Casey McQuiston is an American author of fantastical Queer Romantic Comedies. They identify as queer and currently live in New York City, though they grew up in the Deep South. They are most known for their first novel, Red, White & Royal Blue, which has been adapted into a live-action film of the same name.
They're also a fan of making Spotify playlists for the characters from their books.
Bibliography:
- Red, White & Royal Blue (May 14, 2019)
- One Last Stop (June 1, 2021)
- I Kissed Shara Wheeler (May 3, 2022)
- Bloody Lovely (short story in anthology Eternally Yours) (September 20, 2022)
- The Pairing (August 6, 2024)
Related tropes:
- Author Appeal: By their own admission, they write "escapist" romances that they would've loved as a queer youth.
- Big Applesauce: Most of their works feature New York in one way or another. Casey McQuiston lives in NYC themself.
- Creator Recovery: They have spoken of how their mental health has changed for the better and the effects it has had on their writing.
- They've described writing I Kissed Shara Wheeler as healing in itself, since it pushed them to revisit their uncomfortable adolescence with care and respect. note
- In the author's notes for the bonus chapter of Red, White & Royal Blue (included in the collector's edition), McQuiston mentions that when writing the original novel they were at such a low point in their life that a happy ending to them consisted of high-energy bombastic celebration with everyone present. Years after the success of their debut novel, their life and mental health had drastically improved. By then, they no longer believed that an ideal happy ending must be loud and festive— quiet tender moments between the main leads could be just as satisfying. This is the type of ending that the bonus chapter features and the type of ending that they seem to gravitate toward in their works following Red, White & Royal Blue.
- Creator Thumbprint: They are quite partial to writing "smart-mouthed characters with bad manners and big hearts". Locations in their novels that get the most focus include the American South and New York (especially NYC). These locations are always ultimately positively portrayednote even if their flaws do get some focus as well.
- Signature Style: To state the obvious, all of their works are (relatively) lighthearted queer rom-coms. They have stated that their interest in writing such stories comes from the exhaustion of seeing so many works that either limit themselves to a single queer side character and/or treat Gayngst as an integral part of the queer experience. Their works in comparison always feature a Cast Full of Gay with less Gayngst and more fluffy romance. This isn't to say that all of their works are completely devoid of Gayngst, just that it makes up smaller parts of overall plots or character arcs. Their works are also rife with tropes that are common to rom-coms such as Belligerent Sexual Tension, Will They or Won't They? and Meet Cute.
- The 'Verse: It's implied that their works take place in a shared universe. The connections are loose though, the most explicit being a character from one work showing up as an unnamed cameo in bonus content for another.note
- Write What You Know: They were born and raised Catholic in the Deep South, attended an Evangelical Christain school as a teen and remained closeted until their twenties. Many of these traits are found in their protagonists as well: August Landry was born and raised in Louisiana, Alex Claremont-Diaz doesn't realize his sexuality until the events of his book and Chloe Green attends a Christian academy in small town Alabama in her book. It's also worth noting that all of the above characters are bisexual. New York, where McQuiston currently resides, is frequently featured in their works.
