I think my work is steeped in the thoughts and concerns of LGBTQ people, but I think by being this specific, we can truly touch on greater points. I think I offer a unique perspective, at least I hope I do. I think I bring a new spin on Camp and comedy. I’ve written plays, novels, television, and experimental theatre pieces. I look at the struggles as part of the journey and expect more, but it’s the commitment to making things, to telling stories and to challenging myself as an artist that keeps me pushing forward. I have been told no, I have been roasted, I have had lots of no’s, but rejection is part of any artist’s life.

I think there have been struggles to make Queer art mainstream, to see myself and my art as more than “niche,” which is a word I’ve come to loathe. I have since worked on a myriad of other projects including new solo shows, my Camp Horror Soap Opera, Ravenswood Manor and my show, The gAyBC’s which will be released as a book by Chronicle Books in 2020.Ībsolutely! There’s been struggles and periods of disaster, but I’ve always stuck to making things. Michael Patrick King saw my show and hired me to write for 2 Broke Girls, for the final three seasons. From that project, I branched out into plays and solo work, a group of YA novels, Husky, Pretty and Mean published by Penguin/Random House and eventually for television.

I started out as an actor, but about ten years ago started writing my own material for a show called The Meeting, which was the longest-running LGBTQ comedy variety show in New York. My name is Justin Elizabeth Sayre, and I’m a writer, performer and artist. While helping to heal the wounds inflicted by alcoholism, Sophie’s renewed sense of self challenges her perception of place in the affluent, “liberal” neighborhood of Park Slope where she lives.a Set against the backgrounds of Brooklyn and Harlem, Sayre challenges readers to confront superficial assumptions about race and beauty and breathes new life into the cannon of middle-grade realistic fiction.Today we’d like to introduce you to Justin Sayre. Stepping in to help as her mother’s addiction spirals out of control, Sophie’s aunt teaches the biracial Sophie new lessons about her heritage. Confident, stylish, and easygoing at school, Sophie is struggling in her home life. Set three months after Husky’sconclusion and narrated by Sophie, Davis’s best friend, Sayre details the private and public life of someone saddled with the adjective of pretty. Pretty isn’t everything! Trapped by the limitations of her high-school adjective, the realities of her mother’s alcohol addiction, and a racially fraught America, Sophie’s perspective on what being pretty really means changes drastically in the second adjective-busting novel by the author of Husky, Justin Sayre.

Husky by Justin Sayre