Archive – Page 13

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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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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The Love That Lives Here: On Queer Girls, Transboys, and Sex on the Page

By admin|2020-03-28T13:40:50-05:00June 1st, 2016|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, Blogathon 2016, Writers on Writing|Tags: Latinx, PoC, Trans|

by Anna-Marie McLemore Sex-on-the-page. Doesn’t that sound like some kind of drink book lovers should come up with? Like sex-on-the-beach, but more bookish. (Paging Dahlia Adler, because I think she would have some ideas about what should go in this.) The fact that I'm talking about drink recipes probably gives away the fact that I'm a little uncomfortable with what I'm gonna talk about right now. But I'm gonna do it anyway. For anyone who doesn’t know, I’m a queer girl of color, and I'm married to a transgender guy I met as a teen, and who I [...]

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Vee at BEA: Recap!

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:51-05:00May 31st, 2016|Categories: Archive, Updates and Announcements|

As I write this, I’m listening to Halo by Beyonce. I kept hearing it in my head when I was at BEA and BookCon. Everywhere I'm looking now I'm surrounded by your embrace My chest kept getting super tight at BEA and I couldn't understand why, until I started realizing I was becoming overwhelmed with everyone's love and support and belief. I had to keep reminding myself to breathe it all in. The expo itself was so entirely overwhelming. People had kept telling me “it’s bigger than you could possibly imagine” and I was sort of like “pshaw, uh huh.” [...]

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What We Missed: January – May 2016

By Nadia|2020-03-28T13:40:52-05:00May 28th, 2016|Categories: Archive, New Releases|Tags: New Releases|

What We Missed in January January 1st – Raise the Stakes by Megan Atwood (T) January 5th – The Impostor Queen by Sarah Fine (B) January 5th – This Song Is Not For You by Laura Nowlin (A) January 5th - This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp (L) January 14th - Colors by Russell J. Sanders (G) January 19th - We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson (G) January 19th – Burn (Four Sisters #2) by Elisa Sussman January 20th - The Raising (The Torch Keeper #3) by Steven Dos Santos (G) January 21th – Fake [...]

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