Blogathon 2016 – Page 3

Promoting LGBTQIA+ YA: A Publicist’s POV

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:49-05:00June 10th, 2016|Categories: Archive, Blogathon 2016, Guest Blogs|Tags: LGBTQIA, nonbinary, Trans|

by Jamie Tan As a publicist, I’m used to being gregarious or quiet, adapting to whichever author I’m with. I’ve sat quietly with authors, filled up space with small talk so an author could have a moment of rest, and leaned back while an author took the floor. I’m here to be supportive, but more importantly I want to be respectful of the author and the work they have created. Pat Schmatz was one of the first authors I worked with when I started at Candlewick. I can say now how much I adore working with her, [...]

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There was, there is/it was, it is

By Nadia|2020-03-28T13:40:49-05:00June 9th, 2016|Categories: Archive, Blogathon 2016, Guest Blogs, Readers on Reading|Tags: LGBTQIA, Poetry, Queer Girls|

There was a girl. There was a girl who loved to read and read and read. There was a girl who loved to read and read and read but hated it sometimes but she couldn’t tell why. There was a teen. There was a teen who watched too much tv but still found time to read and read. There was a teen who watched too much tv and started thinking that maybe some girls were hot but still found time to read and read. There were moments. Experiences. Thoughts. Feelings. Moments. It was going to a party to [...]

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A Learning Journey

By Nadia|2020-03-28T13:40:49-05:00June 8th, 2016|Categories: Archive, Blogathon 2016, Guest Blogs|Tags: Allies, LGBTQIA, Queer Girls, Queer Guys|

As a librarian and a blogger, I want to be able to purchase, read and promote excellent books. The first step is finding those books. That would seem easy enough, but I also want to make sure that I’m finding a wide range of quality stories providing windows and mirrors for readers. This is where it gets more complicated. We read through a lens of our own experiences and that certainly affects what we see or don’t see as we read. I’m on a journey as a reviewer, librarian, and obviously a human being. I make mistakes – [...]

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Author Interview: Leigh Bardugo

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:49-05:00June 7th, 2016|Categories: Archive, Author Interview, Blogathon 2016|Tags: Bisexual, gay, Speculative|

While I was at BEA, I got a chance to meet and interview the fabulous Leigh Bardugo author of The Grisha Trilogy, Six of Crows, and the forthcoming Crooked Kingdom. Six of Crows is one of my top 5 favorite books, and I was so excited to be able to meet and interview her that I was basically spacing out for the whole interview! We talked about the world building around how sexuality is perceived in the Grisha verse, negative (& positive!) reactions to queer characters, what we can expect from Crooked Kingdom re: Wylan and Jesper and more! Managed [...]

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Being Queer, Being Latino and Being a Reader: One of Many Latinx Narratives.

By Nadia|2020-03-28T13:40:49-05:00June 6th, 2016|Categories: Archive, Blogathon 2016, Guest Blogs, Readers on Reading|Tags: Intersectionality, Latinx, LGBTQIA, Queer Guys|

by Joseph Jess Many of us know how hard it is to find queer fiction, that is why we search the depths of the internet for it, blog about it and even write it. If you read enough of the queer fiction out there you will notice that the vast majority of it centers around White characters. We’ve read and loved these stories and will continue to read and love them but the lack of PoC representation is glaringly apparent. I am a queer Mexican-American who talks (and cries) about books on the internet, with a specific passion [...]

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#YAPride Challenge

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:49-05:00June 5th, 2016|Categories: Blogathon 2016, Fun Things, Updates and Announcements|

Welcome to GayYA’s first ever #YAPride Challenge! #YAPride is all about spreading the LGBTQIA+ love-- and you’re entered to win an AWESOME prize while you do it! The prize? A box of 8 #OwnVoices LGBTQIA+ YA books. We’ll announce the exact titles in a few days, but one of them will be a signed copy of You Know Me Well by David Levithan and Nina Lacour, and there will be a couple ARCs of upcoming releases! Our #YAPride challenge will be split into 3 weeks. It's a mutli-platform challenge on Twitter, Tumblr, Youtube, and Instagram. Enter as many times as you'd [...]

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GayYA Recommends: You Know Me Well by David Levithan & Nina Lacour

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:49-05:00June 5th, 2016|Categories: Archive, Blogathon 2016, Book Club, Book Review, New Releases, Readers on Reading, Teen Voices|Tags: gay, lesbian, Representation|

Who knows you well? Your best friend? Your boyfriend or girlfriend? A stranger you meet on a crazy night? No one, really? Mark and Kate have sat next to each other for an entire year, but have never spoken. For whatever reason, their paths outside of class have never crossed. That is until Kate spots Mark miles away from home, out in the city for a wild, unexpected night. Kate is lost, having just run away from a chance to finally meet the girl she has been in love with from afar. Mark, meanwhile, is in love with [...]

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Juliet Takes a Breath: A How-To Guide for Young Queer Latinas

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:49-05:00June 5th, 2016|Categories: Archive, Blogathon 2016, Book Review, New Releases|Tags: Latinx, PoC, Queer Girls, Realistic|

by Sonia Alejandra Rodriguez, PhD Juliet Milagros Palante is a 19-year-old Puertoriqueña from the Bronx. She knows she’s gay but hasn’t told her family. She decides to come out to her family the night she’s set to travel to Portland, Oregon[1] for her summer internship with the renowned white feminist Harlowe Brisbane. After having read Harlowe’s book Raging Flower: Empowering Pussy by Empowering Your Mind, Juliet is convinced Harlowe is the only one that can help her understand her new gay identity. Juliet is in for a rude awakening and finds solace in unexpected places. Juliet Takes a [...]

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I Volunteer As Tribute: Writing the Book I Wish I’d Had As A Teen

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:50-05:00June 4th, 2016|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, Blogathon 2016, New Releases, Writers on Writing|Tags: lesbian, Queer Girls|

by Chelsea M. Cameron “So, are you just going to write books about lesbians now?” This was usually the third or fourth question I got from people when I came out. After “how did you know?” and “what did your mom say?” “Um, no?” was usually my response. I’ve been publishing books (first independently, then also traditionally, aka, being a hybrid author) since February of 2012. Every single one of them was about a heterosexual couple. Because I was heterosexual. Until, in October of 2015, I realized I wasn’t. Twenty-nine years of denial, down the drain. It was intense, it was terrifying, but it was [...]

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Seeking the Non-privileged Gaze

By Nadia|2020-03-28T13:40:50-05:00June 3rd, 2016|Categories: Archive, Blogathon 2016, Guest Blogs|Tags: Intersectionality, LGBTQIA|

by Andrew Karre I don’t think a day goes by in kidlit where we’re not in one way or another reminded of the importance of #ownvoices in telling the stories of historically underrepresented, oppressed, and marginalized people. Many authors and critics have been more articulate on that point than I can be—often on this very blog--and I’m grateful for their work and all the ways it informs mine (which is a fancy way of saying the ways it keeps me from making an ass of myself). There is a secondary benefit to more #ownvoices in our literary landscape that [...]

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