Andrew Keenan-Bolger to Release Debut YA Novel LIMELIGHT

Author and Broadway star Andrew Keenan-Bolger is making YA debut with Limelight, a poignant coming-of-age novel about identity, first love, and the power of the arts to help young people feel seen.
 
Danny Victorio has spent his whole life trying not to take up space. But when an audition for Manhattan’s most prestigious arts school offers him a way out of Staten Island, and his unraveling home life, he steps into a world where theater becomes his first real lifeline. As he navigates talent, pressure, and the unfamiliar warmth of true friendship, Danny begins to wonder who he might become if he finally stopped hiding.
 
Set against the gritty, vibrant backdrop of 1996 New York City, Limelight blends lived creative experience with interviews Keenan-Bolger conducted with LaGuardia alumni, queer New Yorkers, and artists who shaped the era. The novel captures both the magic and the challenges of the city in the 90s, portraying the exhilaration of finding community alongside the realities of homophobia, fear, and growing up queer in a shifting world.
 
At its core, Limelight is a tender queer love story that explores the pressures of toxic masculinity and the tension between wanting connection and fearing vulnerability. It also celebrates the teachers, mentors, and found-family figures who show up when adolescents need them most.
 
In Keenan-Bolger’s words: “I wrote this book for the artist, for the theater nerd, for the New Yorker-in-waiting, for the person searching for their purpose, and for the kid who feels lost in the hallways of their school but feels right at home wearing a pair of headphones.”
 
Blending emotional honesty with a slow-burn romance and rich 90s NYC texture, Limelight is for queer teens, theater kids, and anyone who has ever felt small in their own world.