| A. J. Sass (he/they) is an author whose narrative interests lie at the intersection of identity, neurodiversity, and allyship. He is the critically acclaimed author of the ALA Rainbow Book List Top 10 titles Ellen Outside the Lines, which was also a Sydney Taylor Honor Book, and Ana on the Edge, as well as the co-author of Camp QUILTBAG (with Nicole Melleby). All three books are Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selections. When he’s not writing, A. J. figure skates and travels as much as possible. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his husband and two cats who act like dogs. Visit him online at sassinsf.com and follow him @matokah on Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram. We were absolutely thrilled to get the chance to interview A. J. Sass this month! Rapunzel Reads: Too often, especially in middle-grade, books will focus on a single 'issue' and neglect to fully develop the many competing challenges and story-lines that make up everyday lives, but Ana on the Edge does nothing of the sort--instead, Ana's story both on and off the rink is full of subplots, complexities, and unexpected layers that bring her and her | 
Author photo credit: Deven Sass-Cao |
story truly to life. What are your thoughts on creating such multilayered stories?
A. J. Sass: Real-life kids’ lives don’t exist in a vacuum. Figuring out your identity might be a huge part of your life during middle school, but it’s not the only thing someone that age is juggling. Reality is often messier than fiction, however, so the challenge as an author is to figure out how to incorporate enough details and subplots into a character’s life that their world feels believable to readers, without overshadowing the overarching plot and the main character’s internal journey from the start of the novel to its finish.
I’m really lucky to have worked with a pair of fantastic editors to bring Ana’s story to life. When Ana on the Edge was first acquired, it was a shorter story than readers see now—about 60 pages shorter, actually! The bones were there, as my editors said at the time, and I just needed to flesh them out and connect them with supplemental scenes. I needed to build Ana’s world in a way that was both believable but also called back to the main storyline.
I initially worried that adding more subplots would make the book too long for its target audience, which is middle schoolers. But as my ever-so-wise editors told me, the story needs to be as long as it needs to be. The trick is to find ways to connect seemingly unrelated subplots to the overarching storyline. I feel like I managed to do that in Ana on the Edge (after several revisions), and I hope readers agree!
RR: One of my favorite parts of Ana on the Edge was its foray into an area of society that generally remains stubbornly gendered--sports--by highlighting the conflicting pressures to be yourself and yet fit into one of two strict, predetermined categories to even compete. What inspired setting Ana's self-discovery against this somewhat unforgiving backdrop, and what would you suggest to young people facing the same challenges as Ana?
AJS: I grew up and came of age within the sport of figure skating myself. Some of my earliest memories are of freestyle practices and skating competitions. While I didn't know I was nonbinary when I was Ana’s age (I’m not sure if the term was even in use in the 90s), there were moments of discomfort that kept creeping into my experiences as a young athlete that as an adult I now recognize as being social dysphoria—a discomfort with the way people interpret your gender on the basis of external indicators like clothes, hairstyle, name, and so on. For a nonbinary figure skater, examples might include the color of skate boots you wear implying your gender (girls and women generally wear white or tan boots, while boys and men wear black) and your competition costume (back when I was still competing in singles skating, girls were required to compete in skirts or dresses, although that rule has since been dropped).
I’ve been skating pretty consistently since I was seven years old, but there was a nearly ten-year period in my life when I didn’t have a coach or any skating-related goals. That changed when I decided I wanted to start training more seriously and take my last two US Figure Skating Free Skate tests. At that point in my life, I’d already changed my name and pronouns, so I knew I’d be taking these tests as a man (or as a transmasculine nonbinary person, more accurately, someone who most people interpreted to be a man), whereas I’d taken all my other tests pre-transition. It was an interesting space to navigate, and it really got me thinking about my childhood and how much my life might have changed for the better if I’d had the vocabulary to describe the discomfort I was feeling when I was a kid. It had been this ever-present feeling growing up that although I loved my sport, it didn’t always feel like there was a place for someone like me within it.
I did end up passing those final two tests, after a year of intense training. Once I’d passed my Senior Free Skate, I slowed down my training regimen (in part because it cost a lot of money to skate six days a week and pay for coaching but also because I’d injured my hip training so intensely and needed to focus on physical therapy and recovery). That gave me time to think about my next goal. I’d always loved writing—in fact, it was a wonderful creative outlet for me outside of my full-time job—so that’s what I returned to again. And since all these gendered aspects of my sport felt immediately present to me as someone who still wanted to remain an active figure skating participant once my hip healed, it felt only natural to explore these thoughts and questions through the lens of a fictional skater going through something similar.
Young athletes who might be experiencing similar challenges as Ana should first and foremost know they’re not alone. I honestly thought I was the only nonbinary skater out there while I was drafting Ana on the Edge, but this story’s journey to publication has completely proven me wrong on that front. So many current and former athletes who’ve read Ana’s story have reached out to me to share their experiences, and this only reinforces my belief that trans and nonbinary athletes belong in sports, that they should be welcomed just as cisgender athletes already are. Even if you’ve never met another trans or nonbinary athlete, know that we are out there. Also look for those who can provide support or allyship, just like Ana’s coach, Alex, provides her.
RR: What is your favorite thing about being an author?
AJS: Two things! It will never get old to hold a copy of my book in my hands for the first time. I usually get my author copies a few weeks before each book’s official release, and it’s a completely surreal experience to see your words printed out on the page and to know that your story will soon be available for people to read.
I also cherish every interaction I have with readers. I debuted during the pandemic, so I’ve had only a few opportunities to meet readers in person so far. But many readers have reached out online, and I’ve even received some snail mail letters. I’m also looking forward to going on tour for the release of my upcoming novel, Camp QUILTBAG. That will involve a handful of events at a queer resource center, bookstores, and also my first-ever school visit. I can’t wait to connect with more readers and share my stories with them. Maybe they’ll have some stories to share with me, too.
RR: Do you have any tips for an aspiring writer?
AJS: First, read widely. Anything that catches your eye should be fair game because you never know what might inspire your own writing. While I write primarily middle grade contemporary stories (so far, anyway!), I read everything from picture books to YA horror to adult romcoms.
If you specifically know what type of story you want to write, I also highly recommend reading lots of recently published books in your target age category and genre. See what other authors are writing about and try to imagine how your story might fit among or complement already-published books in stores. It’s homework, but the fun kind, as far as I’m concerned!
It’s also helpful to have critique partners—people willing to give you positive notes but also constructive feedback to help you revise your story. All of my books have looked very different after receiving notes from my critique partners (and later from my editors) and they are stronger for it. Revision can be difficult at times, but the way it can transform and strengthen stories also feels like magic.
Lastly, don’t be afraid to experiment or try writing a story outside of your comfort zone. Up until I wrote Ana on the Edge, the only stories I’d ever written were for an older audience (high schoolers and up). But given some of the details I knew needed to go in the novel, I knew Ana had to be 12. This made me nervous at first, because I’d never so much as considered writing a middle grade novel before that moment. I hadn’t really even read anything in the middle grade space since I was a middle schooler myself! So that was the first thing I did: I went to the library and checked out a stack of middle grade novels to get a sense of what already existed and how stories were written for that age group. Then it was a lot of trial and error to figure out the right narrative voice, which didn’t come naturally to me. It could’ve been easy to stop at any time and throw in my hat, but I’m so glad I didn’t. I’m a big believer that you learn new skills with every story you try, regardless of it ever gets published.
RR: What are you planning on writing next?
AJS: I have a middle grade novel (co-written with Nicole Melleby) that releases on March 21, called Camp QUILTBAG. It’s a dual perspective story about Abigail and Kai, two kids from very different backgrounds who meet for the first time at a camp for queer and trans kids in the Minnesota Northwoods. They form a pact to help each other find their footing at camp, all while competing in a camp-wide competition that pits cabin against cabin. This story was such a joy to write not only because I got to develop it with one of my very best writing friends but also because it was the first time I’d ever written an all-queer cast of characters. I can’t wait for readers to meet Abigail and Kai and all the other campers.
Then in 2024, I have another middle grade novel releasing called Just Shy of Ordinary. It follows 13-year-old genderfluid homeschooler Shai who is hoping to jumpstart a post-pandemic “new normal” for themself by starting public school, in hopes it will help them manage their intense anxiety. But Shai is thrown for a loop right from the start when their academic evaluation comes back recommending that they start school not as an eighth grader like they were expecting but as a ninth grader. It’s a story about emotional health and academic giftedness, particularly how your success in one part of your life doesn’t negate your struggles elsewhere.
I also have a short story coming out in On All Other Nights, an anthology of Passover-themed stories, as well as my debut picture book, Shabbat Is…, releasing next year, so those should all keep me busy!
A. J. Sass: Real-life kids’ lives don’t exist in a vacuum. Figuring out your identity might be a huge part of your life during middle school, but it’s not the only thing someone that age is juggling. Reality is often messier than fiction, however, so the challenge as an author is to figure out how to incorporate enough details and subplots into a character’s life that their world feels believable to readers, without overshadowing the overarching plot and the main character’s internal journey from the start of the novel to its finish.
I’m really lucky to have worked with a pair of fantastic editors to bring Ana’s story to life. When Ana on the Edge was first acquired, it was a shorter story than readers see now—about 60 pages shorter, actually! The bones were there, as my editors said at the time, and I just needed to flesh them out and connect them with supplemental scenes. I needed to build Ana’s world in a way that was both believable but also called back to the main storyline.
I initially worried that adding more subplots would make the book too long for its target audience, which is middle schoolers. But as my ever-so-wise editors told me, the story needs to be as long as it needs to be. The trick is to find ways to connect seemingly unrelated subplots to the overarching storyline. I feel like I managed to do that in Ana on the Edge (after several revisions), and I hope readers agree!
RR: One of my favorite parts of Ana on the Edge was its foray into an area of society that generally remains stubbornly gendered--sports--by highlighting the conflicting pressures to be yourself and yet fit into one of two strict, predetermined categories to even compete. What inspired setting Ana's self-discovery against this somewhat unforgiving backdrop, and what would you suggest to young people facing the same challenges as Ana?
AJS: I grew up and came of age within the sport of figure skating myself. Some of my earliest memories are of freestyle practices and skating competitions. While I didn't know I was nonbinary when I was Ana’s age (I’m not sure if the term was even in use in the 90s), there were moments of discomfort that kept creeping into my experiences as a young athlete that as an adult I now recognize as being social dysphoria—a discomfort with the way people interpret your gender on the basis of external indicators like clothes, hairstyle, name, and so on. For a nonbinary figure skater, examples might include the color of skate boots you wear implying your gender (girls and women generally wear white or tan boots, while boys and men wear black) and your competition costume (back when I was still competing in singles skating, girls were required to compete in skirts or dresses, although that rule has since been dropped).
I’ve been skating pretty consistently since I was seven years old, but there was a nearly ten-year period in my life when I didn’t have a coach or any skating-related goals. That changed when I decided I wanted to start training more seriously and take my last two US Figure Skating Free Skate tests. At that point in my life, I’d already changed my name and pronouns, so I knew I’d be taking these tests as a man (or as a transmasculine nonbinary person, more accurately, someone who most people interpreted to be a man), whereas I’d taken all my other tests pre-transition. It was an interesting space to navigate, and it really got me thinking about my childhood and how much my life might have changed for the better if I’d had the vocabulary to describe the discomfort I was feeling when I was a kid. It had been this ever-present feeling growing up that although I loved my sport, it didn’t always feel like there was a place for someone like me within it.
I did end up passing those final two tests, after a year of intense training. Once I’d passed my Senior Free Skate, I slowed down my training regimen (in part because it cost a lot of money to skate six days a week and pay for coaching but also because I’d injured my hip training so intensely and needed to focus on physical therapy and recovery). That gave me time to think about my next goal. I’d always loved writing—in fact, it was a wonderful creative outlet for me outside of my full-time job—so that’s what I returned to again. And since all these gendered aspects of my sport felt immediately present to me as someone who still wanted to remain an active figure skating participant once my hip healed, it felt only natural to explore these thoughts and questions through the lens of a fictional skater going through something similar.
Young athletes who might be experiencing similar challenges as Ana should first and foremost know they’re not alone. I honestly thought I was the only nonbinary skater out there while I was drafting Ana on the Edge, but this story’s journey to publication has completely proven me wrong on that front. So many current and former athletes who’ve read Ana’s story have reached out to me to share their experiences, and this only reinforces my belief that trans and nonbinary athletes belong in sports, that they should be welcomed just as cisgender athletes already are. Even if you’ve never met another trans or nonbinary athlete, know that we are out there. Also look for those who can provide support or allyship, just like Ana’s coach, Alex, provides her.
RR: What is your favorite thing about being an author?
AJS: Two things! It will never get old to hold a copy of my book in my hands for the first time. I usually get my author copies a few weeks before each book’s official release, and it’s a completely surreal experience to see your words printed out on the page and to know that your story will soon be available for people to read.
I also cherish every interaction I have with readers. I debuted during the pandemic, so I’ve had only a few opportunities to meet readers in person so far. But many readers have reached out online, and I’ve even received some snail mail letters. I’m also looking forward to going on tour for the release of my upcoming novel, Camp QUILTBAG. That will involve a handful of events at a queer resource center, bookstores, and also my first-ever school visit. I can’t wait to connect with more readers and share my stories with them. Maybe they’ll have some stories to share with me, too.
RR: Do you have any tips for an aspiring writer?
AJS: First, read widely. Anything that catches your eye should be fair game because you never know what might inspire your own writing. While I write primarily middle grade contemporary stories (so far, anyway!), I read everything from picture books to YA horror to adult romcoms.
If you specifically know what type of story you want to write, I also highly recommend reading lots of recently published books in your target age category and genre. See what other authors are writing about and try to imagine how your story might fit among or complement already-published books in stores. It’s homework, but the fun kind, as far as I’m concerned!
It’s also helpful to have critique partners—people willing to give you positive notes but also constructive feedback to help you revise your story. All of my books have looked very different after receiving notes from my critique partners (and later from my editors) and they are stronger for it. Revision can be difficult at times, but the way it can transform and strengthen stories also feels like magic.
Lastly, don’t be afraid to experiment or try writing a story outside of your comfort zone. Up until I wrote Ana on the Edge, the only stories I’d ever written were for an older audience (high schoolers and up). But given some of the details I knew needed to go in the novel, I knew Ana had to be 12. This made me nervous at first, because I’d never so much as considered writing a middle grade novel before that moment. I hadn’t really even read anything in the middle grade space since I was a middle schooler myself! So that was the first thing I did: I went to the library and checked out a stack of middle grade novels to get a sense of what already existed and how stories were written for that age group. Then it was a lot of trial and error to figure out the right narrative voice, which didn’t come naturally to me. It could’ve been easy to stop at any time and throw in my hat, but I’m so glad I didn’t. I’m a big believer that you learn new skills with every story you try, regardless of it ever gets published.
RR: What are you planning on writing next?
AJS: I have a middle grade novel (co-written with Nicole Melleby) that releases on March 21, called Camp QUILTBAG. It’s a dual perspective story about Abigail and Kai, two kids from very different backgrounds who meet for the first time at a camp for queer and trans kids in the Minnesota Northwoods. They form a pact to help each other find their footing at camp, all while competing in a camp-wide competition that pits cabin against cabin. This story was such a joy to write not only because I got to develop it with one of my very best writing friends but also because it was the first time I’d ever written an all-queer cast of characters. I can’t wait for readers to meet Abigail and Kai and all the other campers.
Then in 2024, I have another middle grade novel releasing called Just Shy of Ordinary. It follows 13-year-old genderfluid homeschooler Shai who is hoping to jumpstart a post-pandemic “new normal” for themself by starting public school, in hopes it will help them manage their intense anxiety. But Shai is thrown for a loop right from the start when their academic evaluation comes back recommending that they start school not as an eighth grader like they were expecting but as a ninth grader. It’s a story about emotional health and academic giftedness, particularly how your success in one part of your life doesn’t negate your struggles elsewhere.
I also have a short story coming out in On All Other Nights, an anthology of Passover-themed stories, as well as my debut picture book, Shabbat Is…, releasing next year, so those should all keep me busy!
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