#wednesday books
Okay guys but look!!! Wednesday Books completely spoiling me! The glittery arc, the gorgeous packaging and a sketchbook with absolutely perfect paper for illustration! Thank you sooooo much! Xo
Post link
¡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-orderNot Now, Not Ever!
