Meet Pernell Quilon: Writer & Cartoonist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Pernell Quilon and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Pernell, what do you think makes you most happy? Why?
Taking care of dogs. For me, part of being creative is not being able to turn my mind off at will. There are times I’ll get so carried away with writing that I’ll actually forget to eat. But when I’m dog-sitting or at my parents’ place taking care of our two dogs, I feel this responsibility to take feed them, play with them, take them out for walks, etc. Caring for something other than myself or my art forces me to step into a routine and out of my mind. And that makes me happy because it reminds me that there’s more to life than my career, even if it’s as simple as walking behind my dogs as they trot around our backyard.

Honestly, these are a lot of the times when I get a new idea or burst of inspiration. It’s good to step away from work throughout the day.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
The book I’m working on is mostly about self-discovery and self-acceptance from the perspective of my inner child. It deals with the aftermath of coming out of the closet, skipping fundamental steps in the misguided quest to be a gay icon, seeing my parents as complicated people instead of as villains, and learning that I’m more like Shrek than my favorite Disney princess Mia Thermopolis. It’s about owning my many mistakes, from gifting my virginity to a man who thought my name was Greg to picking up a hitchhiker that tried to stab me. It’s about searching for my happy ending — the kind you see in Disney Channel original movies, not the ones on Grindr or Pornhub (but those are great too) — because even brown queer men under 5’ 7” deserve to feel like the main character once in a while.

I’m so excited for the day my memoir is released because even though it bounces between innocent things like idolizing Lizzie McGuire to very adult themes like wanting to get my back blown out in an international gay bathhouse, I’m confident that there’s an audience for this book.

I’m excited to find my people.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I would ask them to not come here.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I want to shout out my memoir writing group headed by storyteller and best-selling author Margot Leitman. For the past year, six other writers and I have been meeting each week, sharing chapters that we’ve wrote for our own memoirs. The group was originally supposed to only be 6 sessions, but we wanted to keep writing and the pandemic was still happening anyway. One year later, we (and coronavirus) are still here. And I’m so grateful for that — our group, not the pandemic.

The writers remaining are Tawney Bains, Santina Muha, Kristy Arnett Moreno, Hana Nobel and Dr. Gina Taranto; we hope Sarah Snedker comes back! We all have very different stories – from a professional poker player discovering her biggest risk involved her marriage instead of the cards to an actress that finds being in a wheelchair is just like being a celebrity.

I’ve enjoyed getting to know these women over this year and I can’t wait for you to read their stories too.

Website: linktr.ee/pernell