INDIANAPOLIS — Leah Johnson is feeling pretty good after winning the Indiana Authors Award for Young Adult fiction this year. Her breakout novel, “You Should See Me in a Crown,” tells the story of a young Black girl in a small town in Indiana, fighting for a chance at an education, while falling for a fellow contestant for prom queen.
“When I set out to write this book, I wanted to write a love letter to Indiana and all the beautiful things about it and all the things that it's given me, but also be honest about the things that I lost growing up here,” Johnson said. “So having this place honor the work, honor the book in this way, has been an incredible gift.”
But that gift went to the next level when one of her favorite authors, John Green, tweeted out that her winning had made his birthday.
'I came home to solidify myself'
“I was raised on John Green novels. I mean, 'Looking for Alaska' literally set the standard for me for what Young Adult fiction could be for a really long time,” Johnson said. “So knowing that he's from Indiana, he lives in Indiana, and he writes in Indiana, about Indiana, and sort of opened that door to a more robust, thriving literary community specifically, of people who write Young Adult fiction has been just really incredible. And it feels like a full-circle moment to have John Green know my name. Like, 'Whoa.'”
Johnson met with 13News at Indianapolis' Central Library to talk about winning the award. She graduated from Ben Davis High School, and then left Indianapolis for a time after college.
“I left Indiana directly after college, I went to grad school in New York, and I lived there and worked there for a while after that,” Johnson said. “New York gave me a lot. It gave me a huge opportunity to find myself in a place that didn't have any preconceived notions of who I was. And that was great for me and for my writing. It allowed me to tell stories more honestly and more truthfully. And it was only because I got those years in New York that I was able to write this book about Indiana.”
But now, she’s back in Indianapolis, on the west side of the city, near where she grew up.
“Coming home felt like the natural order of things,” Johnson said. “I ran away sort of to find myself. And I came home to solidify myself, to remind myself that it is possible to plant roots in a place that you thought you needed to get away from. And it's been really beautiful.”
'Maybe if I can write this into existence on the page, I can will it into existence in the world.'
Johnson is Black and queer, and writes about characters who are like her. She said it’s more than just writing what you know.
“Writing a book that spoke honestly to the communities that I'm from, but also shined a light on communities that we have historically marginalized or tried to erase out of the Hoosier narrative was the biggest goal of mine when I set out to write this book,” Johnson said.
“When I was coming up, I didn't see a lot of examples of happy endings for Black girls and queer girls, and to be those things and to come out of this place. I just I didn't know if it was possible for me to be all the things that I am and still, you know, ultimately have a happy ending,” Johnson said. “And so what I wanted to do with 'You Should See Me in a Crown' was sort of craft a blueprint for a possible future. Like maybe if I can write this into existence on the page, I can will it into existence in the world. And so I hope that 'You Should See Me in a Crown' offers that lens for other people, for queer folks in the state, for young Black girls in the state, to remind them that we are worth every good and beautiful thing.”
Johnson’s next book, “Ellie Engle Saves Herself,” is for slightly younger readers. The middle-grade novel tells the story of a girl who thinks she’s boring, until an earthquake gives her miraculous powers.
“It's a book about emerging queerness. It's a book about trying to find yourself in the context of a world that thinks you're monsters,” Johnson said. “But past that, it's a book about love and family. And we've been talking about it as a superhero origin story in the style of 'The Baby-Sitters Club.' So it's like, it's very sweet. It's very grounded. But it also has that supernatural, fun, fantastical element.”
'We can hold great joy and great sorrow in the same hand'
Johnson feels that telling coming-of-age love stories for queer characters is important.
“Falling in love is messy, and it's terrifying. And it's fun. And it's wonderful, and it's awful,” Johnson said. “And that is no different for queer people than it is for anybody else. There is, of course, an added element of sometimes safety or how open you can be and where you can be open and spaces that you know, other people get to just hold hands and kiss and do whatever they want. And so, of course, that's complicated.”
It’s a theme she’s carried ever since the success of "You Should See Me in a Crown."
"What I wanted to show in 'You Should See Me In A Crown' is that, you know, we can hold great joy and great sorrow in the same hand,” Johnson said. “They're not separate entities, to be human is to be afraid, but also to be hopeful at the same time, and so I think queer love, especially queer first love, is the perfect microcosm sort of for us to explore that duality.”
You can find "You Should See Me in a Crown" in stores now and available on Amazon. "Ellie Engle Saves Herself" is due in stores in May 2023.