Juno Dawson on her new novella Queen B and the revelatory power of writing

Juno Dawson can’t believe it’s been an entire decade since the publication of This Book Is Gay, her breakthrough guide for young LGBTQ+ adults.“I still remember the launch,” she tells me. “We went to see Adore Delano at The Black Cap in Camden right after.” Once the glitter of the drag-queen cabaret had settled, this funny, frank and much-needed manual was out in the world, ready to educate, entertain and help thousands of readers feel less alone.

In the 10 years since then, a staggering amount has happened in the life of Dawson. Today, she is an acclaimed screenwriter, podcaster, and the author of more than 20 books. In addition to these professional accomplishments, the Yorkshire-born creative powerhouse has been on a profound personal journey, coming out publicly as a trans woman the year after This Book Is Gay was published.

“In fact, it was this book that really gave it a kickstart,” Dawson shares. She embarked on the project in 2012, at the beginning of what she describes as “perhaps the most turbulent two-year period of my life”. As part of the writing process, Dawson met and interviewed several trans people. This was revelatory. “It was the last piece of the puzzle. The book was always meant to be a roadmap for the generation below mine, but I didn’t expect that it would be so helpful to me.”

As in her writing, in person Juno is witty, incisive, and engaging. With raised eyebrows, she summarises coming out as trans in the public eye as “an experience” and adds: “It would have been lovely to vanish, go to a Swiss chalet and emerge, Caitlyn Jenner style, looking like a new human.” But, having only just left teaching to write full-time, she couldn’t afford to stop working. “I knew I was going through what a lot of my readers were going through. It felt like we were in it together.”

Over time, This Book Is Gay developed “this weird legacy, both good and bad”. It impacted an enormous number of lives, selling more than 47,000 copies in the UK and Ireland alone, but backlash from anti-LGBTQ+ groups was fierce. Last year Dawson penned an essay for the New Statesman entitled “I wrote the ninth most banned book in America. That sucks.” She elaborates: “In 2021 it appeared on the most censored list in the US and since then, it hasn’t left. We just found out it’s now the third most challenged title. Trump’s administration mobilised the far right. When Biden came to power, the right’s tactic was grassroots attacks on freedom of speech, whether it’s Drag Queen Story Hour, local Prides or books in schools. It reminds me that we, as a community, still have so much work to do.”

Do the naysayers ever get to her? “There have been dark nights of the soul. Gaslighting is a word that is perhaps used too much now, but there have been times when the criticism has gotten under my skin. I have to remind myself what that book was for and who it was for. It certainly wasn’t for radical crackpots.”

Dawson’s other non-fiction includes her brilliant memoir Gender Games, and a deep dive into all things trans, What’s The T? She’s also written many popular YA novels including Clean and Meat Market, but her adult fantasy series about a modern coven of royal witches, Her Majesty’s Royal Coven, have brought her success on a new level. “It has been such a delight after 10 years in the industry. I just wrote for myself. I wanted to read about women my age and that struck a chord. I’m not apologizing for the fact that it’s about the Spice Girls generation.”

The addictive series explores themes of sisterhood, feminism, and transphobia with originality and verve. She came up with the idea during lockdown. “My WhatsApp group was absolutely keeping me going. There are eight of us, women from different backgrounds, yet we are still very much bonded together. At the same time, the political situation for trans women in the UK was getting worse. It didn’t reflect any reality I was living in. I wanted to figure out where this narrative was coming from, and genuinely do the thought experiment. The book was liberating because I realised that if you are fearful of a minority group, we have a word for that. And that word is prejudice.”

Continues...