fought hard to get his work published.

His advice to students: “You’re from this amazing place, and maybe you’ve been told that you need to leave it in order to have this great adventure, but don’t lose sight of where you’re from and what it could mean to the work that you get to do. You don’t need to abandon all that made you who you are in order to do this.”

La Sala says he edited his presentations and remarks in light of the online backlash. “I have a few slides that are talking about my pronouns, things like that, and I just removed them mostly because I don’t want to make it hard on the kids to explain to their parents what I talked about. I don’t want that to be the dominating topic at dinner that night. I want it to be about what the kids got to do, and what they got to learn,” he said.

Still, the issue of online commentary and misinformation came up when La Sala visited the AP English class. “I was really impressed that the kids wanted to talk about it. They knew exactly what was going on, and they wanted to address it with the person that it was happening to,” he said.

“We had a good conversation as a small group about the reaction that my presence was getting, my actual intentions around these sorts of things. And I told them the truth, which is that I really respect your community’s reaction to making sure that the children have safety and protection,” he said, “but ultimately, I think that these efforts to protect children ironically leave out kids that are the most vulnerable and that need to see people like me and stories like mine in order to know that there’s hope, there’s a future, and that clearly this was highlighting a fear around what I was there to do, which ultimately was not what I did.

“People are often fighting for what they think teens want, and what they think teens need protecting from, and it’s always interesting as an author who writes for teens to actually talk to the teens, and be aware that they know way more than people like to think that they do, and that they’re way more ready and way more elastic in their ability to engage with really nuanced topics,” La Sala said.

‘Queer people are everywhere. We’re valued community members.’

La Sala shared the spotlight for his final event: a community panel that explored the young adult experience with identity, values, and sexuality in a digital age.

A crowd packed the Molokaʻi Public Library to hear stories and perspectives from panelists, including high school senior Ivan Ramos and Philip Kikukawa, whose son, Michael, worked as a White House press assistant before becoming spokesperson for the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

“Queer people are everywhere. We’re in every community. We’re valued community members. We contribute in really valuable ways, no matter where you look,” La Sala said.

The evening included a sunset prayer for La Sala’s sister, Julia, whom he lost to cancer in 2018. The outpouring of support was so moving, even protestors joined the group and held hands.

Mokuau, Molokaʻi High’s librarian, said many in the community contributed to the positive experience, including the pastor who led the group prayer for La Sala’s sister. “She was like, ‘This is such important work you’re doing. This book will save lives.’ Because we know the focus is to give students voices that they don’t have and give them role models. That’s the importance of the work that we’re doing,” Mokuau said.

As for the malicious online posts and threats, Mokuau said, “This is not our community. This is not us. So to have important people in our community step up, write some really thoughtful, insightful posts about acceptance on social media, and then show up at the event made it really positive. I think it really changed the tide.”

La Sala added, “There’s something so reassuring about being able to watch a community balance itself out in real time. The end result was basically proof that the larger community was ready and able to rise to the occasion, not necessarily to protect me, but to defend the rights of all kids in the community, and to prove that conversations like this are possible so that LGBTQ community members can feel safe and not ostracized.”

The students were so inspired, La Sala agreed to be the school’s honorary author in residence.

Mokuau said, “The kids really want to keep in touch with him. The Molokaʻi College Career Club is going to New York in October and Ryan lives close to Columbia University, so the kids are all excited. They’ve already told him that they hope they can see him.”

Mokuau says the experience, while incredibly rewarding and impactful, highlighted a crucial need.

“We have to have these conversations and the education piece, because there was so much miscommunication and hysteria over things that were just not true,” Mokuau said. “At the end of the night, (a community member) said, ʻWe have this task force for LGBTQ, but we haven’t really gotten together. Now we know there’s a really big need. Thank you, Diane, for bringing it to the forefront.’”

Mokuau is focused next on organizing the Molokaʻi Youth Summit on Oct. 28 at Molokaʻi High School’s gymnasium with the Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association Molokaʻi Chapter. She helped select the theme, “How do we make everyone feel welcome on Molokaʻi?” to further promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. Kumu Hina, a respected Native Hawaiian transgender advocate and cultural practitioner, will deliver the keynote address.

“We are definitely continuing on, making it bigger, doing more, and just being out in the community,” Mokuau promised.