The project is entitled No Ordinary Love
BY ISLE MCELROY AS PART OF HINGE’S NO ORDINARY LOVE CAMPAIGN, IMAGE BY HINGE
Hinge has just launched an exciting new campaign which is set on telling the real-life stories of couples who have met on the dating app. Entitled No Ordinary Love, Hinge has collected a group of authors to document and celebrate authentic love stories from its users. Non-binary author Isle McElroy, who has written the likes of The Atmospherians and People Collide, has relished the opportunity to write about real queer love as part of this project. Isle spoke to DIVA exclusively about this project.
Queer literature has exploded in the past few years. What do you think is the key reason for this, and is it indicative of publishers’ being more willing to accept and promote queer stories?
The recent surge in queer literature reflects a growing societal acceptance and a corresponding demand for authentic representation. However, this has also resulted in a backlash against queer literature – often by conservative groups trying to censor queer work in libraries and schools. Many publishers are becoming more receptive to queer stories, recognising their commercial potential and cultural significance. I hope that their enthusiasm continues to grow because publishers can offer queer writers financial and cultural support to counteract the threats many queer writers face in publishing their work.
Hinge’s recent No Ordinary Love series has been so fun to work on. By focusing on the nuances of early queer dating – experiences rife with both rejection and community support – I’ve been able to explore how queer people authentically express themselves when falling in love. I love hearing people talk about falling in love – it’s one of my favourite questions to ask friends. Writing for No Ordinary Love has given me a rare opportunity to write about two queer people falling for each other. What a gift! And what a gift to make the story authentic, to include the speed bumps and endearing mistakes – the stuff that makes romance romantic – and write a story that contributes to a broader narrative that celebrates the beauty and complexity of queer love.
Books that centre non-binary, trans or gender-diverse love stories or characters, including People Collide, are also on the up – what potential impact do these stories have for younger readers?
The best part about literature, for me, is that it serves as a place to explore complicated and human stories that might not be possible elsewhere – as much as I love TV and film, novels tend to provide a deeper sense of intimacy. Books can offer a space for young readers to see themselves portrayed in their full humanity. The novels about non-binary, trans, and gender-diverse characters I love most aren’t the ones where the characters are flawless, but the books that offer grace and care in the face of their characters’ mistakes–the books that treat us as humans. My hope is that young queer readers will see, in these books, portraits of their most vulnerable and complicated selves.
Queer novels, and particularly those featuring trans and non-binary leads, are also becoming more sexually explicit – take Casey McQuiston’s The Pairing, for example. Do you feel it’s important for queer stories to keep pushing boundaries like this and what’s the benefit of them doing so?
I find it exciting that many recent queer novels are so sexually explicit, but I hesitate to say that they are any more sexually explicit than their predecessors. There’s a long history of great queer sex-writing in literature, from Violette Leduc to James Baldwin to, more recently, McKenzie Wark and Carmen Maria Machado – and there are so many others. Perhaps queer literature is becoming a bit more mainstream, alongside the desire for more sexually-explicit queer work, and readers now have easier access to books that might succeed because of the boundaries they push, not in spite of them. Writing about queer sex makes it a recognizable source of joy in the lives of queer people. It reduces shame around sex. It helps create queer stories that are filled with pleasure.
What types of queer love stories do you still feel need to be told through modern literature?
I would love to see more queer love stories by writers of colour – this is already happening, of course, in the work of writers like Zaina Arafat and Akwaeke Emezi and Bryan Washington and others, but there is space for more. I also think there is room to explore the messiness of queer life, not just in the early phases, say, immediately after transition or after coming out, but in the messiness that arises from going about your everyday life. What does it mean to be trans and paying the bills 15 years after transition? Where are the great novels of queer divorce? Essentially, I want a queer literature that imagines a future for queer people, literature that imagines us growing old and learning to cope and continue to love.
What makes a queer love story feel authentic in literature, and what should writers avoid when trying to depict queer romances in novels?
Oh, this is so difficult to answer! Love stories come in many variations, so it’s hard to land on any universal advice for making them feel authentic. For me, it’s all about the characters in a love story. It’s not only about the moment when they fall in love but everything that leads to them falling in love. What brought them together at this particular time? What kind of stain did one of them have on their tank top the evening they met? How do these characters help each other become their best selves? Where do they clash? With that in mind, the queer romances I find most inauthentic – or worse, boring – are those that follow fairly predictable tropes. That is romances that define queer people by their heartbreak or trauma. I’m tired of the stories that box us in.
How does the landscape of modern dating – i.e. dating apps like Hinge – come into play in your stories and why do you think it’s important that they have a place in modern queer literature?
It’s nearly impossible to write about modern dating without including dating apps like Hinge. This is where countless people meet. Dating apps offer an interesting challenge for writers. I teach a class about social media, and in it, I ask students to create fake dating profiles for their characters. Practically speaking, dating apps provide a template for thinking about character. They are also full of tension and anticipation – Will my crush match me back? Will they respond when it’s their turn? This tension is vital for crafting a good story. When it appears in literature, an app like Hinge is a space for writers to play around with expectations. Meeting IRL, after connecting on an app, offers an unparalleled opportunity for a surprise. How are people different than they appear on-screen? Are they cuter? Funnier? It’s important to capture the full range of romantic possibilities that make up modern dating, and a dating app like Hinge, which highlights its own inevitable deletion, creates a very fun expectation for a writer to play with.
Abbi Jacobson is adapting People Collide – how involved are you with the production of this, and how is production going?
Right now, Abbi is working on a script for the People Collide TV series. She and I talked throughout the early negotiations, and I loved her vision for the show. She’s brilliant and understands how to hold onto the humour, intimacy, and queerness of the book. Since those early conversations, I’ve stepped aside to leave her room to realise her vision. I intend to be more involved once the show moves to the next stage, but, for the time being, I’m just refreshing my email and looking forward to seeing the world that Abbi creates!
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