On Tuesday March 18, 2025 GSA had their annual book reading welcoming author Saundra Mitchell to HS223 in order to discuss their book Out There : Into the Queer New Yonder!
Every year, GSA finds a new, fun, queer book to read together through an organization called Lambda Literary, that according to their website champions LGBTQ books and authors. Last year GSA hosted a talk about We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds, while the year before Tanya Boteju discussed Kings, Queens and In-Betweens.
All of these talks were wonderful and all were hosted on Zoom.
However, this year was special with the author coming to the school and meeting directly with the students.
Out There : Into the Queer New Yonder is a collection of short queer stories set in the far future. Each story is written by a different author with Saundra Mitchell being that head editor in charge. Every story shows a different person struggling with their identity or with life as a queer person and how they overcome it.
“Queer kids who didn’t have the support could see themselves in these stories” Said Mitchell.
Which was striking to GSA as stories of Queer people in the future gives young students a sense of comfort and hope when it comes to how their lives will be.
Mitchell spoke about how they grew up trying to figure out their identity. Growing up in Illinois when queer people weren’t as accepted as they are now, was hard.
“If you were gay you were a freak” said Mitchell.
As they grew up and more terms were thrown out Mitchell realized that what they wanted to do was write for all the new queer kids out there who want to discover themselves just as much. “People tend to write for us and not with us” So they wanted to start writing for us. 
While starting off was hard, Mitchell didn’t stop when it came to writing stories! And continued so she can sit in front of queer students in GSAs and share her stories and help them discover more. She wanted to make sure queer kids lived long.
“Your endpoint should be seventy. It should not be not seventeen” said Mitchell.
Even with the difficulty she had one thing she loved: writing.
“The one thing I had was that I could write” So she never stopped.
So what advice would she give to young queer authors?
“Write what you want to write. Don’t focus on other best sellers. Write what you believe will be your best work.” Students in GSA who attended the author visit were delighted. 
“Inspiring!” said Junior, Michelle Montalvo,
“Insightful!” Said Junior Nancy Bortoli,
And from newest member and Freshman Dylan Weeks he said “This was fun!”
GSA teacher Mr Fox also had a say when asked his thoughts on the author visit, “I thought the author visit was a very engaging and empowering and exciting conversation to remind us of how important it is to write our own stories.”
The GSA looks forward to welcoming more queer authors in the future.
