Updates and Announcements

YA Pride’s Pride Month Blogathon– and how you can participate!
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YA Pride’s Pride Month Blogathon– and how you can participate!

Archive, Updates and Announcements

YA Pride’s Pride Month Blogathon– and how you can participate!

By Vee|2020-05-13T23:34:21-05:00May 14th, 2020|Categories: Archive, Updates and Announcements|

Although Pride is going to be a different and difficult experience for many of us this year, community remains more important than ever. In the midst of this scary time, the book community has already come together in so many wonderful ways, including virtual panels, instagram live sessions, and a plethora of giveaways. With most in-person Pride events, publishing conferences, and author readings cancelled, we wanted to provide a way for the LGBTQIAP+ YA book community to connect virtually: our Pride Month Blogathon. Every day during the month of June, we will feature a post from a YA [...]

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Call for Submissions: Sexual Violence in LGBTQIAP+ YA

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:39:57-05:00April 15th, 2019|Categories: Updates and Announcements|Tags: sexual violence|

For Sexual Assault Awareness Month we want to shine a light on representation of sexual violence in LGBTQIAP+ Young Adult literature. Or, rather, the lack thereof-- there are not very many characters in LGBTQIAP+ YA who are survivors of sexual violence. I have wanted to do this project for a long time. Sexual violence radically impacted my teenage years and there were so few resources (especially for a queer, trans teen) to turn to. LGBTQIAP+ YA was instrumental to my process of figuring out my queer, trans identity. Unfortunately, it left me stranded with figuring out how to [...]

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Announcing: GayYA’s Name Change! (& Giveaway)

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:10-05:00September 11th, 2017|Categories: Fun Things, Updates and Announcements|

When we launched GayYA in 2011, our goal was to mobilize a clear and active market for LGBTQIA+ YA, to make it known to publishers that people were excited to buy these books. In early 2011, several authors had shared stories of being told “we love your book— but can you make your character straight?” It was clear that these requests agents and editors made did not come from outright homophobia, but the idea that books like that couldn’t sell— that at best, they were issue books. This sparked many conversations in the YA Twitter community of the [...]

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Introducing: #BooksToTeens
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Introducing: #BooksToTeens

Archive, Updates and Announcements

Introducing: #BooksToTeens

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:11-05:00June 12th, 2017|Categories: Archive, Updates and Announcements|

We’re thrilled to announce our new campaign: #BooksToTeens! #BooksToTeens is a new initiative to help get more LGBTQIA+ books into the hands of teens that need them. We’ll feature a new crowdfunding project every other week on GayYA’s Twitter. Most of the projects will be donorschoose.org fundraisers, but we may branch out into Kickstarters for queer anthologies, or other similar crowdfunding pushes. Anything that will eventually help get more LGBTQIA+ books to teens! We’ll use the hashtag #BooksToTeens to promote them. A good portion of what we do at GayYA can be boiled down to one goal: get [...]

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Introduction to GayYA’s 2017 Blogathon

By Marilla|2020-03-28T13:40:14-05:00June 6th, 2017|Categories: Archive, Readers on Reading, Updates and Announcements, Writers on Writing|

What. A. Year. I began planning this blogathon the week after the U.S. election. Over the past six years, our blogathons have focused on general love of LGBTQIA+ YA, but this year, I knew that that would fall short. I was personally seeking something more, something that would help me grasp the world as it is now, and I figured many of our community members would be as well. This year, our blogathon explores two major themes: intergenerational conversation and the role that story plays in resistance, resilience, and joy. Over the last year, I’ve been struck by [...]

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Call for Volunteers: Content Team Members

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:14-05:00May 5th, 2017|Categories: Archive, Updates and Announcements|

We're looking for 2-3 new volunteers to join our Content Team! Content Team Member Content Team members keep GayYA going by formatting posts before they go up and scheduling promotional tweets on Twitter. Help broaden our readership base and enable our community members find posts relevant to them and their interests by promoting our content and making our posts look awesome! Typically, 1-4 posts are sent to each Content Team member per month. (Exceptions include months without posts, and month-long blogathons.) Posts will be sent to Content Team members at least 72 hours before the post goes up; the post should be formatted [...]

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Call for Submissions: Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:14-05:00January 4th, 2017|Categories: Archive, Updates and Announcements|Tags: Aromantic|

During Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week, we want to use our space on GayYA to support AroSpec voices. Last year, we decided to host Awareness Week Series over the various LGBTQIA+ Awareness Weeks throughout the year. Though we hope to include everyone on the site at all times, we wanted to dedicate a concentrated space to people from a specific community to talk about how they’re represented in YA. The response from the community was phenomenal– we got to feature many fantastic and thought-provoking posts, and watched as the community fostered some nuanced discussions via our identity-centric Twit Chats. I personally remember feeling [...]

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Introduction: Asexuality in YA Series

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:18-05:00December 12th, 2016|Categories: Archive, Updates and Announcements|Tags: asexual, Demisexual|

During our Asexuality in YA series, we want to use our space on GayYA to support ace-spectrum voices. Last year, we decided to host Awareness Week Series over the various LGBTQIA+ Awareness Weeks throughout the year. Though we hope to include everyone on the site at all times, we wanted to dedicate a concentrated space to people from a specific community to talk about how they’re represented in YA. The response from the community was phenomenal– we got to feature many fantastic and thought-provoking posts, and watched as the community fostered some nuanced discussions via our identity-centric Twit [...]

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Center Trans Voices: Introduction to Trans Awareness Week Series

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:29-05:00November 14th, 2016|Categories: Archive, Updates and Announcements|Tags: Trans|

Since election day I've been in a state of despair. I couldn't write this introduction, because all I could think of was giving up. Now, as I write this, I am sitting with a cat on my lap and the sun is warm on my skin. I am cat-sitting for a genderqueer author friend, and I am surrounded by shelves of queer and trans books. This is a safe space. I'm ready to write this introduction. I am really, really scared. We have no idea what's going to come next, and that makes it all the more terrifying. [...]

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Call for Submissions: Asexuality in YA Series

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:40:30-05:00October 24th, 2016|Categories: Archive, Updates and Announcements|Tags: asexual|

During the Asexuality in YA series we want to use our space on GayYA to support ace spectrum voices. Last year, we decided to host Awareness Week Series over the various LGBTQIA+ Awareness Weeks throughout the year. Though we hope to include everyone on the site at all times, we wanted to dedicate a concentrated space to people from a specific community to talk about how they’re represented in YA. The response from the community was phenomenal– we got to feature many fantastic and thought-provoking posts, and watched as the community fostered some nuanced discussions via our identity-centric [...]

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