Emerald

I met Emerald at the LGBTQ society at their college. I had intended to go in to meet young trans people with creative passions and works they wanted to share with the community. She displayed such enthusiasm in showing me their work that I felt the need to read it all straight away, and thoroughly enjoyed everything they had written. We spoke about how she wants to go to university to pursue a creative writing degree and move on to become a published author. 

They told me about how they were writing a novel called “The Many Miseries of Esper Andersenn,” and how they had based it on a recent break-up she had experienced. It begins with describing a breakup the protagonist goes through, and then takes the reader through the immediate aftermath and Esper’s journey of overcoming and recovering from the event. They told me, “I originally just wanted a coping mechanism, and I already had the character of Esper, which is based off of myself, but I didn’t know what to do with them, and figured this was the opportunity. I think my breakup was particularly bad as breakups go, and my anxiety at the time was horrific, but with the novel I want to show that no matter how bad your situation can get, it will get better, especially with an uptake in issues of mental health in young people (in particular the queer community)” 

An extract of their piece (called “Prom”) had been highly praised by award-winning author Simon James Green, who said it was “authentic and something that would really resonate with YA readers”

She wanted to include a short story they had written called “Party”, which describes the experience of a trans university student going to a party with a date. It's written from the viewpoint of a character named Stacey, who is friends with Esper and explores the dating experience for trans people, touching on themes of community and acceptance. She said this, “As for the standalone piece, I have always been treated differently because of my gender. I was outed to my secondary school, and I suspect part of the reason for getting dumped was because I came out (my ex-boyfriend is attracted to men and we split a few months after I told him), so again it is about spreading that message that things can and will get better. Stacey and Jax were the first main character couple I created since that breakup, and I’ve had a lot of fun writing spinoff pieces from their perspective.” 

Their short story is linked below.