Forgive Me If I've Told You This Before

Shy, intellectual, and living in rural Oregon, Triinu Hoffman just doesn't fit in. She does her best to hide behind her dyed hair and black wardrobe, but it's hard to ignore the bullying of Pip Weston and Principal Pinn. It's even harder to ignore the allure of other girls. As Triinu tumbles headlong into first love and teenage independence, she realizes that the differences that make her a target are also the differences that can set her free. With everyone in town taking sides in the battle for equal rights in Oregon, Triinu must stand up for herself, learn what it is to love and have her heart broken, and become her own woman.

Author: Karelia Stetz-Waters
Publisher: Ooligan Press
Published: 10/31/2014
Pages: 304
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.81lbs
Size: 9.28h x 4.65w x 0.77d
ISBN: 9781932010732
Audience: Young Adult


Award: Lambda Literary Awards - Finalist


Review Citation(s):
School Library Journal 11/01/2014 pg. 124

About the Author
Stetz-Waters, Karelia: - Karelia Stetz-Waters is the author of the novel The Admirer and the serial novel The Eastbank Killer; her work has also appeared in Calyx and First Time: An Anthology of Lost Virginity. She holds a master's degree in English from the University of Oregon and a bachelor's degree in Comparative Literature from Smith College. A member of Willamette Writers and the Gold Crown Literary Society, Karelia teaches technical writing and English composition at Linn-Benton Community College. She lives in Albany, Oregon, with her wife, Fay, their pug, Lord Byron, and their cat, Cyrus the Disembowler. Having grown up during the violent political debate surrounding Oregon's infamous anti-gay Ballot Measure 9, Karelia's first young adult novel, Forgive Me If I've Told You This Before, is loosely based on her own experiences of growing up gay in Oregon in the early nineties.