Text that reads: Disability & young adult fiction. Saturday, April 18 at 8 p.m. EST/5 p.m. PST with Maya Ameyaw, Natalia Sylvester, Nicole Zelniker, Sonido Reyes, and Sydney Langford. Moderated by Lauren T. Davila; hosted (virtually) by Firestorm Books. Sign up at the link in my bio; we will be fundraising for Siembra NC.
Text that reads: On 2/27, BookCon sent me an acceptance email for a panel I pitched on disability literature as part of their Pride Lounge. Though I was initially excited when I sent the pitch, I had to decline because ReedPop, the organization putting on the con, is tied to LexisNexis, a company that has a multi-million dollar contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement that allows ICE to track user data. I contacted Sonido Reyes, Maya Ameyaw, Sydney Langford, and Natalia Sylvester, all of whom agreed with this decision, but were still up for doing a panel. We chose April 18, which is the Saturday of BookCon, and Maya suggested fundraising for an organization doing anti-ICE work.
Text that reads: I want to make it so clear, at least one more time, that I don’t blame the authors who are locked into going due to contracts, and that the folks from ReedPop were very understanding. I hope that they will be able to hold successful cons in the future without these circumstances. This panel will be virtual (link in my bio to sign up), with a donation of $5 to Siembra, NC. Their link is also in my bio if you’d like to learn more.
One of the books to be discussed in the conversation, ALL I KNOW SO FAR by Nicole Zelniker.
So excited to raise money for @siembranc.bsky.social & chat about disabled, young adult fiction! Thank you SO much to @firestorm.coop for being so game to host, and to all the panelists and best moderator @ltdavila.bsky.social for being so flexible with everything.
