Casey McQuiston – Author Biography
Early Life
Casey McQuiston was born in 1991 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and grew up in the American South. They studied journalism at Louisiana State University and worked in magazine publishing in New York before turning to fiction. McQuiston has spoken about growing up queer in the South and wanting to write the joyful, big-hearted love stories they wished they had found as a young reader.
Career
McQuiston’s debut novel, Red, White & Royal Blue (2019) — a romance between the First Son of the United States and a British prince — became a word-of-mouth sensation, winning the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Romance and spending months on bestseller lists. They followed it with the time-slip romance One Last Stop (2021), the young adult novel I Kissed Shara Wheeler (2022), and The Pairing (2024), a food-and-travel romance set across Europe. The film adaptation of Red, White & Royal Blue premiered on Amazon Prime Video in 2023.
Major Works
The essential McQuiston shelf: Red, White & Royal Blue (2019), One Last Stop (2021), I Kissed Shara Wheeler (2022), and The Pairing (2024).
Writing Style and Themes
McQuiston writes sparkling, banter-driven romantic comedy with an earnest emotional core. Their style blends pop-culture fluency, political daydreaming, and deeply felt queer joy. Recurring themes include chosen family, the courage of living openly, class and power differences in romance, and the belief that love stories — especially queer ones — deserve happy endings without apology.
Legacy
McQuiston helped lead the late-2010s boom in mainstream queer romance, proving that LGBTQ love stories could anchor major commercial bestsellers. Red, White & Royal Blue became a touchstone of BookTok-era romance and opened doors for a wave of joyful queer fiction in both adult and YA markets.
