Casey McQuiston, author of I Kissed Shara Wheeler

Goodreads: Summarize your new book in a couple of sentences.
 
Casey McQuiston: I Kissed Shara Wheeler is the story of an enigmatic, runaway prom queen and the three classmates she kisses before vanishing on prom night. Left behind are Smith (Shara’s quarterback boyfriend), Rory (Shara’s bad-boy neighbor), and Chloe (Shara’s academic rival), who have nothing in common but the kisses and clues they have to decode. It’s an ensemble rom-com about finding yourself, breaking rules, and coming of age queer in the Bible Belt. It’s a ton of fun!
 
GR: What sparked the idea for it?
 
CM: This story really began with the title—it just jumped into my head, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it, so I came up with a plot that would suit it, inspired by some of my favorite books about brilliant, enigmatic women with tons of secrets: Gone Girl, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Where’d You Go Bernadette. Ever since I was a teenager trying to come up with novel ideas for the first time, I had always wanted to do a story about a missing girl and the people she left, so I thought, maybe this is it. I could do it as a rom-com! I could take everything I ever loved about teen media and tie it all together with a ridiculous, over-the-top mystery! So, that’s what I did.
 
GR: Who are some of your all-time-favorite YA writers?
 
CM: Growing up, I loved Louise Rennison, Meg Cabot, Sharon Creech, Sara Shephard, Ann Brashares, and whatever was on the new YA contemporary releases table at Barnes & Noble. I was also a huge fan of all the big YA SFF series like Twilight and The Hunger Games, like every other person in high school during the ’00s. Now I think I’d add a ton of names to that list: Malinda Lo, Nina LaCour, Elizabeth Acevedo, and Courtney Summers, to name a few.
 
GR: What are some new YA books you've been recommending to your friends recently?
 
CM: Obviously Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo. I also loved Pet and Bitter by Akwaeke Emezi, Mooncakes by Wendy Xu and Suzanne Walker, Some Girls Do by Jenn Dugan, The Witch Haven by Sasha Peyton Smith, and Perfectly Parvin by Olivia Abtahi.
 
GR: If you could go back in time and tell your young adult self one thing, what would it be?
 
CM: One day, so many of the things about you that make you scared you’re wrong or broken or unlovable are going to be your favorite things about yourself. Chill out, it’s all going to be OK. And please wash your face!
 

Sonora Reyes, author of The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School

Goodreads: Summarize your new book in a couple of sentences.

Sonora Reyes: After getting outed by her crush and ex–best friend, Yamilet Flores follows her brother to a new Catholic high school, where she goes back into the closet. Here she has new priorities: make her mom proud, keep her brother out of trouble, and, most importantly, don’t fall in love.

GR: What sparked the idea for it?

SR: I always imagined my first original novel would be fantasy or sci-fi, since those were the worlds I used to always write fan fiction in. But I decided at the last minute to participate in National Novel Writing Month one year, and I didn't have time to build a whole new world from scratch. Instead, I chose to write about an experience I knew intimately, and The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School was born!

GR: Who are some of your all-time-favorite YA writers?

SR: Aiden Thomas and Alechia Dow!

GR: What are some new YA books you've been recommending to your friends recently?

SR: Café Con Lychee by Emery Lee, This Is Why They Hate Us by Aaron H. Aceves, and Ophelia After All by Racquel Marie!

GR: If you could go back in time and tell your young adult self one thing, what would it be?

SR: If I could go back and interact with my high school self, I would show them who I am today. I'd show them we can achieve our dreams by writing about people like us. I would show them all the scars from back then that come out in the books I've written, and we would celebrate them now because scars only show up after you've healed. I'd tell them there will always be more books that will help more scars come to the surface. I would show them that we're healing every day.
 

Isabel Ibañez, author of Together We Burn

Goodreads: Summarize your new book in a couple of sentences.

Isabel Ibañez: Together We Burn is a medieval Spanish-inspired YA fantasy about Zarela, the daughter of a famous flamenco dancer and dragonador (a matador, but instead of facing bulls in the arena, they face dragons). When disaster upends Zarela's life, she must work with a dragon tamer to save her legacy and ancestral home from a guild who wishes to take everything from her. The story is filled with adventure and dragons and a sweeping love story, plus delicious food. :) 

GR: What sparked the idea for it?

II: My mother's side of the family originally hails from Spain, and during a family visit, my cousins took me to a bull fight. While the event was certainly memorable, I will never repeat the experience. Truthfully, it left me heartbroken and baffled by its continued practice. However, bullfighting is a 3,000-year-old tradition in Spain and intrinsically part of their culture and lifestyle. There are many in Spain who love the tradition, while many others who wish to abolish it altogether. I began wondering about the idea of honoring a tradition rooted in antiquity and celebrating it in modern times. Tension exists between both arguments, and Together We Burn sits in the middle and wrestles with the question of how to move forward. 

GR: Who are some of your all-time-favorite YA writers?

II: I have so many! Chloe Gong, Margaret Rogerson, Rachel Griffin, Elise Bryant, Kristin Dwyer, Shelby Mahurin, Adrienne Young, Rebecca Ross, Romina Garber, Zoraida Cordova, Stephanie Garber, Alex Bracken, and Brigid Kemmerer. 

GR: What are some new YA books you've been recommending to your friends recently?

II: Only a Monster by Vanessa Len, Flirting with Fate by J.C. Cervantes, A Far Wilder Magic by Allison Saft, and One True Loves by Elise Bryant. 

GR: If you could go back in time and tell your young adult self one thing, what would it be?

II: I'd tell her to pursue her dreams, even if it feels and looks impossible. 
    

Alexene Farol Follmuth, author of My Mechanical Romance

Goodreads: Summarize your new book in a couple of sentences.
 
Alexene Farol Follmuth: My Mechanical Romance is a dual POV rom-com about Bel, an artsy, unmotivated high school senior who inadvertently reveals an aptitude for physics when a Macgyvered school assignment lands her on her school’s highly competitive combat robotics team. Her design capabilities catch the interest of the school’s heartthrob and team captain—hello, academic rivals to lovers!—but despite Bel’s preternatural talent, she struggles with the pressure of not knowing what to do with her life, as well as the microaggressions she faces as a young woman of color in a predominantly male-dominated STEM field. (And, of course, there’s her very problematic, highly undignified, and deeply swoonworthy crush on Teo Luna.)
 
GR: What sparked the idea for it?
 
AFF: I happened to write a short story about a female engineer a couple of years ago and was really moved by the conversation that followed between women who felt invisible in their STEM fields and women who, conversely, felt they were pushed out of STEM early on as a result of the exact same microaggressions plaguing the first group. Being a woman who “makes it” in STEM requires such exhausting toughness in the face of adversity that gentler things like excitement and curiosity are easily trampled along the way. As if being a teenage girl isn’t hard enough! Also, my husband is a high school physics teacher who told me I had a responsibility to bring more girls into science (and I figured I could do him this one small favor, as a treat). I had never written for young adults before, but I wanted to tell a story that was honest about the obstacles facing girls in STEM that also left room to imagine a better ending. Ultimately, My Mechanical Romance is about finding your voice and learning to take up your own space. But also, love. And robots.
 
GR: Who are some of your all-time-favorite YA writers?
   
GR: What are some new YA books you've been recommending to your friends recently?
 
AFF: As an adult, I’m reveling in stories about friend breakups, which I think is something that was missing from fiction in my teen years. I had plenty of books about heartbreak, but never the specific, unbearable kind of heartbreak that comes from deep platonic intimacy. To that end, We Used to Be Friends by Amy Spalding and When You Were Everything by Ashley Woodfolk feel like they’re healing old wounds. 
 
GR: If you could go back in time and tell your young adult self one thing, what would it be?
 
AFF: I’d have to tell myself (and my audience) the same thing that Bel eventually learns: that life is long, with lots of chances to start over, and you can always change your path. Also, in direct defiance of the “not like other girls” mind-set: We all go farther when we raise each other up. It’s important to take up your own space when the moment calls for it, but know that you don’t have to stand alone.
   

Andrew Joseph White, author of Hell Followed with Us

Goodreads: Summarize your new book in a couple of sentences.

Andrew Joseph White: Two years after a fundamentalist sect unleashed an apocalyptic plague, Benji—a gay, trans teenager—escapes from his community of cultists, carrying a new strain of the virus that is slowly turning him into a horrific, rotting monster. But when the cult’s death squads track him down, he is rescued by a group of queer teens and their aloof (that is, autistic) leader, Nick. Nick promises safety in exchange for Benji’s help fighting the cult, but as their painful histories clash and attempts at survival grow more desperate, the two may have to go to terrifying lengths to keep their friends safe from the people who ended the world.

GR: What sparked the idea for it?

AJW: I wrote the first draft of Hell Followed with Us just a few months after coming out as trans in 2018. I’d grown up always feeling a little monstrous, thanks to a combination of gender dysphoria and autism, and wanted to create a story that gave voice to those feelings. Combined with living through a rise in transphobia, my love of postapocalyptic media (like Metro and Fallout), and my teenage fixation on all things disgusting, this gross little book was born.

GR: Who are some of your all-time-favorite YA writers?

AJW: Right now, my insta-read list is headed by Courtney Summers; after Sadie and The Project, I will devour anything she puts in front of me. Victoria Lee is another, as The Feverwake Duology was formative to me as a burgeoning writer. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention H.E. Edgmon. His work is whip-smart, funny as hell, and brings characters into the world that you can get absolutely nowhere else.

GR: What are some new YA books you've been recommending to your friends recently?

AJW: One of my favorite new releases is Erik J. Brown’s All That’s Left in the World, another postapocalyptic YA with queer leads, specifically because it’s exactly the book I wanted as a kid when I was bored by the heterosexuality of my favorite postapocalyptic media. My second may be a cheat, since it hasn’t technically come out yet, but R.M. Romero’s The Ghosts of Rose Hill hits shelves very soon, and I have never read anything so touching and beautiful. 

GR: If you could go back in time and tell your young adult self one thing, what would it be?

AJW: I would tell him—well, I’m sure he’d be shocked by the whole being a man thing, but beyond that—there are words for the things he’s feeling. There are whole communities of people like him, and they are amazing. He’ll get to be part of that community, and write stories with them, and have friends who understand him. All he has to do is grit his teeth and make some noise about it.