Ellen Oh

Ellen Oh

Ellen Oh has been called a force of nature, and it’s true - the woman can get things done. But she’s also a fierce friend and loving mom, whose nearly decade-long quest to publication with debut novel PROPHECY was started because she couldn’t find books that reflected her story, or the Korean history she found so fascinating. Ellen can be serious, sure (I mean, she was a lawyer), but her laugh is infectious and she’s a laser-focused ball of energy when it comes to talking about history, how her kids are her toughest critique partners, and of course, spearheading the We Need Diverse Books campaign. Her next book, KING - the final book in the Dragon King Chronicles - is due out in December 2014 from Harper Teen!

Lindsay Smith

Lindsay Smith

Petite and a bit quiet, Lindsay Smith has a mysterious vibe. And once she starts talking, it only gets more interesting! YA’s John le Carré, Lindsay is a history buff who is fluent in Russian, and her debut novel, SEKRET, and its follow-up, SKANDAL (due in April 2015 from Roaring Brook Press) explore what would happen if Russia were hiding paranormally-enhanced super-humans behind the iron curtain during the Cold War. Pretty awesome stuff. Lindsay invited me over to talk 20th century politics, the round-the-clock nature of D.C.’s creative types, and the sheer terror of trying to write for adults.

Caroline Tung Richmond

Caroline Tung Richmond

Caroline Tung Richmond is a smiling, stylin’ ball of endless positive energy, and with her debut novel set to come out in September (THE ONLY THING TO FEAR, 9/30/14 from Scholastic) I was jazzed to meet up with her in Rockville, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C. Caroline is full of incredible advice for writers in the trenches, and gives us a perspective on how being a new mother is hurting and, in some ways, helping her writing process. Also, she schools me on awesome sci-fi references — though Stark Trek fans should be warned that Caroline admits her memory of Deanna Troi’s fate may be a bit hazy. (But we won’t hold that against her. She has mad TNG cred.)

Somaiya Daud

The inaugural First Draft podcast! A discussion with the lovely Somaiya Daud, 24-year old author of the forthcoming BEGIN AGAIN, about radical happiness, Bill Shakespeare’s butt jokes, and #WeNeedDiverseBooks.

Listen to the podcast here, or download it on iTunes or Stitcher.

Somaiya Daud Show Notes:

N.K. Jemisin, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

Audre Lorde A Litany For Survival and Sister Outsider

NaNoWriMo = National Novel Writing Month

Donna Haraway, “A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century.”

Charlotte Dacre Zofloya

Daniel Jose Older's Shadowshaper

Sumayyah’s blog post at YA Highway, “I’m Still Here”