Shaun David Hutchinson
Shaun David Hutchinson (born May 1, 1978) is an American author of young adult texts. His novels often "combine speculative elements with LGBT characters and themes." Personal life Hutchinson was born May 1, 1978, in West Palm Beach, Florida, and grew up in Jupiter, Florida. He has three brothers and one half-sister. In his memoir, Brave Face, Hutchinson explains that, throughout his adolescence, "he struggled to understand his sexuality, his depression, and the suicide attempt that led to a search for self-acceptance." He has ADHD and now identifies as queer. Hutchinson graduated from Jupiter High School, then studied medieval and renaissance literature at Florida Atlantic University, though he dropped out to work in information technology. Hutchinson presently lives in Seattle, Washington. Career Most of Hutchinson's novels include elements of speculative fiction. In an interview with The Horn Book, Hutchinson explained why he chooses this genre, saying it "gives [him] the space to explore human emotions in a richer way than [he] could do in straightforward contemporary fiction" because the genre "is frequently about looking toward the future, and though the future often seems bleak, ... it's also filled with hope and wonder — a necessary counterbalance to the realities of life." Selected texts We Are the Ants (2016) We Are the Ants was published January 19, 2016, by Simon Pulse with a 24-page companion story, "What We Pretend to Be", published on the publisher's website, Riveted, later that year. The book was generally well received by critics, including starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and Shelf Awareness. Kirkus called the book "[b]itterly funny, with a ray of hope amid bleakness". Shelf Awareness echoed the sentiment, calling the novel "bracingly smart and unusual". As if explaining the book's unusualness, School Library Journal compared the storyline and writing style to Nick Burd's The Vast Fields of Ordinary and Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five. Booklist further explained, "Hutchinson's excellent novel of ideas invites readers to wonder about their place in a world that often seems uncaring and meaningless. The novel is never didactic; on the contrary, it is unfailingly dramatic and crackling with characters who become real upon the page". The Lambda Literary Foundation and Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) also praised the book for its thematic contents. VOYA said the novel tells "a very complex story about serious subjects". Lambda Literary expanded on the idea, saying it "is a book about more than love and loss; it's about struggling to find motivation and not taking the people in your life for granted". Both complimented Hutchinson's writing. Lambda Literary called the book "a beautiful, masterfully told story by someone who is at the top of his craft", and VOYA noted, "The voices of each character are strong and unique". In 2017, We Are the Ants was included in the American Library Association's Rainbow List top 10 and was selected as one of the best 63 novels for young adults published in the previous twelve months. Time included the novel