The power of literature was never lost on Angela Montoya, not even as a girl. Her family of writers—including her father (a poet), uncle (a playwright), and grandfather, Jose Montoya, the former poet laureate of Sacramento—cemented Montoya’s admiration for storytelling while she was growing up in Auburn, Calif. Admiring her relatives as they performed at poetry events planted the idea that writing could be her future too.
In Montoya’s YA fantasy debut, Sinner’s Isle (Joy Revolution), Rosa and powerful witches like her are trapped on the titular island and eventually sold to rich men in society to do their bidding in repentance for being born with the sin of magic. Rosa strikes a deal to escape with Mariano, a pirate who has washed up on Sinner’s Isle, but their plan is complicated by their discovery of how the witches’ entrapment plays a larger role in their society’s political landscape.
Montoya didn’t land on writing professionally until 2017, when a move with her partner provided her with an opportunity for a career change. All roads had been pointing to a career in education. She worked with her mother at a childcare facility for eight years and became a preschool teacher. But after relocating to Northern California left Montoya with more free time, her partner offhandedly mentioned that maybe it was time to give writing a try.
“I had the freedom for once in my life to sit down and really explore what it was I wanted,” Montoya says. “Thankfully, my partner knew me better than I know myself and thought, try writing.”
Montoya shelved her first project after several attempts of querying, but that didn’t deter her. She watched YouTube videos and read books on craft, and armed with new knowledge, she felt ready to tackle a fresh idea that came to her in late 2019: the love story of a witch and a pirate.
In 2020, Montoya submitted her manuscript for Sinner’s Isle to the now-defunct mentorship program Pitch Wars, where she continued to learn more about writing under the guidance of her mentor Margie Fuston. After reading Montoya’s project twice in one weekend, agent Larissa Melo Pienkowski at Jill Grinberg Literary Management offered to represent her. Montoya says she knew Pienkowski was “the one” because she “understood the heart of what I was going for.”
In the months that followed, Sinner’s Isle went through a number of changes as Pienkowski searched for a publisher. “Willing to do anything,” they tried bumping the book up to adult before returning to its original YA form. It was then that the book drew the attention of editors, including YA authors Nicola and David Yoon, who had just begun searching for titles for their new Joy Revolution imprint.
“I just had chills, head to toe, and I was trying to play it cool,” Montoya says of the moment she learned of the Yoons’ interest. “But on the inside, I was really screaming.” She recalls a Zoom call with the Yoons and her soon-to-be editor, Bria Ragin. “I’m just looking at them: my idols, these icons. My daughter has their books on her shelves.”
The book went to auction, and Montoya accepted a two-book deal with Joy Revolution because she knew her story would be in “such compassionate and passionate hands.” And with Ragin’s help, Montoya revised Sinner’s Isle (which was “much darker” before coming to Joy Revolution) to balance its heavy themes with humor and heart.
“I always knew I was going to toy with the concept of power, particularly a woman’s power, her control over her own body in this world that is dominated by men,” Montoya says. “It was me trying to grapple with all the terrible things happening. It’s a heavy world we live in. But you still can find bits of joy and love and fight for that.”
The concept of supporting women’s empowerment came from the same family that instilled a love of writing in Montoya in the first place. She’s the first of the Montoya women to enter the family trade. “One of my uncles said, ‘The Montoya guys are out here. And now it’s time for the gals to push them to the side.’ And I was like, ‘Yep, move aside. It’s time.’ ”
