When Seth Malacari became frustrated with the lack of diversity in Australian publishing, the award-winning WA-based writer — and founder of Get YA Words Out, which supports LGBTQIA+ authors of young-adult literature — decided to do something about it. The result is An Unexpected Party, an anthology of queer speculative YA fiction bringing together the work of 18 emerging writers, edited by Malacari and co-published by Get YA Words Out and Fremantle Press. “The book was born out of a place of anger toward the lack of trans and gender diverse books for young people being published in Australia,” Malacari explains. “Speaking out about this lack of diversity didn’t seem to be making an impact, so I decided to do something about it and set out to publish this book. In the beginning I was planning to do it all solo. I had no idea how, but I was determined to try. Then Fremantle Press caught wind of the book and asked if I wanted support to publish it. We worked as a team from then on and it’s been an incredible partnership. I’ve learnt a lot about the publishing industry through them.”
As you note in your introduction to An Unexpected Party, there’s a growing number of contemporary gay and lesbian YA stories being published in Australia, particularly romantic ones, but you’ve gone down a different route here. What motivated the decision to focus on speculative fiction?
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