McQuiston is queer,[1][12]non-binary, and uses they/them pronouns.[9][13][14] However, some reference books and critical reports list them by their originally assigned pronouns "she/her." McQuiston has expressed that they write romantic comedies about queer people because they grew up attending a conservative evangelical Christian school, and they want to write books that would have made them feel less isolated as a queer teenager.[15]
McQuiston has spoken about how ADHD affects their writing,[16] describing the process as "impulse-driven" with scenes often written nonlinearly.[16] After their father's death in 2014 and mental health problems in 2015, McQuiston turned to writing as a way to cope.[16]
Career
McQuiston is currently represented by Sara Megibow at KT Literary.[10] Additionally, they were a 2020 recipient of the Alex Awards for their debut book Red, White & Royal Blue.[17][18] In November 2023, McQuiston told Out that queer fiction was a "formative experience" for them, allowing them to engage with queerness safely, as a young person and that much of work as an author is "about taking care of that conduit and preserving it" for young queer people "who need it the way I did."[19]
Red, White & Royal Blue is a contemporary queer romance that follows Alex Claremont-Diaz, a fictional First Son of the U.S., as he develops romantic feelings for Henry, an English prince, following an altercation that forces them to fake a friendship for damage control and PR purposes.[20]
McQuiston describes Red, White & Royal Blue as a queer romcom and says that they write queer fiction "for the same reason straight people write straight fiction," meaning that they draw from their own experiences.[21] For protagonist Alex's realization that he's bisexual, they were inspired by their own experience.[1] The character of the fictional American president Ellen Claremont in the novel was inspired by American politician Wendy Davis, whose filibuster McQuiston watched and was deeply moved by in 2013.[22]
As part of their research for Red, White & Royal Blue, McQuiston used websites such as whitehousemuseum.org to study both past and present White House interiors that would be incorporated into the novel.[16]
In April 2019, Amazon Studios acquired the film rights to the novel at auction, with Ted Malawer attached as writer and Berlanti Studios as producer.[23][24]
It has been published and translated in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Israel, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Sweden, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Spain, Ukraine, and Uruguay.[31]
Red, White & Royal Blue won the Best Debut Novel and Best Romance Novel categories in the 11th Annual Goodreads Choice Awards, making it the only novel to win in two categories in 2019.[32][33]
In interviews, McQuiston has expressed hopes that Red, White & Royal Blue, along with their future novels, will help push queer romance into the spotlight.[34] When asked about their writing process for this book, McQuiston said they knew from the get-go that they wanted to write a queer romance but did not plan out each character before they began writing.[34] For example, while both Henry and Alex are written as cisgender boys, that was not planned from the beginning.[34] Additionally, many of the characters in Red, White & Royal Blue were inspired by different political ideologies and archetypes instead of real-life people.[34] In interviews about this novel, McQuiston likes to say that "no real royals or first families were harmed in the making of this book".[34]
McQuiston's next book, One Last Stop, came out on June 1, 2021.[4] The book is "pitched as a queer Kate & Leopold, in which a 23-year-old realizes her subway crush is displaced from 1970's Brooklyn, and she must do everything in her power to help her - and try not to fall in love with the girl lost in time - before it's too late."[35] McQuiston was inspired to make the setting of this book on a subway because when using this public transportation you get a glimpse of another person's life.[15]
This book follows two young adults who were never supposed to meet as they have a chance encounter because one is lost in time.[36] August, the protagonist, does not believe in love and happily ever afters. She believes that living her life alone is the only way until she meets Jane, the time-traveling love interest, on the subway. The subway quickly becomes August's favourite part of her day and she realizes that she needs to do everything in her power to help return Jane back to her own time before it is too late.[36] McQuiston wanted to explore this story within the romantic comedy genre because they wanted to ensure the characters would get happy endings.[37]
In an interview for Time, McQuiston expressed that they wanted to create a queer story that centered around a queer cast. McQuiston finds it strange that in many narratives there is only one queer character while the rest of the cast of characters is heterosexual and cisgender. McQuiston states "I always thought it was silly and unrealistic, the idea that some straight people have, that it is statistically unlikely for more than one gay person to exist in the story."[15]
One Last Stop has been placed sixth on the Bookpage top ten romance novels of 2021.[38] The book was also nominated for the Goodreads Choice Awards for best romance of 2021 where it placed 3rd.[39]
I Kissed Shara Wheeler
McQuiston's third book, I Kissed Shara Wheeler, was released on May 3, 2022.[40] The book is their first for the young adult age group and is a rom-com set in a Christian high school in Alabama. The book follows Chloe Green after she moves from SoCal to Willowgrove Christian Academy. Her rivalry for valedictorian with Shara Wheeler leads to a kiss before Shara vanishes. Chloe must team up with Shara's other love interests to find her.
McQuiston wrote the book in the tradition of queer coming of age stories set in southern, oppressive religious settings, in part to deal with their own religious trauma. They describe the book as "the most personal thing [they've] ever written."[41]
I Kissed Shara Wheeler was listed as a Stonewall Honor Book[42] for Children and Young Adult Literature in 2023. This book was also nominated for the Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Young Adult Fiction of 2022 where it placed third.[43]
"Bloody, Lovely"
On September 20, 2022, McQuiston's short story, "Bloody, Lovely," was featured in a collection of paranormal romance shorts edited by Patrice Caldwell, Eternally Yours. The story follows a young teenager falling in love with the Bloody Mary ghost in their mirror and coming to terms with their queerness.[44]
On October 12, 2023, McQuiston announced the title for their fourth book, The Pairing.[45] The book released on August 6, 2024. It is published by St. Martin's Griffin, an imprint of MacMillan, like Red, White & Royal Blue and One Last Stop. This book marks McQuiston's return to adult books after previously publishing the young adult I Kissed Shara Wheeler, and is their third adult novel.
Young adult literature (YA) is typically written for readers aged 12 to 18 and includes most of the themes found in adult fiction, such as friendship, substance abuse, alcoholism, and sexuality. Stories that focus on the challenges of youth may be further categorized as social or coming-of-age novels.
St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan in New York City. It is headquartered in the Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under six imprints.
Lauren Myracle is an American writer of young adult fiction. She has written many novels, including the three best-selling "IM" books, ttyl, ttfn and l8r, g8r. Her book Thirteen Plus One was released May 4, 2010.
Judith Lewis, better known by her pen name Cassandra Clare, is an American author of young adult fiction, best known for her bestselling series The Mortal Instruments.
Richelle Mead is an American fantasy author. She is known for the Georgina Kincaid series, Vampire Academy, Bloodlines and the Dark Swan series.
New adult (NA) fiction is a developing genre of fiction with protagonists in the 18–29 age bracket. St. Martin's Press first coined the term in 2009, when they held a special call for "fiction similar to young adult fiction (YA) that can be published and marketed as adult—a sort of an 'older YA' or 'new adult'". New adult fiction tends to focus on issues such as leaving home, developing sexuality, and negotiating education and career choices. The genre has gained popularity rapidly over the last few years, particularly through books by self-published bestselling authors such as Jennifer L. Armentrout, Cora Carmack, Colleen Hoover, Anna Todd, and Jamie McGuire.
Margaret Colleen Hoover is an American author who writes primarily novels in the romance and young adult fiction genres. She is best known for her 2016 romance novel, It Ends with Us. Many of her works were self-published, before they were picked up by a publishing house. As of October 2022, Hoover has sold approximately 20 million books. She was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine in 2023.
Sarah Janet Maas, known as Sarah J. Maas is an American fantasy author known for her fantasy series Throne of Glass,A Court of Thorns and Roses, and Crescent City. As of 2024, she has sold nearly 40 million copies of her books and her work has been translated into 38 languages.
Leigh Bardugo is an American fantasy author. She is best known for her young adult Grishaverse novels, which include the Shadow and Bone trilogy and the Six of Crows and King of Scars duologies. She also received acclaim for her paranormal fantasy adult debut, Ninth House. The Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows series have been adapted into Shadow and Bone by Netflix, and Ninth House will be adapted by Amazon Studios; Bardugo is an executive producer on both works.
LGBT romance is a genre within gay literature and romance fiction focused on same-sex characters who fall in love and have a homosexual or homoromantic relationship. The genre has met with increasing acceptance and sales from the 1980s onward. Bussel, in Publishers Weekly, notes that as of 2020, presses that specialize in LGBTQ romance, mainstream publishers, and booksellers are expanding their offerings and inviting a more diverse authorship.
The Bisexual Book Awards are an annual literary award program, presented by the Bi Writers Association to honour the year's best works of literature addressing themes of bisexuality. The awards were presented for the first time in 2013.
Alice May Oseman is an English author and illustrator of young adult fiction. She secured her first publishing deal at 17 and published her first novel Solitaire in 2014.
Anna-Marie McLemore is a Mexican-American author of young adult fiction magical realism, best known for their Stonewall Honor-winning novel When the Moon Was Ours, Wild Beauty, and The Weight of Feathers.
You Should See Me in a Crown is a debut young adult novel by Leah Johnson, published by Scholastic in June 2020. The book was given a Stonewall Book honor, and TIME magazine named it one of the best 100 young adult books of all time.
Red, White & Royal Blue is an LGBT romance novel by American author Casey McQuiston, originally published on May 14, 2019, by St Martin's Griffin. It centers on the character of Alex Claremont-Diaz, a first son of the United States, and his romantic relationship with Prince Henry, a British prince. Upon release, the novel received positive reviews with praise given to the representation of a queer male relationship. A film adaptation was released on August 11, 2023.
Travis John Klune is an American author of fantasy and romantic fiction featuring gay and LGBTQ+ characters. His fantasy novel The House in the Cerulean Sea is a New York Times best seller and winner of the 2021 Alex and Mythopoeic Awards. Klune has spoken about how his asexuality influences his writing. His novel Into This River I Drown won the Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Romance in 2014.
One Last Stop is a 2021 LGBTQ romance novel written by American author Casey McQuiston. The novel is about a woman named August Landry, a cynical pseudo detective, who finds love in a woman she meets on a subway named Jane Su, a punk butch lesbian from the 1970s who has been misplaced in time and is trapped on the subway.
Nina LaCour is an American author, primarily known for writing young adult literature with queer, romantic story lines. Her novel We Are Okay won the Printz Award in 2017.
Emily Henry is an American author who is best known for her New York Times bestselling romance novels Beach Read, People We Meet on Vacation, Book Lovers, Happy Place, and Funny Story.
Red, White & Royal Blue is a 2023 American romantic comedy film directed by Matthew López in his feature film directorial debut, from a screenplay that he co-wrote with Ted Malawer. The script is based on the 2019 novel of the same name by Casey McQuiston; it depicts a developing love affair between the son of the president of the United States and a British prince. Clifton Collins Jr., Sarah Shahi, Rachel Hilson, Stephen Fry, and Uma Thurman appear in supporting roles.
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