Mosaic Literary Conference 2012

Four New YA Books with LGBT Characters

Today’s post comes from Bitch Magazine columnist Ashley McAllister’s Beyond Judy Blume series, an examination of identity and sexuality in young adult literature.

Author Malinda Lo did some sleuthing last year and concluded that less than 1% of YA books published from 2000-1011 contained LGBT characters. Take a look at the charts that she created, which show who publishes LGBT novels, and also look at LGBT novels that are published and break them up by gender (only 4% of LGBT YA books are about transgender or genderqueer characters).

Lo has continued to track the number of LGBT YA books published in 2012, and you can follow along on her blog. This year, Lo estimates that 1.6% of YA books published will include LGBT main characters. An improvement, but we’ve still got a long way to go.

Have you been keeping on top of 2012′s YA lit with LGBT characters? Which books have you liked? Which ones are you excited to read when they’re out later this year? Here are four YA books with LGBT characters out this year to get you started. [Read more at Bitch Magazine]

Art Exhibit: Mickalene Thomas’ Origin of the Universe

Each September the Brooklyn Museum takes a break from the usual First Saturday fanfare, but this year we have something to look forward to later in the month: Mickalene Thomas’ Origin of the Universe, an exhibit that indulges the female form in all it’s curves, color, and power.

A graduate of the Pratt Institute, Thomas is best known for her depictions of African-American women. In 2008 she delivered Michelle O., the first individual portrait created of First Lady Michelle Obama, and last summer she was responsible for my favorite BOMB Magazine cover.

Often splashed in color and adorned with rhinestone embellishments, Thomas’ paintings and collages balance the complexities of black womanhood and challenge traditional notions of beauty, gender, and race. So much is a simultaneous possibility for Thomas — sexuality, femininity, and power — and Origin of the Universe shows this through portraits and landscapes inspired by the artist’s childhood in the 1970s. (more…)

Love, Pigeons, and Puppets HERE

Master puppeteer Hanne Tierney (My Life in a Nutshell, Leibniz’ Folly) kicks off the HERE Dream Music Puppetry Program’s 20th season with Strange Tales of Liaozhai, two Chinese folktales told through music, drawing, choreography, and with over 100 manipulated strings. According to HERE, “These separate narratives wind in and out of each other, unfolding through movement, images, and gestures, with expressive silks, lanterns, and bamboo poles brought to life in real time.” (more…)

Fall Reading: Paula Bomer’s Nine Months

A couple of months ago, The Narrator brought you a list of our contributors’ hopes and dreams for summer reading. I contributed to this list, and quite honestly, I didn’t quite make it to my selections. (I hang my head in shame, but I swear: I did read pretty awesome stuff this summer). This failure, though, has not stopped me from adding a few items to my fall reading list.

I always look forward to late-August/early-September. As the year winds down and the weather declines, we’re given great excuses reasons to hide out indoors. A new crop of “thinking films” hits theaters, but even better, the true action of the publishing industry really gets under way, with more deep-n-heavy books coming out than you could possibly hope to absorb over the holidays and fall breaks.

But there’s no harm in trying. The first book on my list this fall: Paula Bomer’s debut novel Nine Months, which comes out August 21. (more…)