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#OurVoces presents Zoraida Córdova, author of ‘Labyrinth Lost’

Welcome to the last post of the month. First of all, I’d like to thank all the amazing authors for taking time to be part of this series. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to find enough authors to fill in the month. But we did more than that, and hopefully next year we will be back and better than ever. I hope you enjoyed discovering new voices. 

¡Qué bonita bandera! AKA what heritage(s) do you claim?

I was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador and I was raised in New York City. I am 100% Latina and 100% New Yorker. 

When was the first time you saw yourself represented?

To be honest, I still haven’t. Not in the sense that I’ve seen an Ecuadorian girl starring in a novel or movie. When I was a teen and found out Christina Aguilera was half Ecuadorian, I wished she could represent part of me that desperately wanted to be seen--dark haired, dark eyes. But I shouldn’t judge.

When I write, I put a little bit of my Ecuadorian self but my whole New York self. It’s like I’m afraid that people won’t relate. But that’s not true, is it? I have to be brave enough to write that character and let the audience decide. 

All of this to say that the closest representation to mine is the family dynamic in Jane the Virgin.

How do you connect to your heritage through your books (if at all)?

I've always included a Latinx character in my books. There’s Layla Santos in The VIcious Deep. Sky Lopez in Love on the Ledge. It hasn’t been until Labyrinth Lost and the Brooklyn Brujas series that I felt confident enough to write a completely Latinx cast.  

What do you hope for the future of Latinx books?

I’ve like to see Latinx authors to be able to write whatever they want. I think for a long time we were expected to write tragic immigrant or assimilation stories. I want us to be heroes. I want us to be everywhere from happy contemporaries to magical realms to the outer most reaches of the galaxy. 

What is the book that inspired you to write for kids/teens?

In the Forest of the Night by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. I wanted to be front and center in a fantastical story. 

What are you writing now?

I finished copyedits of book 2 in the Brooklyn Brujas series, which will feature the eldest Mortiz sister, Lula. I’m drafting Brooklyn Brujas 3. The first book in the series is in development with Paramount Studios. I recently sold a series to Disney-Hyperion called Hollow Crown which is slated for a Summer 2019 launch. I’m also working on a secret project that hasn’t been announced yet but is slated for 2019. 

Zoraida Córdova is the award-winning author of urban fantasies The Vicious Deep trilogy and the Brooklyn Brujas series, as well as the adult romance series On the Verge. Her short fiction is featured in the anthologies Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View, and Toil & Trouble. Zoraida’s most recent release, Labyrinth Lost, was named a Best Book of 2016 by Paste Magazine and has been optioned by Paramount Pictures. She is also the author of the upcoming Hollow Crown, to be published by Disney Hyperion in 2019. 

Website * Twitter * Instagram * Buy

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#OurVoces presents Yamile Saied Méndez, author of ‘On These Magic Shores’

¡Qué bonita bandera! AKA what heritage(s) do you claim?

I was born and raised in Argentina, and moved to the States when I was 19. Argentina is a country of immigrants, and I'm a little bit of everything (Syrian, Spanish, Italian, Northern African, Irish, and Native American), but I’ve always considered myself 100% Argentine. Since I’ve been married to a Puerto Rican for half of my life and I’ve lived in Puerto Rico (and hope to make it my home one day), I have a strong bond to La Isla del Encanto too.

When was the first time you saw yourself represented?

This is a tricky question because Argentina is the cradle of an abundance of literary geniuses, and I was a voracious reader as a child. I grew up reading Alma Maritano’s books that are set in Rosario, my hometown, and dealt with the trauma of growing up in a country post-dictatorship. But when I moved to the US, I never saw myself in the media, including books. The first time I read a book that resonated with me and reflected my experience was Esmeralda Santiago’s When I Was Puerto Rican.  It perfectly described my experience as a non-English speaking newcomer, and the struggle of always being in the middle of my two countries: the one where I was born and the one I’d adopted as my new home. 

How do you connect to your heritage through your books (if at all)?

In certain ways, I always write about children in the middle. Those going through puberty, caught between cultures, trying to live with two religions, those who make-up their own languages to express themselves. When I write characters living in Latin America, I still explore the longing to belong and fit in. 

What do you hope for the future of Latinx books?

I hope not only for more Latinx authors to write our stories, but for librarians and teachers and adults, in general, to be aware of these books so that they may reach their audience: children, and not only those who claim a Latinx heritage, but ALL children.

What is the book that inspired you to write for kids/teens?

The Little Prince is the book that inspired me to write my first novel when I was 7. I’ve been dabbling with stories since then, but when I first read Harry Potter (I was already an adult), I started writing seriously, with the desire to one day be published. 

What are you writing now?

I’m working on several projects ranging from picture books to middle to YA, and even short stories. I have wonderful publishing news that I’m bursting to share with the world, so check back in the next few weeks for an announcement.

  Website. Twitter. Instagram.

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#OurVoces presents Goldy Moldavsky, author of ‘No Good Deed’

¡Qué bonita bandera! AKA what heritage(s) do you claim?

I am Peruvian. Born in Peru to a mother who was born in Peru whose mother was also born in Peru and so on and so on.

When was the first time you saw yourself represented?

I didn’t really see myself represented in books until fairly recently—but maybe that’s my fault for being a less-than-stellar reader as a kid. The first books that were read to me were picture books in Spanish, and they’re books that I still have and treasure. But when we moved to America it was a huge cultural shift and all the entertainment I consumed was super Americanized. I didn’t really see any Latinx characters in anything I read until adulthood when I picked up Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. I was honestly delighted to read Spanglish right there on the page—Spanish words that weren’t translated into English. To me that was a clear message that this was written for me, for us. Reading that and identifying with the Hispanic/American/New York cultures in that book was a thrill.

In YA it was really cool for me to see a Jewish/Latina character in Anna Breslaw’s Scarlett Epstein Hates it Here and an undocumented character in Nicola Yoon’s The Sun is Also a Star.

How do you connect to your heritage through your books (if at all)?

In my latest novel, No Good Deed, the protagonist is named Gregor Maravilla—a nod to both his Eastern European and Latino heritage. A motif in the story involves his bunkmate constantly teasing him for being just another white boy and Gregor constantly having to stand up for his heritage and remind his bunkmate that he’s actually half-Latino. That was written from experience. There’s been plenty of times in my life where people pull the classic Mean Girls line and ask me why I’m so white if I’m really Latina, or they don’t believe me because of my name. It was important for me to show that Latinxs come in all different forms, and we’ve all got a connection to our Latinx heritage.  

What do you hope for the future of Latinx books?

I hope to learn more from cultures that aren’t my own. I want to see every kind of Latinx on the page.  

What is the book that inspired you to write for kids/teens?

Gossip Girl!

What are you writing now?

Working on something brand new but it’s way too early to talk about it just yet. My latest novel, No Good Deed, just came out this summer from Scholastic.

Goldy Moldavsky was born in Lima, Peru, and grew up in Brooklyn, where she still lives. Her debut novel, KILL THE BOY BAND, is a New York Times bestseller, and her latest novel is NO GOOD DEED. Both books are published by Scholastic in the US and MacMillan in the UK.

Website * Twitter * Instagram * Buy

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#OurVoces presents Anna Meriano, debut author of ‘Love Sugar Magic’

¡Qué bonita bandera! AKA what heritage(s) do you claim?

I’m very Tejana. My dad’s family is Mexican/Italian, and my mom’s family is mostly Irish but lived in Guadalajara while she was in elementary school. Lots of culture mixing and subsequent confusion, but I ended up with Mexican pride from both sides of the family.

When was the first time you saw yourself represented?

My mom said I could only have one American Girl doll, but then changed her mind and let me get a second when they came out with Josefina Montoya.

Honorable mentions to Wizards of Waverly place, Leo Valdez from The Heroes of Olympus, and Mexican WhiteBoy by Matt de la Peña.  

How do you connect to your heritage through your books (if at all)?

My debut novel deals with baking and food magic, and food is such a fundamental part of family and culture. Even though none of my extended family bakes much, sharing food (especially dessert) is a huge part of how we express our love. Creating a magic system also helped me think about which parts of my heritage felt powerful and how I wanted to celebrate them. I also got to “research” lots and lots of pan dulce!

What do you hope for the future of Latinx books?

More! More stories of all kinds of Latinxs. Latinxs are every race, religion, gender, orientation, and nationality. We are involved in every subculture, working in every field, occupying every socioeconomic group. My hope is that as more people tell their stories, Latinx books will represent the diversity of Latinxs in real life.

What is the book that inspired you to write for kids/teens?

I wrote books before I could spell, but The School Story by Andrew Clements was the book that taught me that real people (not just old dead ones) could actually write and publish books.

What are you writing now?

My debut novel Love Sugar Magic: A Dash of Trouble, in conjunction with Cake Literary, will be out on January 2, 2018, and is up for pre-order now.  I’m currently writing the sequel to that book and revising a YA project that involves a muggle quidditch team. 

Anna Meriano grew up in Houston, Texas, with an older brother and a younger brother but (tragically) no sisters. She earned a BA in English from Rice University and an MFA in creative writing from The New School. She has taught creative writing and English, and works as a writing tutor. Anna likes reading, knitting, playing full-contact quidditch, and singing along to songs in English, Spanish, and ASL.

Website * Twitter * Pre-order Love Sugar Magic!

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#OurVoces presents Fred Aceves, debut author of ‘The Closest I’ve Come’

¡Qué bonita bandera! AKA what heritage(s) do you claim?

My father is a Mexican immigrant and my mother was born in New York, of Dominican parents. A bit of both heritages have trickled down to my sisters and I.

When was the first time you saw yourself represented?

In the hit 80s TV show CHiPs. It was filmed in southern California, where I was living. It’s hard to overstate the impact of dark-skinned Erik Estrada, accidental star of the show, on a little Latino kid. Miraculously, he didn’t portray a manual laborer or the bad guy. He played a charming cop who chased down criminals and hooked up with beautiful women.

How do you connect to your heritage through your books (if at all)?

In my first book, the main character has grown up in Florida without much family around. He’s a Latino kid who is sometimes rejected by his own for not speaking Spanish well. He doesn’t have a very strong connection to his heritage, which was my own experience growing up.

The book I’m currently writing features some culture from Mexico, where I’ve lived as an adult for many years. The main character has dual identities, Mexican and American. At times these identities overlap and at other times they clash. That sort of reflects my life now.

What do you hope for the future of Latinx books?

Diversity! Latinx people have different socioeconomic statuses, different struggles, and passions. Unfortunately, some people in publishing expect our characters to reinforce their conceptions of what it means to be Latinx. Authors are still told their characters aren’t Latinx enough.

What is the book that inspired you to write for kids/teens?

It might have been The Outsiders, which I’ve read five times. It a great story about the challenges of growing up poor and marginalized in an Oklahoma town. I’m always moved by the narrator’s authentic voice, how he observes the world and feels things deeply, as teenagers do.

What are you writing now?

A second novel. An uncool teenager with low self-esteem attempts to erase and recreate himself. It’s about the dangers of reacting to certain societal pressures, and the mistakes we sometimes make in the name of self-improvement.

Fred Aceves was born in New York but spent most of his youth in Southern California and Tampa, Florida, where he lived in a poor, working class neighborhood like the one described in The Closest I’ve Come. At the age of 21 he started traveling around the world, living in Chicago, New York, the Czech Republic, France, Argentina, Bolivia, and Mexico, his father’s native land. Among other jobs, he has worked as a delivery driver, server, cook, car salesman, freelance editor, and teacher of English as a second language. The Closest I've Come is his first novel.

Website * Twitter * Pre-order The Closest I’ve Come

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Happy Book Birthday! #OurVoces Presents Samantha Mabry, author of ‘All The Wind in the World’

¡Qué bonita bandera! AKA what heritage(s) do you claim?

My mom is Mexican American, and my dad is half Puerto Rican and half white.

When was the first time you saw yourself represented?

With exactly those ingredients? Never. Before I was really into books and set my sights on being a writer, I was into music. When I was a teen, my goal in life was to join a rock band and tour the world. I played the bass. One of my idols was Cristina Martinez from the band Boss Hog. I don't even know what her heritage is, but I saw her name and her long, dark hair and was in goo-goo eyes in love. 

How do you connect to your heritage through your books (if at all)?

Most of the main characters in my books have some kind of mixed heritage. In A Fierce and Subtle Poison, Lucas is white and Dominican, and Isabel is white and Puerto Rican. In All the Wind in the World, Sarah Jacqueline is referred to as "mixed blood," and you get the sense that a lot of people in her world are as well. I'm always interested in the ways in which multi-racial people can both claim their identity, but also be claimed by it. There are certain ways in which a person can exert power by controlling who they are and what they do, but also there are ways in which people's bloodlines are inescapable. They call to you--tug at you--from the past. Well, I shouldn't speak for everyone. This is just how it feels for me. I like to write characters that are both propelling themselves forward while being snagged on something from the past.  

What do you hope for the future of Latinx books?

I hope that a wider variety of the Latinx experience can be explored. I once had a student tell me that she wanted to become more involved with issues that affected her community, but that she sometimes felt excluded or shamed, sort of like she wasn't Latina enough because she wasn't totally fluent in Spanish. To me, this is really frustrating, because there's no one way to be Latinx. There never has been! We can continue to write past stereotypes and present varied experiences, and hopefully, that can make a difference.

What is the book that inspired you to write for kids/teens?

Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma.

What are you writing now?

I'm working on a ghost story set in San Antonio. And also a story about bandits. They're both coming along slowly but surely.

Samantha Mabry grew up in Texas playing bass guitar along to vinyl records, writing fan letters to rock stars, and reading big, big books, and credits her tendency toward magical thinking to her Grandmother Garcia, who would wash money in the kitchen sink to rinse off any bad spirits. She teaches writing and Latino literature at a community college in Dallas, Texas, where she lives with her husband, a historian, and her pets, including a cat named Mouse. She is the author of the novels A Fierce and Subtle Poison and All the Wind in the World (on sale today October 10 from Algonquin Young Readers!). Visit her online at samanthamabry.com or on Twitter: @samanthamabry.

Website * Twitter * Instagram * Buy

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#OurVoces presents Sofia Quintero, author of ‘Show and Prove’

¡Qué bonita bandera! AKA what heritage(s) do you claim?

I am an unapologetically Black-identified DominiRican, My mother is from La Romana in the Dominican Republic, and my father is from Mayaüez, Puerto Rico. I was born and raised in the Bronx, and I would argue that being a caribeña from New York City is a distinct identity. 

When was the first time you saw yourself represented?

It absolutely was Sonia Manzano who played Maria on Sesame Street and soon thereafter Freddie Prinze on Chico and the Man. I was an adult when I first saw myself as a Latina in a book, and unfortunately, it was in Oscar Lewis’ La Vida. As a young adult, the closest I came to seeing myself were in the African American characters in books by Walter Dean Myers and Rosa Guy.

How do you connect to your heritage through your books (if at all)?

I’ve written six novels and twice as many short stories and novellas, and in every single one you will find a Puerto Rican or Dominican woman or girl even if they’re not the protagonist. I write the characters whose relationship to their Latindad departs from what you might read in the average intro to Latino literature course. The one whose first -- and maybe only language -- is English, doesn’t dance salsa and didn’t have a special relationship with her abuelita, and for whom all that is a point of pain. The one who isn’t preoccupied with “straddling two cultures” because she intuitively understands that she’s at once much simpler and more complicated than that. The one who knows all of Cardi B’s songs and reads Sonia Sotomayor’s decisions.

In fact, in mostly all of my stories you’ll find specifically a Latinx hip-hop feminist whether she identifies explicitly as that or not.

What do you hope for the future of Latinx books?

My biggest hope is to see more of our work adapted for TV and film. Although we remain underrepresented, we still have a tremendous body of work that crosses genres and aesthetics. We have and continue to write everything from horror to satire, and yet people still have a very narrow idea of what makes Latinx literature. And as someone who writes frequently about Latinx people from urban communities who are low-income, I’d like to see the shaming of that fall away. Yes, we need to have more depictions of people who are doctors and lawyers and such, but we do not have to render invisible those who are not. The answer is to complicate them not erase them. 

What is the book that inspired you to write for kids/teens?

That’s a tough one to answer because it was reading YA as a teen myself that inspired me to write. I was a teen writing for teens, and not only was I reading voraciously, that was, like, over thirty years ago. The authors I remember striking a chord with me when I was in seventh, eighth grade were Judy Blume, Marilyn Sachs, Ellen Conford, S.E. Hinton, Sonia Pilcer,  Paul Zindel and Walter Dean Myers. And Charles Dickens. (En serio.) I didn’t have the diversity of writers and characters that are available to young people now so imagine the amazing stories we’re in for when these young writers of color come of age.

What are you writing now?

I’m currently working on a middle-grade series, developing a TV show based on one of my novels for adults and a few screenplays. I’m also re-publishing my Black Artemis backlist - that’s the pen name under which I wrote three novels of feminist hip-hop noir. Just for the hell of it, I’m writing a multimedia novel on my blog that I update when I need a break from the other projects.  My latest available YA novel is Show and Prove which is set in the summer of 1983 in the South Bronx and has a nifty cultural dictionary to go along with it.  

After graduating from Columbia University with a BA in history-sociology and an MPA from its School of International and Public Affairs, Sofia Quintero began her first career as a policy analyst and advocate. She worked for various nonprofit organizations and government agencies including the Vera Institute of Justice, Hispanic AIDS Forum, and the New York City Independent Budget Office. After years of working on diverse policy issues, however, Sofia heeded her muse to pursue an entertainment career. Determined to write edgy yet intelligent novels for women who love hip hop even when hip-hop fails to love them in return, Sofía wrote her debut novel EXPLICIT CONTENT under the pen name Black Artemis. Booklist said of her debut, “Fans of Sister Souljah’s The Coldest Winter Ever will find this debut novel just as tantalizing. . .” Since then Sofia has authored four more novels and almost twice as many short stories and novellas including her award-winning young adult debut EFRAIN’S SECRET (Knopf 2010.) She recently earned an MFA in writing and producing TV at the TV Writers Studio of Long Island University and contributed the children’s anthology WHAT YOU WISH FOR, the proceeds of which go to build libraries for Darfuri children in Chad. Her journalistic writings have been published in Urban Latino, New York Post, Ms., Cosmopolitan for Latinas and El Diario/La Prensa. As an educator, she is a writing mentor at Urban Word NYC, a teaching artist at the National Book Foundation’s reading program BookUpNYC and the co-publisher of the hip-hop feminist curriculum Conscious Women Rock the Page. Sofia was nominated for the Women’s Media Center Social Media Award in 2010 and is completing her next young adult novel SHOW AND PROVE.

Website * Twitter * Instagram * Wattpad * Facebook * Buy

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#OurVoces Presents Lily Anderson, author of ‘Not Now, Not Ever’

¡Qué bonita bandera! AKA what heritage(s) do you claim?

I’m Afrolatina. My mother is Puerto Rican and black. My dad is white.

When was the first time you saw yourself represented?

Carmen in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants! I definitely cried when I read that she was Puerto Rican with a white dad.

How do you connect to your heritage through your books (if at all)?

I don’t consciously think about connecting to my heritage through my books, but people bring their culture to everything they do–in their vocab, worldview, how they think about family. So, no matter what character I’m writing, their heritage is a factor in all of their decisions. If I’m writing a character with my background, then I think about how my aunts and uncles and primas would react to a situation. But being mixed race, I often have to stop and ask friends if something is universal or just a quirk of my own family’s blended culture.

What do you hope for the future of Latinx books?

I just want more. I want more Latinx leads and love interests and best friends. Give me a Mexican girl in love with a Puerto Rican boy with friends who are Salvadoran and Colombian. I want YA novels that feel like the Pero Like channel where everyone is constantly learning about how their cultures intersect. And I want it written by Latinx authors. I wish the first time I saw myself hadn’t been in a book written by a white woman.

What is the book that inspired you to write for kids/teens?

I started writing because of fan fic. I wrote fic based on musicals and Harry Potter. Seeing Cassandra Clare move from fan fic to being a huge front list author made me realize that someday I could be traditionally published.

What are you writing now?

My next book, Not Now, Not Ever, comes out November 21 from Wednesday Books (formerly St. Martin’s Griffin)! A girl runs away from home using Oscar Wilde’s The Importance Of Being Earnest as a guide and competes for a college scholarship at a summer camp for geniuses. Hijinks ensue, duh.

LILY ANDERSON is a school librarian and Melvil Dewey fangirl with an ever-growing collection of musical theater tattoos and Harry Potter ephemera. She lives in Northern California, far from her mortal enemy: the snow. 

Website * Twitter * Pre-order Not Now, Not Ever! 

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#OurVoces presents Daniel José Older, author of ‘Shadowhouse Fall’

¡Qué bonita bandera! AKA what heritage(s) do you claim?

Cubanooooo (and Jewish American on the other side)

When was the first time you saw yourself represented?

Sonia Manzano aka Maria from Sesame Street was the first and most important. And then not again until I was like in my twenties basically…there were some here and there of course but The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao was a landmark for Latinx nerds like me. 

How do you connect to your heritage through your books (if at all)?

I write a lot about the sustaining power of ancestors—a reclamation of the ghost story, which white western culture has turned into such singularly horrible narrative, whereas so many of grew up with a much more loving and nuanced relationship to our dead. Also, I write Latinx characters in all my books. Why? Because we exist and we are amazing. 

What do you hope for the future of Latinx books?

That it expresses the endlessly complex humanity that we are composed of, in all our glory, joyfulness, sorrow, messiness. 

What is the book that inspired you to write for kids/teens?

The Harry Potter series inspired me, but also made me want to write a kind of counternarrative because as much as I loved it, so many of the same old white savior tropes are still present. All of Octavia Butler’s books, Oscar Wao, Nalo Hopkinson, Nnedi Okorafor…

What are your working on next?

An upcoming Middle-Grade sci-fi adventure, Flood City, about two boys named Max and Ato who team up to stop the destruction of the last urban outpost on a flooded Earth. Out from Scholastic in 2018.

Daniel José Older is the New York Times bestselling author of the Young Adult series the Shadowshaper Cypher (Scholastic), the Bone Street Rumba urban fantasy series (Penguin), and the upcoming Middle Grade sci-fi adventure Flood City (Scholastic). He won the International Latino Book Award and has been nominated for the Kirkus Prize, the Mythopoeic Award, the Locus Award, the Andre Norton Award, and yes, the World Fantasy Award. Shadowshaper was named one of Esquire’s 80 Books Every Person Should Read. You can find his thoughts on writing, read dispatches from his decade-long career as an NYC paramedic and hear his music at http://danieljoseolder.net/, on youtube and @djolder on twitter.

Website * Twitter * Instagram * Buy Shadowhouse Fall!

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#OurVoces presents Adi Alsaid, author of, ‘North of Happy’

¡Qué bonita bandera! AKA what heritage(s) do you claim?

Mexican and Israeli, but also Bulgarian and Syrian and who knows what before that. 

When was the first time you saw yourself represented?

It's hard to pinpoint, because of all the little facets of my background. The first time I read about a Mexican with a varied background was in the book Mexican High by Liza Monroy, which was inspired by the international school I attended. I read it in college and didn't love it, but it's the first concrete memory I have of kids like me who find it hard what to call themselves or answer 'where are you from?' only to get a repeat follow-up with added emphasis on the 'from.'

How do you connect to your heritage through your books (if at all)?

I like to try to write about people that are not just one thing, ethnically or culturally, since so few of the people I grew up with fit into a neat box in that regard. Just like in most regards, we are multi-faceted, and I want my books to reflect that. 

What do you hope for the future of Latinx books?

Ubiquitous representation. I want Latinx kids to be able to see themselves in literature as widely as white children do, reflected not in stereotypes but in varied, nuanced, and informed ways.

What is the book that inspired you to write for kids/teens?

I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone by Stephanie Kuehnert

What are you writing now?

I'm kind of working on three books right now, all in different stages. The one that is releasing soonest is Brief Chronicle of Another Stupid Heartbreak, which is about a teen girl who writes an online love column until she gets dumped and is struck by writer's block.

Adi Alsaid was born and raised in Mexico City. He is the author of Let’s Get Lost, Never Always Sometimes, and North of Happy. He really loves the idea of a funny bio, but keeps failing to write one. He now lives and writes in his hometown.

Website * Twitter * Instagram * Buy 

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#OurVoces presents Claudia Guadalupe Martinez, author of ‘Pig Park’

¡Qué bonita bandera! AKA what heritage(s) do you claim?

Mexican, Xicanx

When was the first time you saw yourself represented?

I read a poem by Lorna Dee Cervantez in speech class as a 10th grader. When I went to the library to look for it on the shelves, I stumbled upon Sandra Cisneros.  Lorna was from California and Sandra from Chicago, even so they are Chicanas chignonas.  As a kid growing up on the Texas border, I really connected.

How do you connect to your heritage through your books (if at all)?

I write about Xicanx kids in Chicago in Pig Park (Cinco Puntos, 2014) and also kids on the Texas border in The Smell of Old Lady Perfume (Cinco Puntos, 2008).  Not a Bean (Charlesbridge, 2019) is a culturally relevant picture book about the lifecycle of a jumping bean.

What do you hope for the future of Latinx books?

There are so many stories that still need to be told.  I meet a ton of kids who are budding writers.  I can't wait to read their stories one day.

What is the book that inspired you to write for kids/teens?

Pat Mora's picture books are a big inspiration.  As far as teens, I was really inspired by Benjamin Alire Saenz' Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood. He writes about kids in the Southwest and does it beautifully.  Reading his books doesn't just make me want to write, it makes me want to write something beautiful.

What are you writing now?

I'm working on a couple of picture books now.  My first picture book, Not a Bean, will be published by Charlesbridge in 2018.  My 2008 middle grade, The Smell of Old Lady Perfume, will be available as an ebook and Spanish translation for the first time this year.  It is very exciting to think my family abroad will be able to read.

Claudia Guadalupe Martinez grew up in sunny El Paso, Texas where she learned that letters form words from reading the subtitles of old westerns with her father. She now lives and writes in Chicago.

Website * Twitter * Buy Pig Park!

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#OurVoces presents Daniel José Older, author of ‘Shadowhouse Fall’

¡Qué bonita bandera! AKA what heritage(s) do you claim?

Cubanooooo (and Jewish American on the other side)

When was the first time you saw yourself represented?

Sonia Manzano aka Maria from Sesame Street was the first and most important. And then not again until I was like in my twenties basically...there were some here and there of course but The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao was a landmark for Latinx nerds like me. 

How do you connect to your heritage through your books (if at all)?

I write a lot about the sustaining power of ancestors—a reclamation of the ghost story, which white western culture has turned into such singularly horrible narrative, whereas so many of grew up with a much more loving and nuanced relationship to our dead. Also, I write Latinx characters in all my books. Why? Because we exist and we are amazing. 

What do you hope for the future of Latinx books?

That it expresses the endlessly complex humanity that we are composed of, in all our glory, joyfulness, sorrow, messiness. 

What is the book that inspired you to write for kids/teens?

The Harry Potter series inspired me, but also made me want to write a kind of counternarrative because as much as I loved it, so many of the same old white savior tropes are still present. All of Octavia Butler's books, Oscar Wao, Nalo Hopkinson, Nnedi Okorafor...

What are your working on next?

An upcoming Middle-Grade sci-fi adventure, Flood City, about two boys named Max and Ato who team up to stop the destruction of the last urban outpost on a flooded Earth. Out from Scholastic in 2018.

Daniel José Older is the New York Times bestselling author of the Young Adult series the Shadowshaper Cypher (Scholastic), the Bone Street Rumba urban fantasy series (Penguin), and the upcoming Middle Grade sci-fi adventure Flood City (Scholastic). He won the International Latino Book Award and has been nominated for the Kirkus Prize, the Mythopoeic Award, the Locus Award, the Andre Norton Award, and yes, the World Fantasy Award. Shadowshaper was named one of Esquire’s 80 Books Every Person Should Read. You can find his thoughts on writing, read dispatches from his decade-long career as an NYC paramedic and hear his music at http://danieljoseolder.net/, on youtube and @djolder on twitter.

Website * Twitter * Instagram * Buy Shadowhouse Fall!

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#OurVoces Presents Lily Anderson, author of ‘Not Now, Not Ever’

¡Qué bonita bandera! AKA what heritage(s) do you claim?

I'm Afrolatina. My mother is Puerto Rican and black. My dad is white.

When was the first time you saw yourself represented?

Carmen in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants! I definitely cried when I read that she was Puerto Rican with a white dad.

How do you connect to your heritage through your books (if at all)?

I don't consciously think about connecting to my heritage through my books, but people bring their culture to everything they do--in their vocab, worldview, how they think about family. So, no matter what character I'm writing, their heritage is a factor in all of their decisions. If I'm writing a character with my background, then I think about how my aunts and uncles and primas would react to a situation. But being mixed race, I often have to stop and ask friends if something is universal or just a quirk of my own family's blended culture.

What do you hope for the future of Latinx books?

I just want more. I want more Latinx leads and love interests and best friends. Give me a Mexican girl in love with a Puerto Rican boy with friends who are Salvadoran and Colombian. I want YA novels that feel like the Pero Like channel where everyone is constantly learning about how their cultures intersect. And I want it written by Latinx authors. I wish the first time I saw myself hadn't been in a book written by a white woman.

What is the book that inspired you to write for kids/teens?

I started writing because of fan fic. I wrote fic based on musicals and Harry Potter. Seeing Cassandra Clare move from fan fic to being a huge front list author made me realize that someday I could be traditionally published.

What are you writing now?

My next book, Not Now, Not Ever, comes out November 21 from Wednesday Books (formerly St. Martin's Griffin)! A girl runs away from home using Oscar Wilde's The Importance Of Being Earnest as a guide and competes for a college scholarship at a summer camp for geniuses. Hijinks ensue, duh.

LILY ANDERSON is a school librarian and Melvil Dewey fangirl with an ever-growing collection of musical theater tattoos and Harry Potter ephemera. She lives in Northern California, far from her mortal enemy: the snow. 

Website * Twitter * Pre-order Not Now, Not Ever! 

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#OurVoces Presents David Bowles, author of ‘Feathered Serpent, Dark Heart of Sky: Myths of Mexico’

¡Qué bonita bandera! AKA what heritage(s) do you claim?

Mexican-American. I am of mixed ethnicity (half Anglo-American), but identify as Mexican-American / Latino.

When was the first time you saw yourself represented?

My freshman year in college. The book was The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. I had read Latin-American authors in high school, but never anything by a US Latinx author. I didn't even know that we wrote books. That same year I read the collection of Mexican-American folklore Flour from Another Sack and realized that the cuentos my abuela Garza had told me as a child were valid literature that my schooling had stripped from me. I felt robbed. I was pissed. 

How do you connect to your heritage through your books (if at all)?

My books feature Mexican-American protagonists in fantasy or sci-fi settings that draw from Mexican and pre-Colombian Mesoamerican traditions. Many of the issues I grapple with thematically are of particular concern to my community.

What do you hope for the future of Latinx books?

I want to see a broader spectrum of Latinx experience reflected in the children's, middle-grade and young-adult books published each year, with unique characters that exist outside of the stereotypes. Such a vision can only be accomplished when the percentage of books written by people of color that accurately reflect the diverse reality of our times is closer to the actual percentage of the US population we make up. Fifty percent of school-age children are POC. Only 6 percent of books written for them have authors who are POC. That's a major injustice. 

What is the book that inspired you to write for kids/teens?

When I was a middle-school English teacher, across the hall from me was future children's author/illustrator Xavier Garza, teaching art to the same kids I was trying to get excited about reading. He shared with me a fantastic bilingual collection of Mexican-American folk tales and legends titled Stories That Must Not Die by Juan Sauvageau. Not well known outside of deep South Texas, this book fascinated our students and others throughout the region, and using it in class, I realized that I wanted to write books for Latinx kids that would tap into our shared tradiciones y cuentos. Later, reading Guadalupe García McCall's Summer of the Mariposas (which I just translated into Spanish for Tu Books), I decided to follow my heart and use our roots to craft relevant MG/YA speculative fiction as well. 

What are you writing now?

My most recent MG/YA book is A Kingdom beneath the Waves, the sequel to the Pura Belpré Author Honor The Smoking Mirror. In January, Cinco Puntos Press will publish Feathered Serpent, Dark Heart of Sky: Myths of Mexico, and in 2019, my graphic novel Clockwork Curandera (illustrated by Raúl González) will be out from Tu Books.  

About David: 

A product of a Mexican-American family, I have lived most of my life in deep South Texas, where I teach at the University of Texas Río Grande Valley. Recipient of awards from the American Library Association, Texas Institute of Letters and Texas Associated Press, I have written several books, most significantly the Pura Belpré Honor Book The Smoking Mirror.

Additionally, my work has been published in venues including Rattle, Strange Horizons, Apex Magazine, Metamorphoses, Translation Review, Concho River Review, Huizache, Journal of Children’s Literature, Asymptote, Eye to the Telescope and Newfound.

Website * Twitter * Facebook * Instagram * Pre-order!

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Happy Book Birthday! #OurVoces Presents Anna-Marie McLemore, author of ‘Wild Beauty’

¡Qué bonita bandera! AKA what heritage(s) do you claim?

I’m Mexican-American, but my loved ones growing up weren’t all Mexican, so I’ll often use the term Latina.

When was the first time you saw yourself represented?

Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate.

How do you connect to your heritage through your books (if at all)?

The tradition of magical realism, the heritage of my main characters, the food they cook in their mothers’ kitchens, the bedtime stories they hear growing up.

What do you hope for the future of Latinx books?

That Latinx readers can find themselves in whatever kind of book they’re looking for, and that more books feature main characters with intersectional identities.

What is the book that inspired you to write for kids/teens?

The Chronicles of Narnia or The Little Prince.

What are you writing now?

My bi Latina girls and enchanted murderous gardens novel, Wild Beauty, is out on October 3, and I'm currently working on Blanca & Roja, a Latinx retelling of Snow-White & Rose-Red meets Swan Lake, slated for 2018.

Anna-Marie McLemore (she/her) was born in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains and taught by her family to hear la llorona in the Santa Ana winds. She is the author of THE WEIGHT OF FEATHERS, a finalist for the 2016 William C. Morris Debut Award, and 2017 Stonewall Honor Book WHEN THE MOON WAS OURS, which was longlisted for the National Book Award in Young People’s Literature. Her latest is WILD BEAUTY, and BLANCA & ROJA is forthcoming in fall of 2018.

Website * Twitter * Facebook * Buy Wild Beauty!

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#OurVoces Presents Melissa Grey, author of ‘The Savage Dawn’

¡Qué bonita bandera! AKA what heritage(s) do you claim?

Puerto Rican

When was the first time you saw yourself represented?

I read fantasy and sci-fi almost exclusively as a kid so I probably spent more time with elves and dragons than fictional humans. In any media, the first time I remember being aware of and appreciating seeing someone who looked like me in a genre work in any format was Jessica Alba in the TV show Dark Angel.

How do you connect to your heritage through your books (if at all)?

The main character of The Girl at Midnight series is Puerto Rican. She’s also the only human in the books, so it’s not actually a huge part of the plot but I did make sure to include a scene in The Savage Dawn where she travels to Puerto Rico and encounters magical bird people living in El Yunque. It’s such an enchanting rainforest and that was a blast to write. 

What do you hope for the future of Latinx books?

In the past couple of years, publishing has made huge strides in diversifying books for younger readers, but there’s still so much ground left to explore, particularly in genre titles. I want to see Latinx protagonists tackling cyberpunk dystopias and traveling through portals and fighting evil wizards. 

What is the book that inspired you to write for kids/teens?

The Secret Circle by LJ Smith. When I was a kid, that was the sort of book I wanted to write. 

What are you writing now?

Right now, I’m working on a sci-fi YA book I’m not allowed to talk about yet! I’ve wrapped up The Girl at Midnight series with The Savage Dawn but it’ll always have a special place in my heart. 

Melissa Grey was born and raised in New York City. She wrote her first short story at the age of twelve and hasn’t stopped writing since. After earning a degree in fine arts at Yale University, she embarked on an adventure of global proportions and discovered a secret talent for navigating subway systems in just about any language. She works as a freelance writer in New York City. She is the author of the Girl at Midnight series: The Girl at Midnight, The Shadow Hour, and The Savage Dawn. To learn more about Melissa, visit melissa-grey.com, follow @meligrey on Twitter, and look for melissagrey_ on Instagram.

Website * Twitter * Instagram * Buy The Savage Dawn!

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#OurVoces Presents author Kristina Pérez, author of ‘Sweet Black Waves’

¡Qué bonita bandera! AKA what heritage(s) do you claim?

My dad was born in Argentina before immigrating to California as a teen, and I’m very proud of my Argentine heritage.

When was the first time you saw yourself represented?

The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros was the only book featuring Latinx characters that I read in English class. Although the life experiences of those characters were very different from my own, just reading about people with Spanish names like mine was exciting and gratifying in a way my 12-year-old self didn’t quite understand. Also, as silly as it might sound, Cameron Diaz first became famous when I was in high school and I’d never seen a white Latina like me on the screen before; it made those conversations about “not looking like a Pérez” easier to take and allowed me to educate those willing to listen.

How do you connect to your heritage through your books (if at all)?

It’s taken me a while to work up the courage to write a Latinx MC mostly because I’ve been worried that my experience isn’t representative and therefore invalid somehow. Then I realized, ¡Qué idiota soy! My experience is my own and I can only tell my own stories, and I don’t need anyone else’s permission. The result is my current middle-grade WIP set in New York, where I grew up, and it's the book of my heart. My debut YA is a high fantasy but one of the leads is of mixed heritage within his world. Subconsciously I have always included characters who have to negotiate two different cultures as surrogates for myself, I think.

What do you hope for the future of Latinx books?

¡Más y más! I hope that there are more and more books on shelves featuring Latinx characters who demonstrate the breadth and diversity of Latinx cultures as well as stories where Latinx protagonists have adventures or fly spaceships just like any other white character.

What is the book that inspired you to write for kids/teens?

I don’t think I can pick just one! The three books that inspired me as a young teen were The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi, The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce. The heroines of these novels are headstrong and independent, and I wanted to be just like them. They helped shape the way I saw the world as well as what I thought I might be able to achieve, and my greatest hope is that my heroines might inspire other teens in the same way.

What are you writing now?

Sweet Black Waves, the first book in my debut trilogy, will be released by Imprint/Macmillan on June 5th, 2018 and I’m brimming with excitement! Taking inspiration from the medieval tale of Tristan and Eseult, my retelling shines a light on the legend's true heroine––the princess's cousin, Branwen––and her ancient healing magic. Branwen is my ode to the heroines whom I Ioved so much as a teen and I can’t wait to share her with readers. I’m currently hard at work on the second book in the series!

Kristina Pérez is a half-Argentine/half-Norwegian native New Yorker. She has spent the past two decades working as a journalist and academic in Europe and Asia, and has a PhD in Medieval Literature from the University of Cambridge. Sweet Black Waves is Kristina's debut YA novel, out June 5th, 2018 from Imprint/Macmillan. This lush fantasy of warring countries and family secrets is the first in a trilogy inspired by the star-crossed tale of Tristan and Eseult.

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