A year ago, I blogged about the books the 2016 William C. Morris YA Debut finalists. I was excited to be part of that committee and the thrill of meeting these finalists was inexplicable.
Our serious photo: committee in back, authors in front
Our celebratory photo
I have been anxiously scanning my news feeds for news about this year’s finalists. I know their announcement will come any day now, as will the announcement of the finalists for the YA nonfiction award.
I have been following the authors of the five books we chose as finalists and am excitedly awaiting the publication of their next novels. Let me tell you a bit about what each of them has been up to, in alphabetical order by title.
Leah Thomas, author of Because You’ll Never Meet Me has written a sequel which is due for publication in February 2017.
Publisher Summary:Following up her acclaimed debut, Because You’ll Never Meet Me, Leah Thomas continues the stories of Ollie and Moritz in another heart-warming story of unique friendship.
Ollie and Moritz might never meet, but their friendship knows no bounds. Their letters carry on as Ollie embarks on his first road trip away from the woods–no easy feat for a boy allergic to electricity–and Moritz decides which new school would best suit an eyeless boy who prefers to be alone.
Along the way they meet other teens like them, other products of strange science who lead seemingly normal lives in ways Ollie and Moritz never imagined possible: A boy who jokes about his atypical skeleton; an aspiring actress who hides a strange deformity; a track star whose abnormal heart propels her to victory. Suddenly the future feels wide open for two former hermits. But even as Ollie and Moritz dare to enjoy life, they can’t escape their past, which threatens to destroy Following up her acclaimed debut, Because You’ll Never Meet Me, Leah Thomas continues the stories of Ollie and Moritz in another heart-warming story of unique friendship.
Ollie and Moritz might never meet, but their friendship knows no bounds. Their letters carry on as Ollie embarks on his first road trip away from the woods–no easy feat for a boy allergic to electricity–and Moritz decides which new school would best suit an eyeless boy who prefers to be alone.
She has also recently submitted another novel which she calls an “alien parasite family drama”.
Kelly Loy Gilbert, author of Conviction, has a forthcoming novel entitles Nothing Gold Can Stay. It is about a Chinese-American boy who uses research from his physicist father’s past to find his estranged sister on the other side of the country, a search which puts his undocumented parents at risk for deportation. I couldn’t find a cover or an anticipated release date, but keep your eyes open for it.
Becky Albertallli,the 2016 winner, has been hard at work on some sequels to Simon and the Homo Sapiens Agenda. The first will be out in April 2017.
Publisher Summary: Seventeen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso knows all about unrequited love. No matter how many times her twin sister, Cassie, tells her to woman up, Molly can’t stomach the idea of rejection. So she’s careful. Fat girls always have to be careful.
Then a cute new girl enters Cassie’s orbit, and for the first time ever, Molly’s cynical twin is a lovesick mess. Meanwhile, Molly’s totally not dying of loneliness—except for the part where she is. Luckily, Cassie’s new girlfriend comes with a cute hipster-boy sidekick. If Molly can win him over, she’ll get her first kiss and she’ll get her twin back.
There’s only one problem: Molly’s coworker, Reid. He’s a chubby Tolkien superfan with a season pass to the Ren Faire, and there’s absolutely no way Molly could fall for him.
Right?
Stephanie Oakes, author of The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly, has also been busy writing. Her next book is due out in August 2017.
Publisher’s Summary: Molly Mavity is not a normal teenage girl. For one thing, her father is a convicted murderer, and his execution date is fast approaching. For another, Molly refuses to believe that her mother is dead, and she waits for the day when they’ll be reunited . . . despite all evidence that this will never happen.
Pepper Yusef is not your average teenage boy. A Kuwaiti immigrant with epilepsy, serious girl problems, and the most useless seizure dog in existence, he has to write a series of essays over the summer . . . or fail out of school.
And Ava Dreyman—the brave and beautiful East German resistance fighter whose murder at seventeen led to the destruction of the Berlin Wall—is unlike anyone you’ve met before.
When Molly gets a package leading her to Pepper, they’re tasked with solving a decades-old mystery: find out who killed Ava, back in 1989. Using Ava’s diary for clues, Molly and Pepper realize there’s more to her life—and death—than meets the eye. Someone is lying to them. And someone out there is guiding them along, desperate for answers.
And, Last but not least, Anna-Marie McLemore, author of The Weight of Feathers, has also been writing up a storm. Her second novel was published in October.
Publisher’s Summary:To everyone who knows them, best friends Miel and Sam are as strange as they are inseparable. Roses grow out of Miel’s wrist, and rumors say that she spilled out of a water tower when she was five. Sam is known for the moons he paints and hangs in the trees, and for how little anyone knows about his life before he and his mother moved to town. But as odd as everyone considers Miel and Sam, even they stay away from the Bonner girls, four beautiful sisters rumored to be witches. Now they want the roses that grow from Miel’s skin, convinced that their scent can make anyone fall in love. And they’re willing to use every secret Miel has fought to protect to make sure she gives them up.
She also has another book coming out in September 2017. No cover reveal yet, but here is a summary of Wild Beauty.
For generations, the Nomeolvides women have tended the grounds of La Pradera, the lush estate gardens that enchant visitors from around the world. But for as long as their family has had a gift for flowers, the women have also hidden a tragic legacy: if they fall in love too deeply, the men they love vanish. Felipe Montego knows that legacy better than anyone. Ten years ago, his brother disappeared, and La Pradera left a curse on Fel that’s slowly been killing him ever since. Fel’s last chance to save himself is through Estrella, the rebellious Nomeolvides girl who defies both her family and the estate’s owners. But the closer they grow, the more they learn that La Pradera is as treacherous as it is magical, and that it’s bound them together in ways that grow more dangerous every day.
These five authors will always have a special place in my heart and I am excited to follow their careers.
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Tags: 2016 William C. Morris YA Debut Award, Anna-Marie McLemore, Becky Albertalli, Kelly Loy Gilbert, Leah Thomas, Stephanie Oakes
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