Matteo L. Cerilli, currently pursuing a BA Honours with a double major in Creative Writing and Professional Writing from the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies at 91亚色 recently sold his debut novel Lockjaw.
鈥淢y Creative Writing courses pushed me out of my over-worn habits and got me to explore a more literary style. I had only written sci-fi, and contemporary was new to me, but it made me think about the frustrating elements of my own suburban gothic life. I wrote Lockjaw at the beginning of the pandemic,鈥 expressed Cerilli.
Lockjaw is a multiple-perspective young adult horror novel corresponding to Stephen King鈥檚 IT and Stranger Things. It is about a small town haunted by a monstrous presence, a group of teens trying to ignore it, and a group of hunting kids on bikes trying to stop it. Underneath the surface, it is a book about community involvement, responsibility, and accountability, and what it means to be different especially as a child.
鈥淕rowing up as a queer and trans kid in a very suburban city, I never had a sense of community until I came to 91亚色 and met my partner and all our friends,鈥 Cerilli continued; 鈥Lockjaw is a way to celebrate what I have found and document the struggle. I鈥檓 not living in a town with a monster, but I dealt with my share of exclusion.鈥
Cerilli aims to explore the idea of community care and involvement. He believes that condemning 鈥榖ad鈥 people to a lifetime of suffering and exclusion after they express a desire to change leaves no room for change and growth. Lockjaw is about accountability, but also about transformative justice and believing in and building towards a better community. Writing Lockjaw has helped Cerilli persevere through all the fear.
鈥淪ince writing Lockjaw, I鈥檝e gotten more involved in local abolitionist activism and found myself a little more in love with libraries and community centers,鈥 said Cerilli.
The novel will be published in the summer of 2024 by Peter Phillips at , . This was pitched as a part of a two-book deal for publication in 2024 and 2025 by Ali McDonald at . Matteo L. Cerilli can be found at his or .