If you enjoy banter and a complicated romance that’s tied into figuring out how to be in charge of your own life, then check out Kit Rosewater's book, "All's Fair In Love and Field Hockey."
What was your inspiration behind your most recent book?
The inspiration behind "All's Fair In Love and Field Hockey" was two-fold. It started way back in 2021 with a tweet. My agent DMed me a tweet featuring an article, I don’t remember the exact title, so I’ll borrow one from a slightly older write-up: “Team USA and Team Canada Women’s Hockey Players Keep Marrying Each Other.” We thought it could be an incredible jumping off point for a rivals-to-lovers/forbidden romance sapphic YA. After she sent me the article, and we chatted about it, I wrote up a loose pitch and a few sample chapters. But I couldn’t get into the story enough, couldn’t capture the voice or the specific characters, so I set the project aside. About a year later, I was in a hospital waiting room, and it was like a curtain in my mind was suddenly pulled back: Here’s your main character. Here’s the girl she falls in love with. WRITE IT. And I did, I had to. I ended up writing the first draft in about two months, which is insanely fast for my usual writing speed.
What does Reading Rainbow mean to you?
I love that the world “Pride” has multiple connotations, because more than ever especially, I feel like to write books with Pride and read books with Pride is a radical and courageous act. Pride came to be associated with the LGBTQ community specifically because of the Stonewall Riots and commemorating the strength and bravery it took to stand up for our rights. “A good kind of trouble,” to borrow the phrase from Lisa Moore Ramée. Pride has always been and will continue to be a radical movement. When I go to book festivals or school visits, I am always a little scared when I walk in the door. Who’s going to see the two girls on my cover and immediately turn away, or worse, come to lecture me about representing a sapphic relationship? But then I swallow that fear and use it to invigorate myself. I remind myself that the history of queerness is grounded in the foundation of standing up and taking pride in your identity. And that’s ultimately what I carry with me by the time I’m with readers, students, educators, etc. I hope that’s the same feeling readers carry when they read LGBTQ books.
Why do you feel representation of a variety of people is so important when it comes to writing books?
Well, the importance of representation is two-fold. There’s representation and then there’s authentic representation, and I think we’ve seen how important each are in the waves they’ve come into children’s literature. For a long time, readers who didn’t have the lived experience of being cis, straight, white, able-bodied, and male were not really represented in literature. Those readers didn’t see books that reflected their experiences. The 1990s and early 2000s ushered in a new wave of books with diverse protagonists, and critics seemed absolutely thrilled. We’re doing a good job now, everyone in publishing basically thought. But there was a critical piece missing in all of that self-congratulations. For the most part, cis, white, straight, able-bodied authors were writing marginalized protagonists and marginalized stories. The stories had representation, but not authentic representation. I think society needs narrative to make sense of the world and make sense of ourselves in it. But none of that will come about without a variety of people telling their authentic stories and connecting with readers.
That’s my answer for general representation, but I want to make a follow-up point for representation in the LGBTQ community. There is room, in my opinion, for so many kinds of queer stories. There’s room for queer stories that feel utopic or primarily celebratory, and there’s room for queer stories where the characters face hardships in their journeys. Furthermore, I think there’s plenty of room for nuance and variety in those hardships. I think at the end of the day, the more variety we have in representation the better, because we hone in on the chance that a reader is going to pick up a book and think, "That right there. I went through that exact thing. This is my story." As a reader, I am always so comforted when I see facets of my life reflected in narrative. Because then I know that I’m not alone in my experiences.
Tell us a little more about the book and why you decided to write it.
For my first few years in publishing, I primarily thought of myself as an author trying to survive in a rapidly-changing and precarious market. But by the time I sat down to write "All's Fair In Love and Field Hockey," I had (fortunately) switched out my author’s hat for a reader’s hat. I was studying genre and recently released books through the lens of what I wanted to read. I really liked romance that was interwoven with other coming-of-age themes. I liked reading cute and funny banter. So I started to try my hand at writing the kind of stuff I loved to read. Because this is my YA debut, I also wanted this particular book to reflect my experiences in the queer community as I explored my own identity in high school and college. The whole project felt a lot like a recipe: I had the outside setting of rivals-to-lovers in field hockey, I had the interior themes of coming-of-age as a queer person, and I had the joy and excitement of writing from the mindset of a reader.
What can fans expect from your book?
Readers can expect to read a romance — first and foremost, I’d like to think. My main character’s journey is about following her heart, and she’s not able to follow it for herself before someone comes along and sort of jumpstarts it. It just so happens that the person who jumpstarts this girl’s heart is also her biggest rival in a sport that she’s built up to be her entire world. So it’s a complicated romance that’s very much tied into figuring out how to be in charge of your own life. But also, and this is HUGELY thanks to my wonderful editor at Delacorte, Ali Romig, there is a lot of fun hijinks and banter in this book. There’s diving into bushes, running away down the docks, exchanging code names, doing “Rival Watch” as the protagonist, Evelyn, puts it. There’s both heaviness and levity interwoven throughout. My favorite thing to write is dialogue, so hopefully readers will find some funny back-and-forth moments in the book as well.
What's up next for you in the bookish world?
I am the luckiest author, both to have my publisher pick up a second YA book from me, and to have that book be on my favorite topic ever — treasure hunting. In the summer of 2021 I was a guest on the podcast Criminal to talk about an idea I had initially pitched them. It was about a very interesting scandal tied to the first known Armchair Treasure Hunt book: Masquerade, created by British artist Kit Williams and published in 1979. That book, along with the concept of armchair treasure hunt books, was the subject of my master’s degree thesis. I have always wanted to write a story featuring a treasure hunt, and next year my YA treasure-hunting book "Buried Feelings" will hit shelves. It’s a story that is very tied to a specific location — San Francisco, and a specific point in history — the 1970s, from the first Pride marches to the aftermath of Harvey Milk’s assassination. Stay tuned for more news and details, because once my editor signs off on the latest version, I won’t be able to keep quiet about it! But until then, you can check out Criminal’s episode titled “Masquerade.”
