In the Wild Light (2021): Attending an elite prep school in Connecticut on a scholarship with his best friend (and secret love) science genius Delaney Doyle, sixteen-year-old Cash Pruitt, from a small town in East Tennessee, struggles with emotional pain and loss until his English teacher suggests writing poetry. Read the Hardcover | eAudio

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This fall, Macmillan launched an exciting new YA project, lining up some of the most talented authors for teens to “remix” works of classic literature and reinterpret them through their own cultural lenses, creating culturally relevant YA novels that make those dusty tomes feel brand-new. The first two books in the series have just been released this fall, and we’re pleased to host a conversation with C.B. Lee and Bethany C. Morrow, hosted by Laura Berestecki of the Boston Public Library. Lee’s book, A Clash of Steel, offers a queer re-visioning of Treasure Island centered on two young women and inspired by the legend of Chinese pirate queen Ching Shih. Morrow takes on New England classic Little Women in So Many Beginnings, setting her version in a community of newly freed Black people during the Civil War. Future volumes in the series will take on Wuthering Heights and Robin Hood—what classic works of literature would you want to remix? Sponsored by Simmons University.

Donations made during registration or during the session will go to support the Boston Book Festival’s Shelf Help Partnership, providing brand-new books and an author/illustrator visit to Boston-area public schools. This year’s recipient schools are Josiah Quincy Elementary School in Chinatown and Chelsea High School in Chelsea. Thank you for your support!

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Screenwriter and activist George M. Johnson’s 2020 book All Boys Aren’t Blue was a “memoir-manifesto,” offering young people, especially queer Black boys, a testimony of Johnson’s own adolescent experiences blended with reflections on gender identity, consent, toxic masculinity, and Black joy. Their new memoir, We Are Not Broken, is similarly both deeply personal and emphatically universal, as the author explores the close relationships between them, their brother, and their cousins, all growing up under the loving, wise, no-nonsense guidance of their grandmother, known as “Nanny.” Under Nanny’s eye, George and their cousins become aware of racial injustice, George embraces their queer identity . . . and they all grasp on to their abiding, fierce love for one another. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly calls We Are Not Broken “an intensely emotional, stunning read.” In this keynote session sponsored by Simmons University, Johnson will discuss their memoir with Nicholl Montgomery, a lecturer in children’s literature at Simmons.

Donations made during registration or during the session will go to support the Boston Book Festival’s Shelf Help Partnership, providing brand-new books and an author/illustrator visit to Boston-area public schools. This year’s recipient schools are Josiah Quincy Elementary School in Chinatown and Chelsea High School in Chelsea. Thank you for your support!

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