Faber to publish Callender's transgender coming-of-age tale

Faber has triumphed in a four-way auction for Felix Ever After, Kacen Callender's "voice-driven" YA novel about a transgender teen grappling with identity and self-discovery while falling in love for the first time.

Natasha Brown, project editor/assistant editor, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Beth Phelan and Ellen Greenberg at the Gallt & Zacker Literary Agency. The novel was published in the US in May 2020 by Balzer & Bray (HarperCollins), and TV rights have been optioned by Amazon Studios. Felix Ever After will be published in the UK on 18th May 2021, alongside the US paperback edition. 

The synopsis reads: "Felix Love has never been in love – and yes, he’s painfully aware of the irony. He desperately wants to know what it’s like and why it seems so easy for everyone but him to find someone. What’s worse is that, even though he is proud of his identity, Felix also secretly fears that he’s one marginalisation too many – Black, queer and transgender – to ever get his own happily-ever-after."

Brown said: "Kacen's writing is truly stunning and I fell in love with Felix from the very first page. This is absolutely a marginalised perspective we need more of right now, but not only is the LGBTQ+ representation rich and full of hope, this is also such a universal coming-of-age romance, with Felix's fight for self-belief and first love reflected in the lives of teens from every different background. We are so proud to be the publisher to bring Felix Ever After to the UK – we can’t wait to show readers what a star Kacen is."

Callender commented: "Felix Ever After means the world to me as a book of empowerment, self-love, and joy, a story I so rarely see for trans and non-binary queer teens of colour – so it’s a huge honour that Felix has found a home with Faber, where the love for Felix and the book is palpable. Many UK-based readers have reached out hoping to be able to read Felix, and I’m so glad and excited and grateful that Faber will be placing Felix into those readers’ hands."

Callender is the author of middle-grade novels Hurricane Child (Scholastic US, 2019) and King and the Dragonflies (Scholastic, 2020), YA novel This is Kind of an Epic Love Story (Balzer & Bray, 2020) and the adult novel Queen of the Conquered (Orbit US, 2020).