Description:
Zakiya N. Jamal was born in Queens, raised on Long Island, and currently resides in Brooklyn. In other words, she’s a New Yorker through and through. She holds a BA in English from Georgetown University and a MFA in Creative Writing with a concentration in Writing for Children and Young Adults from The New School. You can find her on social media at @ZakiyaNJamal.
Casey McQuiston is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of queer romantic comedies. Their books have been honored by the Stonewall Book Awards, the Lambda Literary Awards, and the American Library Association, and their writing on life and literature has been published in the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Bon Appétit. Their debut novel, Red, White and Royal Blue, was adapted to an Emmy-nominated film in 2023. When not writing love stories, they can be found staring at the nearest body of water or spending time with their beloved and always-hungry poodle mix, Pepper. Born and raised in Southern Louisiana, Casey now lives with their family in beautiful Queens, New York.
Micaiah Johnson’s debut novel The Space Between Worlds won the Compton Crook and Carl Brandon Awards, was a Sunday Times Bestseller and an Editors’ Choice at The New York Times. NPR named it one of best books of 2020 and one of the best science fiction books of the last decade. Her follow-up novel, Those Beyond the Wall, was named one of NPR’s Best Books of 2024 and was nominated for the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize. In her academic life, she studies race, technology, and death — both in centuries past and in our present moment of the Sixth Great Extinction – topics with she wrestle in her upcoming horror novel, The Unhaunting. She received her PhD from Vanderbilt University.
Ryan La Sala is a bestselling and award-winning author known for his genre-defying, queer-centered horror and fantasy, including The Honeys, which is in development to become a major motion picture , and The Dead of Summer duology. He has been featured in The New York Times Book Review, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, and more. He writes to you from New York, overseen by his cat, Haunted Little Girl.
Casey McQuiston is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of queer romantic comedies. Their books have been honored by the Stonewall Book Awards, the Lambda Literary Awards, and the American Library Association, and their writing on life and literature has been published in the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Bon Appétit. Their debut novel, Red, White and Royal Blue, was adapted to an Emmy-nominated film in 2023. When not writing love stories, they can be found staring at the nearest body of water or spending time with their beloved and always-hungry poodle mix, Pepper. Born and raised in Southern Louisiana, Casey now lives with their family in beautiful Queens, New York.
Micaiah Johnson’s debut novel The Space Between Worlds won the Compton Crook and Carl Brandon Awards, was a Sunday Times Bestseller and an Editors’ Choice at The New York Times. NPR named it one of best books of 2020 and one of the best science fiction books of the last decade. Her follow-up novel, Those Beyond the Wall, was named one of NPR’s Best Books of 2024 and was nominated for the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize. In her academic life, she studies race, technology, and death — both in centuries past and in our present moment of the Sixth Great Extinction – topics with she wrestle in her upcoming horror novel, The Unhaunting. She received her PhD from Vanderbilt University.
Ryan La Sala is a bestselling and award-winning author known for his genre-defying, queer-centered horror and fantasy, including The Honeys, which is in development to become a major motion picture , and The Dead of Summer duology. He has been featured in The New York Times Book Review, Entertainment Weekly, NPR, and more. He writes to you from New York, overseen by his cat, Haunted Little Girl.
Panelists:
Casey McQuiston
They/Them
Zakiya Jamal
Micaiah Johnson
Ryan La Sala