Adam Silvera Is Writing the Books He Wished He Had as a Queer Teen

Adam Silvera gets as close to his characters as his readers do. The first—and only—time he cried while writing was at the death of the main character in his third young adult novel, 2017’s ‘They Both Die at the End’. He’d spent so much time outlining the story, he says, that “I knew that kid.”

Both books follow queer love stories with Latinx protagonists. “I am dead set on writing queer characters for the rest of my life,” he explains. “I’m a queer man. I don't need to contribute to the canon of heterosexual literature."

Author Adam Silvera is one of TIME Magazine's 2022 Next Generation Leaders.