Inside Cover: David Levithan

Author reveals his best advice

Strand Book Store
3 min readOct 16, 2017

David Levithan, author of Two Boys Kissing, came by the Strand during Banned Books Week as a part of our PEN Out Loud Series. He discussed censorship and his most controversial book, one that has been challenged and nearly banned in some schools. The panel also featured Coe Booth and Ariel Schrag, and was moderated by publisher and co-owner of Lee & Low Books, Jason Low. Below, the author shares some insight as well as some of the books he appreciates most.

Click here to get tickets Oct. 16th for Young, Queer, and Lit, where David Levithan will be discussing queer YA fiction with a panel of other writers.

What is your latest book?

Twelve Day of Dash and Lily (with Rachel Cohn)

First thing you ever wrote?

I loved to write chase scene as a kid — and probably haven't written one since.

What did you edit out of this book?

The parts that my co-author didn’t find as funny as I did.

What was your dream job as a child?

To work in a bookstore.

Best advice?

Allow yourself to make lots of mistakes.

Top three books on your shelf?

  1. Release, Patrick Ness

2. Vanilla, Billy Merrell

3. There’s Someone Inside Your House, Stephanie Perkins

See it in David’s handwriting:

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