Interview with Anthony Nerada, Author of Skater Boy

Anthony Nerada became a writer after his fifth-grade teacher told him it was his destiny. Since then, he’s read too many books (if there is such a thing) and explored worlds far outside the reaches of his own. Anthony holds a BA in psychology and two diplomas (one in public relations, the other in publishing), which allow him to write the day away while simultaneously psychoanalyzing his friends. Anthony lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded lands of the Coast Salish Peoples. His debut novel, Skater Boy, was named a Kids Indie Next Pick by the American Booksellers Association.

SE: Skater Boy is your debut novel – congratulations! What inspired you to write this story about a closeted skater boy falling for a ballet dancer? 

AN: Thank you so much! In writing Skater Boy, I really wanted the focus of this story to be on a character we don’t normally get to see front-and-center in coming-of-age novels—the kids on the outskirts who are angry and confused and maybe even a little lost. During a road trip home from Orlando, Florida, Avril Lavigne’s Sk8er Boi came on on the radio and I just thought that would be such a rich story if I flipped the script and told it from the perspective of the punk and repackaged the messaging for a new generation.

SE: Your protagonist Wes goes through a powerful character arc of self-discovery and growth. What were some of the biggest challenges in developing his voice and emotional journey?

AN: Honestly, the biggest challenge in writing Wes’s character arc was coming up with a unique character who readers would want to root for (and not immediately dismiss or put the book down because of). I know Wes isn’t for the faint of heart – he’s a complete hot-head with a lot of emotional baggage that is constantly wearing him down, but I hope readers can see the good in him and understand that they can still have all these emotions and be true to who they are, too.

SE: The book touches on important themes like masculinity, labels, and the complexities of coming out. How did you approach writing about these topics in an authentic and nuanced way?

AN: What’s so fascinating to me about Wes is that, over the years, he’s embodied this image of a bad boy at school—as someone who is tough and masculine and filled with all this rage—that so greatly goes against how he sees himself inside. So with that being said, I had to balance how toxic masculinity and labels go hand-in-hand with the coming out process because in a sense you do have to dismantle how the world sees you in order to show up as your authentic self. In many ways, I inserted my own lived experience into the pages of this book because we all navigate those universal questions at one point in our lives of ‘what makes a man?’ and ‘how do I want to be seen?’ that really helped inform Wes’s narrative and how he walks through his own journey.

SE: Many readers have praised the book’s diverse cast of characters. How important was it for you to represent different identities and perspectives?

AN: Extremely! Growing up in Canada, where we really do acknowledge and celebrate all cultures and traditions, I knew it was important to reflect my lived experience within my own writing. I never wanted this story to be filled with an all-white cast because that was never my truth and would not have been a reality I could have written authentically. From my own perspective, it was imperative to surround Wes with a diverse cast because it opened him up to different worldviews and experiences outside of his own and I think that really contributes to his growth over the course of the novel.

SE: As a debut author, what was the most rewarding part of the writing and publishing process for Skater Boy? What was the biggest struggle you had to overcome?

AN: I think most authors will tell you this (because it really is true!), but connecting with readers who inherently understand what I was trying to do with this book—or who feel seen in characters like Wes and Tristan—is hands-down the most rewarding part of all of this. Writing novels can feel so lonely, but getting to see the reactions of readers is so fulfilling.

The biggest struggle I had to overcome, like many authors I know, was the imposter syndrome that comes with announcing a book and feeling the pressure to live up to the expectation that then comes with your work. It took two years for SKATER BOY to find a home at Soho Teen and in that time I wondered if my writing just wasn’t good enough to sell, but I quickly had to get over that once I had a deadline and had to just buckle down in order to tell the story I wanted to tell.

SE: What do you hope readers, especially young LGBTQ+ readers, will take away from Wes’s story after reading Skater Boy?

AN: I love this question because it is the reason I wrote Skater Boy the way that I did. Growing up, I never felt like I was “gay enough” to be part of the LGBTQIA+ community and, in my ways, I still don’t. But writing a character like Wes reminded me that I belong just as much as anyone and that being gay is just a small sliver of all the different parts that make me uniquely me, so if young LGBTQIA+ readers get anything out of SKATER BOY it’s to show up exactly as they are wherever they are. Because you never know whose life you’re going to change simply by letting your colours shine.

Interview : SHELF ESCAPE