Michelle Tea's first novel is about teenage girls in a world of malls, alcohol and crystal meth. Katrina Fox chats with the award-winning queer author.

Best known for her series of memoirs documenting her life growing up in a working-class slum in Boston to working as a prostitute in Tuscon and immersing her 20-something self in the radical queer 'riot' girl community of San Francisco in the '90s, Michelle Tea felt it was time to challenge herself by creating a work of fiction. In Rose of No Man's Land, Trish, a 14-year-old alcoholic from a dysfunctional family that includes a sister whose sole aim in life is to be on a reality TV show, feels alienated in the mall culture of her peers. When she meets chain-smoking shoplifter Rose, the two embark on an adventure which culminates with them taking crystal meth and having sex in a deserted miniature golf course.

"I got burnt out writing about my own experience," Tea explains. "I felt totally exposed and vulnerable. I also felt as a writer I needed to challenge myself and do something different. I feel I have a core understanding at least of certain 14-year-old girls and I relate to the feelings of alienation that a lot of teenagers feel and to the way you feel alienated and yet you want to reach out and be a part of the world around you but don't how. As someone's who's grown up poor and queer and an outsider, it was an easy stance for me to write from."

While identifying as and being known predominantly as a lesbian writer in the past, Tea feels more comfortable with a queer identity and says she's changed considerably from the hedonistic dyke portrayed in her earlier autobiographical works such as the LAMBDA award-winning Valencia. "I'm completely different," she asserts. "For a start I don't drink anymore - I'm completely sober and have been for three years. And I have a boyfriend which really throws people who think I'm a lesbian writer as opposed to a queer writer which is more accurate."

In the past Tea has shocked and amused audiences with her candid recollections of her life and those around her - some of whom didn't appreciate such graphic honesty. "The worst one was an ex-girlfriend who I call Willa in Valencia and she hates that I wrote about her," she says. "She's really upset with me and I know she's spoken about me badly to others. I wasn't writing anything vengefully, I just honestly and naively thought it would be ok for me to write these things. I also know right now the boy I lost my virginity to, who I wrote about in The Chelsea Whistle, also hates me. I never thought I'd see him again, but he's resurfaced, we have mutual friends and he's really upset I wrote about him."

The fiction route though is definitely one Tea is keen to explore further. Future projects include an illustrated novel called Carrier which is about a teenage girl who turns into a pigeon. "It's very fantastical, in the superhero comic book tradition and has everything I like to play with - queerness, community and being an outsider," she says. She's also working with Showtime in the US to develop her illustrated novel Rent Girl into a TV show.

Despite her successes, she's had no formal training as a writer and puts herself into the category of someone with a natural gift. "I've always written since I was a kid, and I truly believe some people are born writers like some people are born gay, and for others it's a choice," she says. "I want to carry on writing well and challenge myself."

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