Our Friend is Here! A Discussion with Ryan Douglass, Author of The Taking of Jake Livingston – On Why We Need Radical YA Books

Our Friend is Here! is a guest feature at The Quiet Pond, where authors, creatives, and fellow readers, are invited to ‘visit’ the Pond! In Our Friend is Here! guest posts, our visitors (as their very own unique character!) have a friendly conversation about anything related to books or being a reader — and become friends with Xiaolong and friends.

Pride Month is a month-long event at The Quiet Pond, where during the month of June, queer authors and bookish content creators are invited to celebrate being queer, queer books, and their experiences of being a queer reader. Find the introduction post for Pride Month at The Quiet Pond here.

What a month it’s been, friends! I hope you’ve enjoyed all our lovely author interviews about queer identity and stories, and that the discussions we’ve hosted have helped you to feel seen too, wherever you are on this weird and wonderful journey! Today, to bookend our Pride Month series, we are closing with a post about the importance of radical YA fiction, and its absolutely critical role in helping us imagine better futures—both for ourselves and the teens who will one day grow into the world that we leave for them.

Our Friend is Here! A Discussion with Adiba Jaigirdar, Author of Hani & Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating – On Why We Need Nuanced Parents in Queer YA

Our Friend is Here! is a guest feature at The Quiet Pond, where authors, creatives, and fellow readers, are invited to ‘visit’ the Pond! In Our Friend is Here! guest posts, our visitors (as their very own unique character!) have a friendly conversation about anything related to books or being a reader — and become friends with Xiaolong and friends.

Our Friend is Here: Pride Month Edition is a month-long event at The Quiet Pond during the month of June, queer authors are invited to celebrate being queer, queer books, and their experiences of being a queer author! Find the introduction post for Pride Month here.

‘Family’ is a theme that I will always love to read about in young adult fiction. Family, whether by blood or found, is incredibly important to us and the way that we form, shape, and navigate who we are as people in the world, and I feel like there’s no better age category for such explorations than young adult fiction. However, when I think about ‘queer experiences’ and ‘family’, the crossroads here can be fraught – and it can be doubly fraught for queer people of colour.

Our Friend is Here! A Discussion with Aliette de Bodard on the Themes of Abuse, Colonialism, & Healing in Fireheart Tiger

Our Friend is Here! is a guest feature at The Quiet Pond, where authors, creatives, and fellow readers, are invited to ‘visit’ the Pond! In Our Friend is Here! guest posts, our visitors (as their very own unique character!) have a friendly conversation about anything related to books or being a reader — and become friends with Xiaolong and friends.

How often do we get to glimpse the heart of a book?

One of my favorite things to do, both as an avid reader and a media student, is picking apart the overarching themes in narratives that I love. I enjoy a grand action-packed fantasy quest as much as anyone else, but there’s just something deeply satisfying about digging deeper—uncovering the big ideas at the core of a story, the questions it wants to ask. So, friends, I am over the moon to be hosting acclaimed SFF author Aliette de Bodard here today with a discussion on the themes of abuse, healing, and colonialism in her newest fantasy novella, Fireheart Tiger.

Our Friend is Here! – A Story with Raquel Vasquez Gilliland, Author of Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of the Universe; On Ghosts, Día de los Muertos and Sia Martinez

Our Friend is Here! is a guest feature at The Quiet Pond, where authors, creatives, and fellow readers, are invited to ‘visit’ the Pond! In Our Friend is Here! guest posts, our visitors (as their very own unique character!) have a friendly conversation about anything related to books or being a reader — and become friends with Xiaolong and friends.

Earlier this year, as we were planning our Latinx Heritage Month at the Pond event, Skye mentioned that she really wanted the author of Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of Everything, Raquel Vasquez Gilliland, to visit us. Curious, I went ahead and picked up a copy of Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of Everything, not really knowing what to expect – but goodness, I have absolutely no regrets going into it without reading the blurb, because I thought Sia Martinez was spectacular.

Our Friend is Here! Latinx Heritage Month – Mixtapes to Manors: An Introduction to Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Books with Joce at Yogi with a Book

Our Friend is Here! is a guest feature at The Quiet Pond, where authors, creatives, and fellow readers, are invited to ‘visit’ the Pond! In Our Friend is Here! guest posts, our visitors (as their very own unique character!) have a friendly conversation about anything related to books or being a reader — and become friends with Xiaolong and friends.

Our Friend is Here: Latinx Heritage Month Edition is a month-long event at The Quiet Pond, where between September 15th and October 15th, Latinx authors and bookish content creators are invited to celebrate being Latinx and Latinx books. Find the introduction post for Latinx Heritage Month at The Quiet Pond here.

It’s no secret that we here at the Pond absolutely adore Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s books, with CW and I’s gushing reviews of Gods of Jade and Shadow and Mexican Gothic! When our friend Jocelyn from Yogi with a Book agreed to visit the Pond for Latinx Heritage Month, I was thrilled ⁠— not just because she’s a brilliant booktuber who makes thoughtful, lovely content (because she does), but also because she is the most invested fan of Silvia Moreno-Garcia that I know! Today, we have Joce at the Pond to introduce us to the author’s astonishing and prolific body of work over the past few years, as well as discuss her personal experience with these wonderful books!