More than six years since its initial publication, George M. Johnson’s YA “memoir-manifesto” All Boys Aren’t Blue, about growing up Black and queer, remains one of the most banned books in the country. The author also prepares to release their new adult memoir, And If I Die Before I Wake, this fall. We talked with Johnson about state of publishing, the effects of book bans, and how the queer community always stands together during times of adversity.

How do you see the state of LGBTQ+ publishing currently and looking forward?

I feel like the state of queer publishing is in a tough space. You have the intersection of great storytelling versus capitalism. You could be telling the greatest queer story, but if it can't be marketed because of backlash that may come, or they can't be pushed into certain markets, all of those things become a fight against creativity. I do feel like we are still able to create books where the lead characters are queer, but it does feel like we're getting to that rock and hard place of, how do we create art that is reflective of the world we live in versus the ideology of a certain group of people of the world they want to see, and how do we continue to combat that? I do think All Boys Aren't Blue was one of those testaments where it was like, wait a minute, y'all aren't denying a fictional story, y'all are denying a person that's actually living.

All Boys Aren’t Blue has become one of the most challenged books in America. Had you ever anticipated that that would become a part of the book’s legacy?

I knew that the book was going to get challenged. When it came out in 2020 book challenges were a thing, but they were never a huge thing. It never got into the thousands of challenges that we're dealing with now. I never thought it would get to the level of being on the banned book list consistently, becoming the most banned book in 2024. That's something that you can't fathom.

What do you take away from that experience?

With the understanding that as banned and as challenged as the book has been, it still has so many more people it needs to reach. It's a twofold thing, where the book probably wouldn't have even reached certain people had it not been banned, so there's, I guess, a silver lining. And two, the book has been removed from places where certain people, specifically young adults who may not have the socioeconomic status to buy a book, are now facing the challenges of not being able to access free resources that should be given to them. I look at it from the standpoint of this book still has so many more eyes that need to see it, and that's my goal now.

If I Die Before I Awake is your third memoir. What interests you about the record keeping of life?

Toni Morrison said if you keep telling somebody's story, then they never really die, because it keeps getting passed down. There's going to be a time when we all pass away, and I can only imagine what the people will say 100 years from now about All Boys Aren’t Blue. People's stories will continue to exist in the world and manifest in a magnitude of ways, as long as we keep telling the story. That's how I look at memoir writing, [and] at oral tradition. The danger is when the attacks on the story make people fearful of telling their story, because that's how people stop living. My job is to keep telling these stories, so that people can live beyond the attacks.

What is most exciting about being a queer writer at this moment?

I think the most exciting thing for me is the possibility of what may come. Every time there is a challenge to creativity, to the status quo, I feel like for queer people, that's when we really rise to the occasion. I feel like this is one of those periods where we are watching a resilience in the arts and the culture, and I'm grateful to be a part of what this will look like moving forward. I'm very optimistic about the things that I'm going to be able to create that may shift just enough minds to get us to where we need to get to have a better understanding of humanity, life, and equity.