I am beyond thrilled to be hosting my agent sister, YA author Lana Wood Johnson, on the ball today! Lana was born and raised in Iowa in the time before the internet but has spent the rest of her life making up for that. After years working in wireless communication for companies of all sizes, she now works doing the same for a local youth shelter. Lana lives in Minnesota…
I’m so excited fellow fantasy author and agent sibling and all-around Excellent Human Being (TM) Breanna Teintze to the Ball this week! Breanna Teintze writes novels with magic and explosions (well) and gardens (badly). She lives in Idaho with her husband, where she homeschools her three kids, polishes swords, and perfects her eyeliner. Her debut novel, Lord of Secrets, is the first in the Empty Gods series from Jo Fletcher Books, and…
I am so pleased to welcome debut author Christine Hyung-Oak Lee to The Debutante Ball! Lee is the author of the memoir Tell Me Everything You Don’t Remember, which was featured in The New York Times, Self Magazine, Time Magazine, and NPR’s Weekend Edition with Scott Simon. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in The New York Times, Zyzzyva, Guernica, The Rumpus, and BuzzFeed, among other publications. She is a…
I’m so excited to welcome fellow debut author and fantastic human being Katherine Forbes Riley to the Ball this week! Aside from being an incredibly adept wizard with words, Katherine is also a computational linguist in Vermont. Katherine’s creative writing appears in the Wigleaf 2018 top 50 list, as well as numerous other literary journals, including Buffalo Almanack, from whom she received the Inkslinger’s Award for Creative Excellence. She received…
This week we’re thrilled to welcome to the Ball Fran Dorricott, author of the debut psychological thriller After the Eclipse! Fran Dorricott is an author based in Derby, where she lives with her family, a cat, and three dogs (one of whom weighs more than she does). In 2013 she completed a degree in American Literature with Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia, and from there went on…
I am so excited to welcome former Deb Lara Lillibridge back to the ball this week! I feel as though I’ve known Lara forever, although I suppose it’s been less than a year. She was the deb from last year who first emailed me to ask if I would like to be one of this year’s five, so let’s just say I’ve been fond of her ever since. She…
I’m so excited to be hosting author Lillian Li this week! Lillian Li is the author of the novel Number One Chinese Restaurant, which was longlisted for the Women’s Prize, the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, and an NPR Best Book of 2018. Her work has been published in the New York Times, Granta, One Story, Bon Appetit, and Jezebel. Originally from the D.C. metro area, she lives…
I’m so excited to welcome Robyn Bennis to the Ball this week – not only does she write some Damn Good books, she’s also my editor-cousin, and is as quick and hilarious in real life as her prose. After going through the traditional publishing route with two books, she’s dipping her toes into indie with a release next week (!!). Talk about a wild ride. Author of the well-acclaimed, thoroughly…
This week, we are so thrilled to welcome amazing human and debut YA author Claire Bartlett to the Debutante Ball! Claire is my agent-sibling and our publishing journey has been in (mostly) parallel for the last year or so. I am so, so excited for the world to finally read her brilliant debut novel, We Rule the Night, a complex and kind-hearted take on female relationships and self-determination with magic!!…
I’m so excited to welcome Soniah Kamal to the Debutante Ball this week! Her novel UNMARRIAGEABLE, has been described as a retelling of Pride and Prejudice set in modern-day Pakistan. It’s been an Amazon Best Books Pick, a Library Reads Pick, and featured in People Magazine. NPR said it’s “a fun, page-turning romp and a thought-provoking look at the class-obsessed strata of Pakistani society,” Publisher’s Weekly gave it a starred review…
