Kevin Michael Irvine from Burbank, United States has been Highly Commended in the Page Turner Awards eBook Award for his book, Growing Up Gay Stories.
Kevin entered the Page Turner Awards, where published authors and unpublished writers of fiction and non-fiction across all genres can enter their writing to get discovered by high-profile judges from the literary world.
Growing Up Gay Stories is semi-autobiographical stories about growing up gay in America. There are four stories about growing up as a gay male in America told in first-person, with progressive voices of a 12, 14, 16, and 18-year-old. With no adult “role-models” growing up, real life knowledge and experiences are funny, terrifying, haunting, and exhaustive, leaving the teenager to discover that understanding only comes from inside oneself.
Growing up gay with adult support in everything but being gay, the author wanted to set down his own personal experiences with the hope that communicating the fears and trials of an alienated youth might help other kids growing up with the same self-doubt.
Kevin was raised in a middle-class section of middle-class America with big dreams and the promise to make his relatives and friends proud. He once asked his mother, “Why do they use naked women to sell hamburgers?” In addition to the rigors of education, sports, goals, and eventual love, he had to deal with this extra obstacle: he was a minority like he had never expected.
Kevin said, “Many writers live in their heads, so what better way to entertain oneself than by using this chosen venue to explore bad decisions, quirks, slapstick silliness, personal regrets, love, and other questionable behavior? We are the best judges of ourselves and hopefully, the exercise gets us a good night's sleep once in a while. Thank you, Page Turner Awards it has been a great experience to be shortlisted!"
Read more about Kevin and his book:
https://pageturnerawards.com/ebook-award-finalists/kevin-michael-irvine
The Page Turner Awards, sponsored by ProWritingAid, gives writers and authors the chance to enter unpublished or published fiction and non-fiction books, where a group of literary agents and publishers will read the work.
Judges are carefully selected literary agents and publishers who are looking for writers to represent and publish, plus influencers in the publishing industry.
Founder of Page Turner Awards and award-winning novelist, Paula Wynne said: “There are writers from all walks of life, from manual laborers to academics. All with stories to tell, most of them heart-warming and moving. We’re proud that our Awards celebrates excellent writing and helps writers and authors to get their stories discovered.”
Success stories from this year’s awards include three writers winning literary representation, six writers winning a writing mentorship, five writers winning a publishing contract and thirteen independent authors winning an audiobook production.
Find out more about The Page Turner Awards: https://pageturnerawards.com. Submissions for 2021 will open on the 1st of January 2021.
