For many years, the prevailing narrative about queer girl books in YA was ""they don't sell."" Writers heard that agents wouldn't take on queer girl books, publishers wouldn't buy them, and there certainly weren't enough readers. It was too niche for mainstream publishing. Thanks to trail-blazing efforts by queer writers like Malinda Lo and Tess Sharpe, that narrative is starting to change. Today, YA is enjoying a surge of wonderful queer girl books. From fresh coming out narratives to novels where queerness is a POV lens rather than plot point, there's more for readers than ever before. The Queer Girls in YA panel brings a multi-genre group of authors together to discuss the state of queer girl books in YA, where they see their stories fitting into the larger canon, and what they hope for the future of stories like ours.
Featuring:
JL Dugan
Adiba Jaigirdar
Leah Johnson
Kaylynn Bayron
Isabel Sterling
