Author Archive

It was such an amazing honor to be recognized by the Pura Belpre committee at this year’s ALA awards ceremony. One of the consistent themes running through all my work over the years (I’ve now been publishing books for almost a decade — I’m so old!) is the “mixed-race” experience. A lot of folks

I’m drowning under deadlines until the end of February. Deadlines are stressful. But I’m excited about what’s coming out. I did want to peek my head out for a sec to say how excited I am to be a part of Stephanie Perkins’ upcoming anthology about love during the holidays. It’s called My True

One last update for 2013: – Very sad to hear of Ned Vizzini’s passing. Feel bad for everyone: Ned, his wife, his new baby, his parents and friends, and his fans. I only met the guy a few times, but he was funny as hell and I could tell right away he was crazy

When I heard I was going to be interviewed on NPR’s Weekend Edition I immediately started sweating. And unconsciously gritting my teeth. National radio? Me? What if I sounded like an idiot or stumbled over my words or accidentally referred to Scott Simon as “Bob” Simon? What if I dropped a series of accidental

The Living is out in the world now, and I’m truly humbled by all the folks who have agreed to help spread the word. Here’s an interview I did with Kirkus, written by Jessie Grearson (an excellent writer out of the Iowa Writers Workshop). I was also lucky enough to do a guest post

I’ve never had a book reviewed in Entertainment Weekly . . . until now. Here’s a link to the online version. There’s been some chatter online about the review (specifically the use of the word “worthy” in conjunction with John Green), which I sort of understand to a point. But it’s pretty great that

The Living came out yesterday!! I wasn’t able to announce it on the actual on-sale day because I was speaking at a middle school in Ohio, and a high school in Ohio, and the Youngstown chapter of IRA. This is the first time I’ve ever done a speaking engagement on the day a book

I’m in Seattle this whole week, visiting a couple schools per day. The visit is sponsored by Seattle Public Library. Here’s a shot of their architecturally famous (infamous?) downtown branch (talk amongst yourselves): Sometimes I get to hang with the big bad high schoolers, like these guys from Chief Sealth High: Other times I’m

On November 12th, The Living hits bookstores. This is very exciting to me. I’ve never spent so much time working on a novel, and I’m very proud of the way it turned out. The protagonist, Shy Espinoza, is my guy. If you’d like to get a sneak peek of Shy and The Living, Random

I’m super excited to be participating in my first-ever National Book Festival in Washington DC this weekend. I’ll be speaking on Saturday, September 21 from 1:20pm – 1:50pm, followed by a signing. Can’t wait to check out presentations by Paolo Bacigalupi, Matthew Quick, Margaret Atwood, Don DeLilo, Lisa McMann and Juan Felipe Herrera. More information