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So far Vee has created 251 blog entries.

Author Guest Post: Love, War, and Fairy Tale Endings

By |2020-03-28T13:42:08-05:00January 27th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, New Releases|Tags: , , , |

by Danny M. Cohen Early on in my debut novel, Train, teenagers Alexander and Marko make their way through the midnight shadows of Berlin to The Fountain of Fairy Tales in Friedrichshain Park. Statues of Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Hansel, Gretel, and other familiar storybook characters surround the fountain and watch the teenage boys share a kiss. But this is no fairy tale. This is 1943 Germany and the Nazi machinery of deportation and mass-murder is ongoing. In writing Train, I wanted to tell the hidden stories of Hitler’s often forgotten victims—the Roma, the disabled, homosexuals, political [...]

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Call For Guest Bloggers

By |2020-03-28T13:42:08-05:00January 24th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Updates and Announcements|

Welcome to our first monthly call for guest bloggers! Each month we will put up a list of topics, prompt questions, or specific kinds of people we're looking for submissions on/from. For this first call, we want to hear from some teens, twenty-somethings, authors, agents, and editors. We're interested in co-written posts as well, so if you want to grab a friend or colleague to write with you about one of these, that would be great! We're also interested in interviews. Below are some prompt questions about specific things we're really interested in hearing about. Your post can touch on [...]

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Review: Remember Me by Melanie Batchelor

By |2020-03-28T13:42:08-05:00January 23rd, 2015|Categories: Archive, Book Review, Teen Voices|Tags: , |

Melanie Batchelor was fourteen years old when she wrote the subject of this month’s review, Remember Me.  Had I not known that, I would’ve filled this review with a thousand praises for her nuanced, accurate characterizations and deceptively simple poems that create a gripping, compelling read. Remember Me by Melanie Batchelor (Bold Strokes Books, 2014) Since I am aware of the fact that Batchelor is, in fact, deeply precocious, and possibly one of the most promising young writers of this generation, I will instead fill this review with a thousand praises for her nuanced, accurate characterizations [...]

Review: Stranger by Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith

By |2020-03-28T13:42:18-05:00January 13th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Book Review, Teen Voices|Tags: , , , , , , , , , |

Stranger (Viking Juveline, 2014) Many generations ago, a mysterious cataclysm struck the world. Governments collapsed and people scattered, to rebuild where they could. A mutation, "the Change,” arose, granting some people unique powers. Though the area once called Los Angeles retains its cultural diversity, its technological marvels have faded into legend. "Las Anclas" now resembles a Wild West frontier town… where the Sheriff possesses superhuman strength, the doctor can warp time to heal his patients, and the distant ruins of an ancient city bristle with deadly crystalline trees that take their jewel-like colors from the clothes of [...]

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The New Year for GayYA!

By |2016-05-24T14:50:35-05:00January 10th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Updates and Announcements|

The new year for GayYA is looking pretty amazing! Thank you to everyone who answered our end of the year survey, who helped with questions about representation, libraries, and everyone who was a part of GayYA's community in 2014. We’re taking all of your feedback into account, and hope to make GayYA a better place for you and for everyone.   Some things that will be changing in the new year on the site: Search Function – right now if you’re logged into a wordpress account, you can search pretty easily, but we did not realize that other people [...]

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January Book Club: Just Girls by Rachel Gold

By |2020-03-28T13:42:20-05:00January 4th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Book Club, Updates and Announcements|

Happy New Year, all! We're just getting geared up for our newest book club. We'll be reading Just Girls by Rachel Gold! Just Girls by Rachel Gold (Bella Books, 2014) Jess Tucker sticks her neck out for a stranger—the buzz is someone in the dorm is a trans girl. So Tucker says it’s her, even though it’s not, to stop the finger pointing. She was an out lesbian in high school, and she figures she can stare down whatever gets thrown her way in college. It can’t be that bad. Ella Ramsey is making new friends [...]

Book Review: Fighting Kudzu by Mystic Thompson

By |2020-03-28T13:42:20-05:00December 22nd, 2014|Categories: Archive, Book Review|Tags: , , , |

            In 1972 on a hot, late spring day in Georgia, five-year-old Noble Thorvald plays contentedly, alone in her suburban backyard. Her only companions...an imaginary professional football team. As she plays in her world of wonder and adventure, Noble is unaware of the challenges life will hurl in her direction-challenges that will redefine her more than once. Fighting Kudzu is the lyrical saga that traces Noble's life as she emerges into adulthood and discovers herself. The plot synopsis given on the back cover, and given above, of Fighting Kudzu by Mystic Thompson comes nowhere near the actual depth [...]

Introduction to Black Lives Matter Series

By |2020-03-28T13:42:20-05:00December 14th, 2014|Categories: Archive|Tags: , |

As I set up this series, I had a number of people ask me “what made you think of connecting what’s happening to queer YA?” I want to address this question before we get into the actual posts. My intention with the Black Lives Matter series is not to connect police violence with queer YA—that would be impossible and inappropriate. Rather, I want to vocalize the Black Lives Matter phrase for our community. YA is extremely white, and queer YA is no exception. GayYA.org is a site that seeks to be a welcoming and inclusive space for everyone. Queer [...]

GayYA Community Survey

By |2016-05-24T14:50:35-05:00December 6th, 2014|Categories: Archive, Updates and Announcements|

Hey everyone! It's almost the end of 2014 (??!?!?!??!?!!!!!). We're looking ahead at the new year, and planning out what 2015 will look like. GayYA is driven by the community, and we want to go where your interests are. To do that, we need to get some basic info from ya'll, and feedback on things that are and are not working for you, and things that you'd like to see in the future. Go here and answer these 10 questions to help make 2015 an awesome year for GayYA! Also: if at any time you have have any comments, concerns, [...]

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Call For Black Lives Matter Series Guest Bloggers

By |2020-03-28T13:42:23-05:00November 28th, 2014|Categories: Archive, Updates and Announcements|

We are looking for up to seven guest bloggers to write posts for a Black Lives Matter series. Topics can range from what Black Lives Matter means to you in relation to queer YA, to fave queer Black characters to improving queer literary spaces to anything else you may be interested in or passionate about. Only caveat is that it must somehow be related to queer YA. Please email me (Vee) at victoria@gayya.org with a topic idea, and a little bit about yourself. Deadline for submissions is the 5th of December. We'd like to start the series on [...]

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