Check out our interview with Kyle Casey Chu, the author of “The Queen Bees of Tybee County.”
What was your inspiration behind your most recent book?
“The Queen Bees of Tybee County” follows Chinese American seventh grade basketball superstar, Derrick Chan, who finds himself boarding with his eccentric Grandma Claudia in rural Heritage, Georgia one summer. As Derrick unearths more about his family history, his Chinese heritage, and his queer identity, he gathers the nerve to compete in Heritage’s local Queen Bees pageant… in drag.
This story gets to the heart of what I wanted and gravitated toward as a kid — compasses in the form of elder role models to navigate uncharted terrain, dramatic, soul-moving creative arts and an entourage of fast friends that really had my back. It’s all of the things that saved me when I came out in the seventh grade and my whole world changed. When being Chinese American and being queer felt like irreconcilable blemishes that I once felt desperate to hide. I wrote this book for any middle grader out there also grappling with concepts of identity that feel too mountainous, overwhelming and complex to process alone. I hope they find solace (and fun) in this story!
What does Reading Rainbow mean to you?
I adore that Reading Rainbow is focused on queer and trans content in the south! Books and media were such life rafts to me growing up, and I’m glad Reading Rainbow exists as a regional lighthouse for queer and trans kids.
I have a twin brother with autism. Growing up, he had to be taken to a lot of services, so I spent much of my time alone, reading books and watching TV. These mediums were the portals through which I first saw and made sense of the world. I regularly tuned into PBS often to watch Reading Rainbow, Arthur and Zoboomafoo, and devoured the Goosebumps books. These were tentpoles of my afterschool hours, and drew me to storytelling as a kid. So it feels very full circle (and meaningful) to now be featured as an Author, today.
Why do you feel representation of a variety of people is so important when it comes to writing books?
Books are powerful vehicles for empathy — enabling us to inhabit others’ shoes for a mile or a lifetime.
A chorus of perspectives can challenge our thinking and beliefs (in a healthy way) and encourage us to prioritize understanding and accord over flat-out rejecting difference. Books from a variety of people help us grow socioemotionally, and see for ourselves how different people handle unique challenges and land upon universal truths. These books allow us to enjoy walks of life we might never otherwise experience.
The world is full of different people. That is a fact. Reading books from one voice alone is not only limiting, but inaccurate and unrealistic when it comes to representing the vast world we inhabit together.
Why close ourselves off?
Tell us a little more about the book and why you decided to write it.
This book is a survival guide for any middle grader who feels irreconcilably different — especially queer and trans people of color.
When I was a middle-grader, I remember everything felt so starkly black and white, life and death. Either I would be popular, or completely alone. Either cool, or a total loser. A successful, straight-A student, or a failure. (Then again, I’m a drag queen, so maybe I’m just a touch dramatic, haha.) But life is, of course, more complicated than that. A series of grays on a spectrum, as opposed to an on/off of a switch. Because we are a sum of parts, contradictions, and weird little interests that make us the odd mosaics we are.
As a kid, I was a collection of contradictions. An honor roll student who got into fights in the playground. A bombastic extrovert who spent hours practicing saxophone alone in a practice room. A Chinese American kid who was terrible at math (the media told me this combination was impossible)!
Both/and, vs. either/or thinking: the idea that multiple seemingly contradictory truths can coexist at once, is a therapeutic concept that has given me a lot of relief in the messy journey of life. It’s something many adults struggle with, even. And it’s a concept worth familiarizing kids with. Because it can bring them closer to reaching that quiet peace in being who they are meant to be.
And regarding racial discrimination and homophobia/transphobia, it’s interesting, because sixth and seventh grade is when I became very aware of my identity and social context. That there were parts of my being that some would find unacceptable. So, summoning back that age to write Queen Bees, these topics naturally poured into the story.
When I came out in the seventh grade, my friends turned their backs on me. Feeling like a pariah and having to find new friends was earth-shattering. Because developmentally, social belonging is the highest survival need for this age. There was, of course, homophobia. But more than that, there was also the anticipation of it in every interaction I had. A veil of hurt and mistrust, a fearful hesitation before meeting anyone, that they could turn violent or hostile at any moment, that haunted me. This was the biggest scar, and I did my best to capture that as Derrick reflects, in the book.
Around the same time, I also started to come into my own understanding of race. I was fortunate to go to school in San Francisco, where there were a lot of Chinese American students, but still, I found many fellow Chinese American students (and myself included), romanticized whiteness, some even yearning to be white or half-white. Some girls went to the mall to buy blue contact lenses together. The ones with older sisters talked wistfully about getting eyelid surgeries… “one day.” Some Chinese girls didn’t even date Chinese guys. A girl once told me “You’re kinda cute…for an Asian” (I am so grateful to the movie DiDi for shining a light on this very real dynamic). I was left feeling like my race was something to be “fixed.” As if my race (mis)spoke for me, and I would spend my whole life correcting it, arguing against it.
It probably goes without saying that processing queer and racial identity as a 12-year-old was a wild undertaking. It opened an ache in me. I had questions. And years later, after studying race and ethnicity in college, there were a lot of things I wish I knew then. Conversations I wish I could’ve had and reassurances I wish I could’ve given to my younger self. In a way, this book is a collection of those conversations and reassurances.
What can fans expect from your book?
Earlier this year, a book reviewer described “The Queen Bees of Tybee County” as if Chappell Roan’s song, “Pink Pony Club” were a book. I am so glad they said this, because I couldn’t have put it better!
This heartwarming queer coming-of-age summer-read is all about cherishing what makes you different, following your joy, and the power of having an entourage cheering you on, every step of the way. Join Derrick Chan as he explores his queer identity and his Chinese American heritage through the sparkling spectacle of drag.
From this book, I hope young readers take away that they contain vast, oceanic multitudes. I want them to understand that they are limitless. They can be basketball players. Drag queens. Astronauts. Concert pianists. Queer, trans, straight, ace, aro, all of these things at once. I want them to know that they can ask for the world. It is never too much.
I hope young readers take away that their uncertainty and pain can feel like a cell, shuttering them off from everything else. But I promise that many, many people have moved through these challenges before. This heartbreak has all been felt. All you need is the exact right friend, book or movie, to see and understand that. I hope they know to look out for their reflections.
Lastly, I hope young readers understand how powerful it is to follow what makes you come alive, to listen to what makes your heart flutter and reach for it with your everything, than to cower to the voices projecting their own misguided fears onto you. That when you follow that path, you will find your people, and most importantly, who you’re meant to be.
What's up next for you in the bookish world?
I am blessed to have a couple of irons in the fire!
