The morning began with Michael Cart giving an overview of some of the important social and political events related to LGBTQ issues. Next, Cart and Christine Jenkins presenting a list of all of the books with LGBTQ content from 1969 to 2010. They booktalked many of these, highlighting some trends (resolution by automobile crash, melodrama, impossibly good looking gay men and the women who love them), the breakthrough books, and the real dingers. It was like being back in library school, taking a class on LGBTQ YA Lit, but it was compressed. If you want to spend more time with these books and these issues, check out Cart and Jenkins’ book from Scarecrow Press, The Heart Has It’s Reasons.
If you get your hands on their bibliography and were not in attendance, please note that this is not a list of recommended books. Some are good and some are not so good. During introductions, we each chose books from the list to highlight. Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan and Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and Levithan got the most nods, along with the graphic novel Skim by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki. Please add your own recommendations in the comments.
After lunch of sandwiches and delicious chocolate cupcakes, there was an author panel consisting of: Lauren Bjorkman, Kirstin Cronn-Mills, Malinda Lo, and Megan Frazer (hey, that’s me!). We talked about what brought us to write our books, the challenges we faced, and what we hope to see in the future. We compiled a list of links that are on Malinda’s site.
After the author panel, I had to dash to the Body Positivity and Fat Acceptance in Contemporary YA Fiction pre-conference (which I hope someone else blogs about, because when I came in they were sharing some awesome ideas and resources), so I cannot give a first-person account of the breakouts that occurred — if anyone else would like to chime in, please do.
If you are in Albuquerque but missed the pre-conference, you can still hear about LGBTQ issues today at 1:30 at the breakout session: The New Gay Teen: Moving Beyond the Issue Novel.
Very cool. I have so much admiration for cover artists who still use traditional media. (In fact, it’s what I kind of thought I’d be doing with my life! Funny how that happens, or doesn’t.)
Beautiful. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.
Both my books are coming out in paperback next Spring – with photographic covers. I’m kind of “meh” about both of them – they’re nice, but they’re nothing like the illustrated versions. Hopefully someday I will rate some lovely work such as this!
So nice to see those lovely illustrated covers amongst so many photographic ones. I for one, really detest the new photographic covers of Shannon Hale’s Books of Bayern (Goose Girl, Enna Burning, etc). The older illustrated covers are so gorgeous (by Alison Jay) and in my opinion, they go much better with the books.
Wow, exciting, thanks for sharing, Betsy!
Hey, Betsy. Thanks for including me in the list (I like you too, by the way). Unfortunately, I have to correct you. The publisher decided to replace me for the paperback cover of Lucky Breaks. So that one isn’t mine. The girl on Spilling Ink however is definitely by me.
Brilliant gathering, as usual. Thanks so much for posting this.
Whaa! Tis not Matt Phelan on book #2? Well then it’s a pretty good copy, I must say. I shall correct!
I have been fortunate enough to have Scott Altmann’s art on the covers of my last two Haunted Mysteries. He’s fantastic. And, I know he reads the whole book before creating his covers because he works in tiny details from deep into the text!
I was so glad to read that the new cover art was Matt’s, after all, even if it does feel several steps away from his usual wonderful work. (Nothing against you or your work, new guy/gal, whoever you are.) Then Matt had to go and correct the record. I’m sure somebody somewhere thought they had their reasons, but it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
Otherwise — it’s great to see these covers. Thanks for the post, and hats off to the art directors who look beyond the stock catalogs!
Great twist on the theme–fabulous to celebrate the artists that don’t get as much recognition as the authors. Thank you!
Alas, I see no John Rocco for all the Rick Riordan book covers he has done. The Red Pyramid came out in May
I do love John’s work. Alas, he only had one book out this year. I probably should have included him anyway. And you, sir! I should have had your Lisa Yee book, your R.A. Spratt book, and your Attack of the Cute Fluffy Bunnies books! I’ll add ‘em when I get home tonight.
What a feast for the eyes! Gorgeous covers. Thanks for highlighting these talented artists!
Jennifer Cervantes