This week, Kwame Mbalia and Prince Joel Makonnen celebrate on Crowdcast; Angeline Boulley springs forward with a talk on Native American literature; and Renée Watson and Meg Medina chat about their middle grade sequels.
The Future Is Now
On May 4, Kwame Mbalia (r.) and Prince Joel Makonnen joined Loyalty Bookstore, located in Washington, D.C., and Silver Springs, Md., to virtually launch their middle grade Afrofuturist epic Last Gate of the Emperor (Scholastic Press). The co-authors talked about their collaborative process, how Makonnen’s life inspired the novel, and their favorite Ethiopian snacks.
Keep the Fire Burnin’
Bestselling debut author Angeline Boulley (Firekeeper’s Daughter, Holt) (pictured) helped kick off the Midwest Independent Booksellers Association’s Spring Forward, a two-day virtual spring forum, with a May 5 conversation. Alex Ceballos, a bookseller at Birchbark Books & Native Arts in Minneapolis, moderated the talk, titled “An Empowering Conversation About Native American Literature for Youth.” The duo discussed experiencing grief and loss, both as an individual and collectively; exposing the dark underside of a community to outsiders; and the novel’s setting, on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. “I loved taking a ferry boat to Sugar Island when I visited my relatives up there,” Boulley said. “I think of this novel as a love letter to Sugar Island.”
Twice as Nice
Last week, Newbery Honoree Renée Watson (Ways to Grow Love, Bloomsbury) and Newbery Medalist Meg Medina (Merci Suarez Can’t Dance, Candlewick) were in conversation via Zoom about their sequels. Hosted virtually by Third Place Books in Seattle, the exchange was moderated by author Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich. The panelists discussed writing for a middle grade audience, the importance of family and community, and the changing dynamics of friendship.
