Celebrate the Freedom to Read: YA and Middle Grade

Federico Erebia is a retired physician, woodworker, author, poet, and illustrator. He received the 2024 Lambda Literary Exceptional New Writer Award. His debut novel, Pedro & Daniel (Levine Querido 2023), has additional commendations: the 2024 Ohioana Book Award - Finalist; the 2024 Massachusetts Book Award - Longlist; the 2024 Crystal Kite Award - Honor Book; the 2024 Américas Book Award - Commended Book; the 2024 Bank Street Best Book; and the 2023 Kirkus Reviews Best Book.

Award-winning author and journalist Gayle Forman has written several bestselling novels for young adults, including the Just One Series, I Was Here, Where She Went and the #1 New York Times bestseller If I Stay, which has been translated into more than 40 languages and in 2014 was adapted into a major motion picture. Gayle’s essays and nonfiction work has appeared in publications like The New York Times, Elle, The Nation, and Time.

Malinda Lo is the New York Times bestselling author of seven novels, including A Scatter of Light (2022). Her novel Last Night at the Telegraph Club won the National Book Award, the Stonewall Book Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, a Printz Honor, and was an LA Times Book Prize finalist. Her books have received 15 starred reviews and have been finalists for multiple awards, including the Andre Norton Award and the Lambda Literary Award.

Colleen AF Venable is the author of the National Book Award Longlisted Kiss Number 8, a graphic novel co-created with Ellen T. Crenshaw. Her other books include the Katie the Catsitter series with Stephanie Yue, Mervin the Sloth is About to Do the Best Thing in The World with Ruth Chan, The Oboe Goes Boom Boom Boom with Lian Cho, and the Guinea Pig, Pet Shop Private Eye series, also with Stephanie Yue and nominated for the Best Publication for Kids Eisner.