All Things Asian

Have you checked All Things Asian out yet? It's an event hosted by Julia from That Hapa Chick, Izzy from My Words Ate Me, and Lucia from iLive, iLaugh, iLove Books, celebrating Asian bloggers, Asian authors, and books featuring Asian characters, settings, and/or themes. In other words, something that I wish I had thought of!

These three proud and talented Asian bloggers have compiled blogger and author interviews, book reviews, discussion posts, and giveaways into several weeks of celebration. Check out the All Things Asian schedule for links to all the blog posts, events, and giveaways going on! It's excellent! (And not just because they interviewed me!)

DiYA's Diversify Your Reading Summer Challenge!

Diversity in YA, one of my favorite causes run by YA authors, is at it again! This time they've put time a spectacular summer reading challenge, complete with great giveaways. In Diversify Your Reading, participants are invited to read diverse MG and YA books over the summer, and to enter in the grand essay contest by the end of summer.

Have you been thinking about diversifying your reads, but needed the extra incentive to get started? Then Diversify Your Reading is a great challenge to do it with! Check out DiYA's blog post for more information--and don't miss the spectacular start-up giveaway that's currently going on. Additionally, DiYA founders Cindy Pon and Malinda Lo might also post their favorite essays on DiYA's blog later this year!

So much incentive, and to do what? To simply read! I'm going to do my best to write that essay for this challenge. I hope you will think about doing the same!

Diversity in YA Tour!

Have you heard of Diversity in YA Fiction? It's "a website and book tour founded by two young adult authors, Malinda Lo and Cindy Pon, to celebrate diverse stories in YA" (from http://www.diversityinya.com). Malinda and Cindy are two of the loveliest authors I've gotten to know over the years. They have loads of talent and vision between the two of them. And this May, they're bringing Diversity in YA to a nationwide tour!

Check out their tour schedule below and see if they're coming near you. I am definitely going to be at their NYC stop next Saturday. Hope to see some of you there!

San Francisco, California


Saturday, May 7 at 3 p.m.
San Francisco Public Library (Main Library)
Latino-Hispanic Room
100 Larkin St.
San Francisco, CA 94102

Highlighting Asian American YA books with authors Malinda Lo, Cindy Pon, Gene Luen Yang, and J.A. Yang

Austin, Texas


Monday, May 9 at 7:30 p.m.
BookPeople
603 N. Lamar
Austin TX 78703

With authors Bethany Hegedus, Malinda Lo, Guadalupe Garcia McCall, Cindy Pon, Dia Reeves, and Jo Whittemore, and moderated by Varian Johnson

Chicago, Illinois


Tuesday, May 10 from 5:30 to 6:45 p.m.
Barbara’s Bookstore
1218 South Halsted Street
Chicago, IL 60607

With authors Malinda Lo, Claudia Guadalupe Martinez, Nnedi Okorafor, and Cindy Pon

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Thursday, May 12 at 7 p.m.
Cambridge Public Library (Main Library)
Lecture Hall
449 Broadway
Cambridge, MA 02138

With authors Holly Black, Sarah Rees Brennan, Deva Fagan, Malinda Lo, Cindy Pon, and Francisco X. Stork, and moderated by Roger Sutton

New York, New York

Friday, May 13 at 6:30 p.m.
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
208 West 13th Street
New York, NY 10011

Highlighting LGBT YA books with authors Cris Beam, David Levithan, Malinda Lo, and Jacqueline Woodson. Books available for sale from Mobile Libris.

Saturday, May 14 at 1 p.m.
Books of Wonder
18 West 18th Street
New York, NY 10011

With authors Matt de la Peña, Malinda Lo, Kekla Magoon, Neesha Meminger, Cindy Pon, Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, Rita Williams-Garcia, and Jacqueline Woodson, and moderated by Cheryl Klein