Alex Gino


Alex Gino is an American children's book writer. Gino's debut book, George, was the winner of the 2016 Stonewall Book Award as well as the 2016 Lambda Literary Award in the category of LGBT Children's/Young Adult.
Gino is genderqueer and uses singular they pronouns and the honorific Mx.

Biography

Gino was born and raised in Staten Island, New York, but over the years has lived in such locations as Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Brooklyn, New York; Astoria, Queens; Northampton, Massachusetts; and Oakland, California. They have also spent time living in an RV and driving around the country.

Works

Gino is best known for their 2015 debut novel George, a middle grade novel featuring a young transgender girl, which they first began work on in 2003. The working title of the novel was Girl George, though when the book was bought by Scholastic, this was changed to the present title to broaden readership. Gino has expressed some regrets about their character with this title, and mentions that if they had the opportunity to do it over, they would have chosen a different title.
In 2018, Gino released another middle grade novel, You Don't Know Everything, Jilly P! It covers Deaf culture and the Black Lives Matter movement and received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, and the School Library Journal.
Their 2020 novel Rick is a standalone follow-up to George and is about student coming to terms with his asexuality. The book received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, and School Library Journal.

Awards and honors

Gino has been nominated for multiple awards for George, and has won several such as: