April Henry (top left), Tehlor Kay Mejia (top right), Renée Watson (bottom left), moderator Emily Suvada (bottom right)
April Henry, Tehlor Kay Mejia, NAACP, Britt Q. Hoover
In this episode of “Literary Arts: The Archive Project,” we revisit a panel discussion from the 2019 Portland Book Festival. The panel, titled High Stakes: Rebellion & Resistance, features Young Adult (YA) authors April Henry, Tehlor Kay Mejia, and Renée Watson, with moderator Emily Suvada. The three authors' books center on young women who find themselves in precarious situations in which they must decide whether or not to take the risk and step up to the fight—be the fight against an active shooter, a corrupt regime, or a high school principal.
The joy of reading these works and listening to these authors in conversation is that they all meet their young characters where they are. This is a conversation about activism and the role of art, the meaning of community and family, and about the sometimes indirect and messy ways we arrive at new levels of awareness of who we are, and who we want to be.
Bio:
April Henry is the New York Times bestselling author of many acclaimed mysteries for adults and young adults, including the YA novels “Girl, Stolen," “The Night She Disappeared,” “Face of Betrayal” co-authored with Lis Wiehl, and “Run, Hide, Fight Back.” She is from Oregon.
Tehlor Kay Mejia is an Oregon native and the author of the YA novels “We Set the Dark on Fire” and “We Unleash the Merciless Storm” and the middle grade novel “Paola Santiago and the Drowned Palace.” Her short fiction has appeared in the “All Out" and "Toil & Trouble” anthologies from Harlequin Teen.
Renée Watson is a New York Times-bestselling author, educator, and activist. Her young adult novel, “Piecing Me Together,” received a Coretta Scott King Award and Newbery Honor. Her books include “Ways to Make Sunshine,” “Some Places More Than Others,” “This Side of Home,” “What Momma Left Me,” “Betty Before X,” cowritten with Ilyasah Shabazz, and “Watch Us Rise,” cowritten with Ellen Hagan, as well as two acclaimed picture books: “A Place Where Hurricanes Happen” and “Harlem’s Little Blackbird,” which was nominated for an NAACP Image Award. Renée grew up in Portland, Oregon, and splits her time between Portland and New York City.
Emily Suvada was born and raised in Australia, where she went on to earn a degree in mathematics. She previously worked as a data scientist, and still spends hours writing algorithms to perform tasks which would only take her minutes to complete on her own. When not writing, she can be found hiking, cycling, and conducting chemistry experiments in her kitchen. The third book in her “This Mortal Coil,” series, “This Vicious Cure,” was released in winter 2020. She currently lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and son.
