Young at Heart From the Start: On Writing the LGBTQ+ Young Adult Novel (Theater 1)

Young Adult authors discuss their books and the challenges and joys of writing YA novels.

Sarah Lacy is an award winning investigative journalist, three-time author and a serial entrepreneur living in San Francisco and Palm Springs. She’s dedicated her career to standing up for marginalized groups in the tech and media world. She is the co-owner of The Best Bookstore in Palm Springs, and the mother of two ferociously feminist daughters.

Robbie Couch writes contemporary and speculative young-adult fiction. If I See You Again Tomorrow, his New York Times bestselling third novel, has received starred reviews from Publisher's Weekly, Booklist, and the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. Robbie’s debut, The Sky Blues, was a Barnes & Noble Young-Adult Book of the Year finalist and Junior Library Guild selection. Robbie is originally from small-town Michigan and lives in Los Angeles.

Sina Grace is a writer and artist living in Los Angeles, best known for a prolific library of work that balances slice-of-life, blockbuster action, and everything in-between. His groundbreaking Iceman series at Marvel Comics paved the way for Grace to work on all of his favorites: Jughead's Time Police for Archie, Wonder Woman for DC, Go Go Power Rangers for Boom Studios, and The Haunted Mansion for Disney/ IDW. He is currently promoting Rockstar and Softboy at Image Comics, and Superman: The Harvests of Youth, a young adult graphic novel he’s writing and drawing at DC.

Abdi Nazemian is the author of five novels including Like a Love Story and his latest, Only This Beautiful Moment. For his literary work, he has received a Lambda Literary Award and a Stonewall Honor. His screenwriting credits include movies such as The Artist's Wife and The Quiet, and television shows including Ordinary Joe. He has been a producer, executive producer or associate producer on a number of films, including Call Me By Your Name and Little Woods. He lives in Los Angeles with his husband, their two children, and their dog Disco.

Born and raised in Arizona, Sonora Reyes is the best-selling and award-winning author of contemporary Young Adult novels The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School and The Luis Ortega Survival Club. Sonora is also a co-founder of QPOCFest, a virtual book festival celebrating queer and trans BIPOC authors and books.

Shannon Watters is the co-creator and co-writer of the New York Times-bestselling and award-winning hit comic book series Lumberjanes. Her new graphic novel Hollow is out now! She is also a former senior editor and the founder/head of Boom! Box line at Boom! Studios, the imprint behind critically acclaimed comics and graphic novels like Giant Days, The Backstagers, Lumberjanes, Fence, Goldie Vance, Heavy Vinyl, The Avant-Guards, and many, many others. She loves vintage nonsense, cooking elaborate meals, and funny words, and lives in Los Angeles.

Branden Boyer-White (she/her) has been publishing fiction since 2012 in places like Alaska Quarterly Review, Third Coast, Los Angeles Review, and others. Her work has won Tulip Tree Review’s “Wild Women” Contest and the Orlando Prize, been named a runner-up for the Miami Book Fair/de Groot Prize for a Novella, and awarded a grant from the Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fund. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Arizona State University and lives in Los Angeles with her partner. Hollow is her first graphic novel.

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