You might recognize Adib Khorram from when we interviewed him about Kiss & Tell! (What a throwback!) Well, we’ve reunited with him to talk about his newest novel, The Breakup Lists. Be sure to read our in-depth review of The Breakup Lists by Adib Khorram!
We hope you’ve been loving our author interviews as much as we love having them. Let’s jump right into our exclusive Adib Khorram interview!
Welcome to The Honey POP! To get things started, what are three fun facts you want new readers to know about you?
Thanks for having me back! Three fun facts about me are: I love the smell of lavender, but eating it makes my tongue itch. I once made very brief eye contact with Harrison Ford. When I was in Italy back in 2022, the hotel I stayed at in Verona was next to the Roman amphitheater there, and Toto was playing that night, so I sat on the hotel’s roof and got a free Toto concert.
The Breakup Lists
It’s been a while since we last got to chat with you about your books! While Kiss & Tell focused on boy bands and music, The Breakup Lists focused on acting and theater. Despite using two different art forms, did you notice any similarities while you were writing each book?
It’s weird, because I’m sure there were similarities, but the experience of actually doing the writing was so different I can’t think of any. Kiss & Tell was very much a depths-of-the-pandemic book for me, whereas The Breakup Lists was written in 2022 and 2023, and I was a lot less depressed!
Congratulations on the recent release of your novel, The Breakup Lists! As a former theater techie yourself, what was your favorite thing about theater when you were in school?
Thank you! My favorite thing was probably that all my friends were doing it, too, so everything we did was fun, even when it was stressful. (And it was stressful at times!)
We see that Jackson’s breakup lists for Jasmine are also inspired by the ones you created for your sister’s exes. What are some of the most memorable things you’ve written for these lists?
Hmm, some of my favorite items on the lists in The Breakup Lists are:
-Thinks crayon
-Looks like a LEGO minifigure
-Eats moldy cheese
His Characters
How much of yourself do you see in Jackson’s character?
Way too much. Jackson is the most like me of any character I’ve ever written. His intense passion for theater, his cynicism (I was a very cynical teenager), the way he desperately wants to be seen yet hates being perceived.
We also want to talk about Jackson’s love interest Liam (best boy). What is Liam’s origin story or inspiration? Did you have to make any major changes to his character since the beginning?
Jackson and Liam both started out in a different story that I wrote back in 2019 but that went nowhere. At the time, Jackson was my answer to the question, “What was Leslie Knope like in high school?” And so Liam was some version of Ben Wyatt. But when I took those characters and put them in The Breakup Lists, both had to change. Jackson is still very much a type-A personality, like Leslie, but he’s rougher around the edges; and Liam softened quite a bit from the confident Ben Wyatt-type he used to be. He’s kinder, gentler, and also much more romantic.
Rom-coms are our bread and butter at THP! Do you have any favorite rom-com movies or books that you’ll never grow tired of?
Book-wise, anything Julian Winters writes is an automatic favorite of mine. Movie-wise, I really really loved Fire Island. And My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a forever favorite.
Deaf And Diverse Representation
What advice would you give to new writers who want to get into diverse YA fiction?
People are rarely harmed by someone sharing in a joy that’s not theirs, but people are often harmed by someone exploiting a pain that’s not theirs.
We love how The Breakup Lists includes deaf and hard of hearing representation in multiple characters, not just the main character Jackson. Can you talk about the process you took to write the dialogue, both verbal and signing?
I think there’s really two questions here, in a way: how did I approach Jackson’s deafness, and how did I approach dialogue? And though those two are connected, they are different.
I approached Jackson’s deafness—his disability—foremost from a desire to do no harm. Though I have many connections to the deaf community, I’m not a part of it, and it was important to me that Jackson’s deafness be depicted authentically, sensitively, but crucially, that I not be telling a story about deafness. I was telling a love story—Jackson just happens to be deaf. I wanted to show his challenges (for instance, in missing things that others say around him) without foregrounding them, which is why for the most part, he hears “something something” and doesn’t dwell on it.
My approach to depictions of ASL and BASL in particular was informed by my prior approach when dealing with Farsi in books: namely, that I don’t italicize dialogue in a different language, and that where the character understands what’s being said, I translate both the words and the syntax into English so that the reader can share the level of understanding that the character has. I think paying too much attention to the differences in a language—in syntax or structure or accent—has the result of othering people who use that language.
Not only is there deaf representation, but you’ve also included both Iranian representation and a queer cast of characters. How would you describe the market for diverse books now compared to when you first started publishing your books?
I’m not sure I have a good answer to this. I know there are readers who crave books that reflect the world they live in. But I also know that nearly all the books that have blown up on BookTok have been largely by straight white abled authors and about straight white abled characters. Maybe the dark truth is a lot of people want to live in that world. To be honest, the efforts to ban books with queer and Black and brown and disabled characters from schools and libraries have weighed heavily on me.
What’s Next
If the teenage version of yourself could read The Breakup Lists, what do you think he’d say?
Honestly, he’d probably say he doesn’t have time to read because he’s got a set to paint! And teenage Adib was pretty deeply in the closet. But I think if he did read it, he’d laugh a lot.
Are you planning a book tour for The Breakup Lists? What cities are on your bucket list?
As of this writing, I’m on day five of a six-city tour! I visited Kansas City (my home), Washington, DC, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Chicago, and tomorrow I head to Berkeley, California before heading home. It’s been so lovely to talk to readers!
If anything, what can you tell us about your next story, I’ll Have What He’s Having?
I’ll Have What He’s Having is my first books for adults—it’s a mistaken identity, friends-with-benefits-to-lovers romance about Millennials drinking wine and falling in love. It’s got Persian food, fine wines, a terrific best friend group, one very ugly dog, and it’s quite spicy!
Though I have many connections to the deaf community, I’m not a part of it, and it was important to me that Jackson’s deafness be depicted authentically, sensitively, but crucially, that I not be telling a story about deafness. I was telling a love story—Jackson just happens to be deaf.
Adib Khorram
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