In early 2021, author Brian Selznick roamed the streets of Rome, which were unusually vacant amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
His husband, UC San Diego communication professor David Serlin, had won the Rome Prize, allowing them to spend nine months in Rome in of “innovative and cross-disciplinary work in the arts and humanities.”
As other prize winners worked on their own creative projects, Selznick found inspiration in Rome’s dreamy, tourist-free roads.
“As I was walking around the city, I kept thinking that all of these stories should be in a book somehow,” Selznick said. “And I started to imagine two boys falling in love on these streets.”
Upon returning to America, where he splits time between Brooklyn, N.Y., and La Jolla, Selznick got to work writing and illustrating his first young-adult literature project, “Run Away With Me.”
After its release on April 1 this year, he embarked on a nationwide book tour that will end Thursday, May 15, at Warwick’s bookstore in La Jolla — a place he frequents and cites as a key source of artistic .
“Run Away With Me” follows Danny and Angelo, two 16-year-old boys who fall in love for the first time as they wander the ancient, lonely streets of Rome — acknowledging that their summer together will eventually draw to a close.
Invoking sights from his trip to Rome, “Run Away With Me” is filled with 100 of Selznick’s illustrations. Before he completed the book in 2024, he returned to Rome to revisit some of those settings and affirm his perspective.
Selznick is known for his cinematic works. “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” won a Caldecott Medal, became a New York Times bestseller and later became a feature film, “Hugo,” directed by Martin Scorsese. Another book, “Wonderstruck,” was later adapted by “Carol” and “May December” filmmaker Todd Haynes.
“The Invention of Hugo Cabret” features more than 500 pages, hundreds of which are pictures. As a storyteller, Selznick said, he is always interested in how words and pictures go together.
“If they work together correctly … they combine to make the narrative that you have in the book,” Selznick said. “The words and the pictures shouldn’t actually feel like separate entities. They should somehow combine to make what’s happening in your mind unfold.”
Having written for young children, Selznick said exploring young-adult literature was a “fascinating” venture. He said he strongly believes a good story can transcend age or identity.
“The specifics of my story involve two boys who are 16, but it’s really about something that most of us, of any gender or any sexuality, will experience at some point — the time we fall in love and feel like we are seen for the first time,” Selznick said.
“I recently met someone who told me he fell in love for the first time at 62, so it’s not something that is bound by age. … What interests me are the emotions and the ways in which we deal with them.”
“I started dating when I was in my early 20s, but I did not date when I was a teenager,” Selznick said. “So it was really interesting to explore all of these emotions and give them to characters who were younger than I had been when I experienced them myself.”
In writing “Run Away With Me,” Selznick said, he wasn’t concerned with trying to project the political and social climate of when it would be released. Most writers don’t know what world their books will be published into, he said, and chasing trends often results in failure.
“In the world that we find ourselves in now, which is … destabilizing for all of us, being part of a story that is letting young people know they’re not alone, that they’re part of a culture and a part of history, is something I know is making me feel good,” Selznick said.
Selznick said LGBTQ+ people “have lived in societies where we were reviled, where we were not wanted and very often where we were not known … but we have always persevered. We have always found ways to find each other. And we have always found ways to fall in love.”
In touring for “Run Away With Me,” Selznick has visited states and cities of all political persuasions, and in talking to readers, teachers and librarians of all ages, he found there is something for everyone in Danny and Angelo’s story, he said.
“There’s an implication that most of the readers will be queer because it’s about queer people, but I don’t think that’s accurate,” Selznick said. “I think people who are interested in love stories and … stories about vulnerability and finding someone who understands you are not gay or straight or anything specific. It’s human.”
Selznick’s event at Warwick’s at 7812 Girard Ave. is open to the public with free ission, or $24.99 for a reserved seat and a copy of “Run Away With Me.” at warwicks.com/event/selznick-2025. ♦
