Juan Jullian’s first book (photo), Meu Querido Ex, only existed in a digital version at the 2019 Book Biennial. The young writer from Rio de Janeiro, aged 24 at the time, had self-published on Amazon and invested in bookmarks and brooches of publicity to go in search of readers in all the days of the event. “I would go in line with other authors, who are now friends of mine, and say: ‘do you like his book? Then you’ll probably like mine.’ His efforts and those of other LGBTQIA+ authors to publicize their works that year, however, were the target of an attack that came from the city hall of Rio de Janeiro itself. Mayor Marcelo Crivella determined the collection of books with LGBTQIA+ characters, considering that a superhero comic book (The Avengers, the Children’s Crusade) was inappropriate, as it depicts a kiss between two male teenagers. “Books like this need to be packed in black plastic and sealed, stating the content”, said the mayor at the time, through an official note. , but the reaction to censorship meant that all more than 20,000 copies of the comic were sold out in less than 40 minutes after the opening of the biennial. The organization of the literary fair appealed to Justice, but the president of the Court of Justice of Rio de Janeiro, judge Claudio de Mello Tavares, decided in favor of the city hall. It was up to the Federal Supreme Court, at the request of the Attorney General of the Republic, the decision to guarantee freedom for the literary fair, in a preliminary decision that came out only on the closing day of the event. Despite being violent, the attempt to silence stories with LGBTQIA+ people in 2019 had a reverse effect that year and in the following years. According to the organization of the event, the 2019 Book Biennial sold three times as many copies of works as the comic censored, with LGBTQIA+ characters. For Juan, who distributed the pins to publicize his book, the surprise was a wave of readers that turned him into a best-selling author. In a single day, there were more than 10,000 downloads. “It was a combination of the efforts I had been making for publicity with this moment of boom that we couldn’t wait for. My Dear Ex was part of that moment. It was one of the most downloaded at that time and even took first place in the general ranking on Amazon”, recalls the author, who, only then, caught the attention of major publishers and started to be published by Galera Record. “Due to the violence and that extremely homotransphobic episode, my book reached spaces it would not have reached.” LGBTQIA+ protagonists Juan Jullian was a guest author at the 2021 Rio de Janeiro Book Biennial, and returns to the 2023 event to publicize his third work, Viralizou, filled with references to pop culture and internet bullshit. In the plot, a funk artist and a celebrity journalist who destroyed her career come together to survive in the midst of a zombie apocalypse – he does not hide that the inspiration was the fight between singer Anitta and columnist Léo Dias. As in his two previous books, the protagonist of the story is LGBTQIA+ people, and the author’s proposal is to build with literature a place of freedom and celebration for the diversity of sexual orientations and gender identities. “Back to this space [Bienal do Livro] in a place of protagonism and being able to celebrate our narratives is always symbolic. There was an absurd change between the profile of the tables and invited authors of the biennial before 2019 and in these last two editions. The event is becoming more diverse, reflecting more the plurality of the audience, and it’s really happy to be part of it”, says the writer. At the 2023 biennial, scheduled for the period from September 1st to September 10th, the writer will participate in the Mundos Paralelos panel, on September 2nd, which will portray how diversity in young adult literature goes beyond talking about homoaffective romance, and can bring LGBTQIA+ protagonism to other genres, such as fantasy, science fiction and horror. The audience that Juan Jullian has in mind when he writes his books looks like him: young, non-white and LGBTQIA+, but he believes that literature has the ability to generate empathy and show that affections, sufferings and other issues in life are universal. “Before, at events, I was always shocked by a huge amount of women in their 30s and 40s in the audience. But I thought: what a fool I am being. Despite being the story of a black gay boy who wants to get over an ex-boyfriend, it is a story about heartbreak. And everyone, regardless of sexual orientation, knows what it’s like to suffer from a broken heart, ”he says. “I think that literature has a fundamental role in generating empathy. It is easier to get emotional about a reality that is not yours or themes that are not part of your daily life when you see it in a story than when you read an article about it. You put yourself in the character’s shoes.” Diverse bodies Dystopia is also in the plot of Corpos Secos, by Natalia Borges Polesso. The lesbian and non-binary author won the 2021 Jabuti award, in the Entertainment Romance category, by portraying diverse characters who try to survive in a post-apocalyptic Brazil. “Usually, we see a very straight end of the world, with macho men who are going to get on a spaceship and avoid a cataclysm. And I don’t want that, I want to think about collectivities, also made up of people who are marginalized, thinking about their gender identity and how it affects our lives”, defines the author, who defends an even richer diversity of bodies, with characters with chronic illnesses and disabilities. “Romances with people with epilepsy, people with diabetes, and other bodies that aren’t as normative. We live with so many crossings, so many questions that make us complex beings. Gender and sexuality issues are entangled – with that beautiful word, plot – with non-normative bodies, distinct bodies, thinking about race and class. And I see contemporary literature worrying more and more about it.” It is with this point of view that the author will participate in the panel Inventar Futuros, on September 9th. The LGBTQIA+ protagonism is present in all the works of the author from Rio Grande do Sul, from Amora onwards. The book won another Jabuti award, in the Short Story category, with a series of love stories between women. The proposal to give visibility to the love between lesbians and bisexual women is maintained in Extinção das Abelhas, another dystopian work released by the author and which brought her closer to a wider audience. Author Natalia Borges Polesso has already won two Jabuti awards – Divulgation/Ana Reis “Extinção das Abelhas has been widely read. I’ve been to a psychoanalysis group, a beekeepers’ group, an ecologists’ group, in schools. It is a book that has taken an almost random path”, she says, who argues that literature with LGBTQIA+ protagonism is also universal and can provoke identification in everyone, but without this meaning erasure. “When I wrote Amora, sometimes I was told in book clubs, thinking they were complimenting me: ‘Wow, what a beautiful book your book is, I don’t even see that the women are lesbians. For me, it’s about love’. And I’d say, ‘So, you’re seeing it wrong, because women are lesbians. What’s wrong with seeing this? What are you seeing, then?’.” More than a reaction In her second participation in the Rio de Janeiro Book Biennial, Natalia believes that the diversity in the curatorship of the event made the difference for it to become more inclusive since the attacks de 2019. “These are curators who are paying attention to what is happening and who are not inviting us just because we are LGBTQIA+ writers, but because we are contemporary LGBTQIA+ writers who are being read, have an audience, are participating in awards and have a career” , she praises. In addition to the event’s reaction to the censorship attempt, Natália highlights that there was a response from influencers, readers, journalists and several other people committed to freedom and diversity in literature. This response took place during the attacks on the 2019 biennial and after them, with the strengthening of the participation of LGBTQIA+ authors in the market. “The reader community and the publishing market were present in this response. Although our public cultural system has been destroyed in recent years, I think that our thirst for culture and reading has only increased in recent years”, he says. “It’s very bad that we have to react to oppression or something that attacks and affects us, not only in our literary production, but in our existence. I am happy that, in these spaces, the people who are there are connected to this and making these invitations. I don’t like to think that this is just one answer, because it has to do with our desires. It cannot just be a response to violence.” Happy endings Just like Juan and Natalia, writer Pedro Rhuas entered the official program of the 2021 biennial and returns in 2023. Rhuas, however, will also perform as a musician, since, in addition to authoring the bestseller Encontro, released the album Contador de História, which surpassed 500,000 streams on Spotify. The author says that he will be present every day of the literary fair, launching his next novel, whose title has yet to be released. “It is very interesting that in literature, LGBTQIA+ people have been looking for stories in which they can perform their identities in ways that were never possible before”, he says, who tries to provide this space of celebration and acceptance with his books: “Readers want to leave from the commonplace of LGBTQIA+ people who just suffer and are dealing with prejudice in their daily lives. In literature, my job has been a lot like that, providing LGBTQIAP+ people with heart-warming stories, without running away from important guidelines, but giving us the joy that was stolen for a long time.” Raised on the border between Ceará and Rio Grande do Norte, Ruas proposed, with Onde Eu não te Encontro, his first book, a gay and Northeastern love story, appropriating the language of romantic comedies to create his universe. “The book resonated with many people for bringing this representation, a happy story, which is not afraid to be exaggerated, which uses clichés that were not ours, which brings Northeastern protagonism, mess, comedy.” Pedro Rhuas will launch a new book at the Rio de Janeiro Biennial – Publicity/Olga Gonzales Like his readers, who yearn for regional representation, the writer felt the distance from the Rio-São Paulo axis as an obstacle to seeing himself represented and also to achieving publish. The opportunity arose through a literary contest by the Companhia das Letras group, which allowed him to enter despite the absence of a network of contacts in the literary market. “It is only through this literary contest that I find the possibility of accessing this traditional market. Otherwise, it is still very difficult, with the structure that is in place, for voices that are not from the Southeast Region, above all, to have the possibility of sending their stories and getting a publication.” The success with the young adult audience means that his readers are always interacting on social networks, but direct contact at the biennial, in his view, is unique. The event itself has a special meaning for him, who participated for the first time, still as a literary blogger, after raising money in a crowdfunding. “It is a very special moment in which we see the faces of people who are passionate about our stories, or even people who will discover our stories and who are intrigued to meet them in person at the biennial. It is a moment when we remove the filter from the virtual”, he celebrates, who also celebrates the strengthening of LGBTQIA+ literature despite attempts to silence it. “The 2023 biennial is the continuation of the response to this extremely cowardly act of censorship against the LGBTQIAP+ community. I am honored to return to the event alongside LGBTQIAP+ writers from Brazil and the world, showing that our existence in spaces like the biennial is something permanent and will not change. They tried to silence works, to hide them at the biennial, but our works gained even more space and even more prominence. Not only at the biennial, but in the national space of literature production for young audiences. Returning to the biennial and promoting my works at the event is symbolic in the sense that my presence reinforces this response”, he adds.
Agência Brasil
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