TJ Klune

Travis John Klune (born May 20, 1982) is an American author of fantasy and romantic fiction featuring gay and LGBTQ+ characters. His fantasy novel The House in the Cerulean Sea is a New York Times best seller and winner of the 2021 Alex and Mythopoeic Awards. He also won the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Romance in 2014 with Into This River I Drown.

Personal life

Klune was born in Roseburg, Oregon. He was eight years old when he first began to write fiction. His young works in poetry and short stories were the first to be published. Klune's writing influences include Stephen King, Wilson Rawls, Patricia Nell Warren, Robert McCammon, and Terry Pratchett.

Klune, who has attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), has been open about his lived experiences with asexuality, queerness, and neurodiversity influencing his writing. The historical absence of these communities in fiction has motivated Klune's character development choices.

In 2013, Klune proposed to author Eric Arvin at the GayRomLit Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. The two had met for the first time in person one year earlier at the 2012 GayRomLit Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Arvin endured many years of health struggles and died on December 12, 2016.

Career

Klune's writing began when, as a child in the 1980s, he wrote fan fiction about his favorite video game, Metroid. Later in his childhood, he started writing original stories. His teachers encouraged his work, saying they looked forward to seeing his writing in bookstores one day.

Klune's first book, Bear, Otter and the Kid, was published in 2011. Due to the prevalence of pen names among authors of men's romantic fiction, he wrote under the name TJ Klune. His motivation for his first book came from a realization of the poor, often offensive stereotypes of queer characters in stories. He aimed to write a novel that portrayed queer relationships in a way that was relatable, positive, and free from stereotypes. Amazon noted Bear, Otter and the Kid as one of the top LGBTQ+ books of 2011.

In 2013, Klune wrote a magical realism novel, Into This River I Drown, while processing the death of his father. A supernatural tale about grief and love in a small town, it won the 2014 Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Romance. Other novels written by Klune include the queer werewolf series Green Creek, the queer superhero series The Extraordinaries, the contemporary romance How to Be a Normal Person, and the comedic fantasy series Tales from Verania.

The House in the Cerulean Sea, published with the Macmillan Tor imprint, was partially inspired by the Sixties Scoop, during which the Canadian government forcibly removed Indigenous children from their homes and placed them with unrelated, White, middle-class families. Klune saw similarities to events taking place in the Southern United States in 2020, saying "It’s terrifying to know it is still happening". Instead of focusing on forced removals, Klune wanted to write a story celebrating children's differences, and showing the positive effects of giving children a safe and supportive environment to develop. The book is about a man named Linus Baker who travels to Marsyas Island as a representative of the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. The island is home to six magical kids, including Lucifer (a.k.a. Lucy), the son of the Devil. Klune promoted the story as "something to read that will make you feel good … a slice of happiness".

Klune was signed with the Macmillan Tor imprint Tor Teen for two more standalone young adult (YA) novels as of June 2018.

Awards and critical reception

Klune's YA debut, The Extraordinaries, was praised by Kirkus Reviews for its use of superhero and fan fiction tropes, while Publishers Weekly compliments Klune on writing a teenaged character with ADHD in a positive and supportive light.

The House in the Cerulean Sea was a New York Times best seller and was named by The Washington Post as one of "2020's Best Feel-Good Reads". Publishers Weekly called it a "thought-provoking Orwellian fantasy" in its starred review. Kirkus praised Klune for creating enduring characters. The novel was named one of Amazon's Best Books of the Year in its science fiction and fantasy section in 2020.

Klune was nominated as an all-time favourite men who have sex with men author on the book review website Goodreads in 2017. He is also an advocate for better LGBTQ+ representation in novels, wishing to see more asexual characters like himself reflected in fiction.