‘Pageboy’ is a touching, tender and unflinchingly honest memoir. It’s the kind of writing that reminds me why I write. It’s also messy. Queer lives are messy. Not many of us wake up one day and know what we are, who we love and how to describe all of that. I certainly didn’t. I came out first as bi, then pan, then nonbinary - and now I’m a transbian. I also might be ace. I don’t know. The point is that our queer journeys aren’t linear, they aren’t easy and they don’t ever really end. That’s something Elliot Page so beautifully captures in his work, and something that I hoped we would see in the competition.
And it was. Considering the submissions as a whole, not separately, we see such a vivid picture of the queer experience. From the crushing fear of coming out that so many of us have come to face, to the most wholesome, joyous queer love, the pieces amalgamate to become exactly what we hoped we would see.
Thank you to everyone who submitted; we are eternally grateful. Picking the winner was far from easy, but it was a necessary evil. We hope that you enjoy reading these as much as we did.
Ciao,
Tea (Spark Diversity Liaison)
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