Rosen: Hi Alex! It's so wonderful to talk to you. Here, Sanchez and Rosen discuss coming out, Rock Hudson and writing sex-positive works for teens. Now, when not writing, he tours the country talking with teens, librarians and educators about books, diversity and acceptance. An immigrant from Mexico, Sanchez received his master's in guidance and counseling and worked for many years as a youth and family counselor. Rosen lives in New York City with his husband and a very small cat.Īlex Sanchez has published eight novels, including an American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults Rainbow Boys the Lambda Award-winning So Hard to Say and the reimagined DC Aqualad origin story graphic novel, You Brought Me the Ocean (reviewed below).

Rosen, aka Lev Rosen, writes books for people of all ages, most recently Depth, Jack of Hearts (and other parts) and Camp, available now from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Up next for me is Akwaeke Emezi's Freshwater (Grove, $16), which has been highly praised by many literary outlets (including this one) our reviewer called it a 'riveting and peculiar variation on coming of age.' In Here Comes the Sun (Liveright, $15.95), a Jamaican woman buckles under the pressures of caring for her younger sister, satisfying her mother, and exploring her sexuality in Patsy, Dennis-Benn peels back the layers of motherhood in the story of a Jamaican immigrant living in New York-without her daughter. If fiction is more your speed, Nicole Dennis-Benn's novels are both incredible. If you need a good laugh and also want to examine the very real, very large issues facing our world today (racism, pride, religion, and mental health, to name a few), look no further than Thomas's excellent collection. Eric Thomas (the columnist behind the popular ' Eric Reads the News' on ) uses his charming sense of humor in Here for It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America (Ballantine, $26), his first collection of essays, to explore his life as a gay, Black, Christian man and what it means to be different-and to be one's truest self. Kendi's How to Be an Anti-Racist to arrive, why not consider marking both movements with a book by one of these Black LGBTQ+ authors? So while you wait for your backorder of Ibram X. The push for equality for the LGBTQ+ community has been, and continues to be, intertwined with the push for racial equity (look at the activists who led the Stonewall uprising in 1969).

Pride celebrations look a little different this year Covid-19 has resulted in the cancellation of most Pride parades, and the murder of George Floyd has led to protests across the world in the name of Black lives and racial equality.

The love montage