The Boy from the Mish is one of the six books shortlisted for this year’s Readings Young Adult Book Prize. The Boy from the Mish follows seventeen-year-old Jackson as he falls in love for the first time and searches for self-acceptance. Our judges described it as ‘a masterclass in coming-of-age storytelling.’
We asked author Gary Lonesborough about getting published, his love of coming-of-age stories, and the novel’s genesis as a film script.
How did you go about getting published?
Firstly, I finished my manuscript, then I did a lot of research around publishers and agents. I decided I wanted to submit directly to a publisher and made a list of the publishers in Australia who accepted unsolicited manuscripts. I found Allen & Unwin had the Friday Pitch program and submitted to them, knowing my book would go into a slush pile. Luckily, it stood out!
What do you hope readers will take away from your book?
I hope readers will feel hopeful for Jackson and Tomas. I hope they will feel happy and if they are a reader who might be struggling with their sexual identity, I hope they will feel seen and hopeful for the future.
Is your book a summer read, or a snuggle-up-next-to-a-fire cosy read?
I think my book is a summer read as it takes place in summer, although I think it would also suit a colder, cosy environment as an escape to summer.
Why do you write for teenagers?
I didn’t realise I wanted to write for teens until I began writing my book. I love reading those coming-of-age stories about growth and change, and I also love writing them. It just so happens these kinds of stories are usually targeted at teens.
Gary, The Boy from the Mish is such a beautiful story, deceptively simple, but with such emotional depth. How long had this book been ticking around inside your head before you finally sat down to write it?
I had written a short film script in my second year of film school (2015), which was set in a small Aboriginal community and focused on a secret romance between two Aboriginal boys at the end of their relationship. I shelved that manuscript until I read Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli. That book sparked me to think about books for teens centred around queer Indigenous protagonists.
I reread that script I’d written and I had these great characters there, but I was starting to expand the story in my head. I drew from those characters when I began to write The Boy from the Mish in 2018, with the aim of writing a novel. There is a certain scene which existed in the short script and remnants of it are present in the novel, but that’s my little secret! So I guess I found the tip of the iceberg in 2015 and began to explore the rest of it three years later.
Once I decided I was going to write the novel, I honestly think I sat on the idea for no more than a few weeks before I began writing. I just sat down to write without really thinking about it too deeply because the story was just bursting to get out of me.
