Join Rosalyn Eves (An Improbable Season), Adiba Jaigirdar (The Dos and Donuts of Love), Mariama J. Lockington (Forever is Now) and Racquel Marie (You Don't Have a Shot) for a great evening celebrating four must-read romances for you this summer. This conversation will be moderated by Rachel Strolle.
Join YA author Adiba Jaigirdar online for a writing workshop for complete beginners and future authors alike. Aimed at age 12+, this is a great opportunity to get tips and tricks from an award-winning, critically-acclaimed and bestselling author.
A Blast from the Past: Historical Fiction
With special guests Randi Pink (We are the Scribes), Adiba Jaigirdar (A Million to One), Alka Joshi (The Secret Keeper of Jaipur), and Kylie Lee Baker (The Empress of TIme).
Travel back in time with authors Randi Pink, Adiba Jaigirdar, Alka Joshi, and Kylie Lee Baker. In this panel they will discuss history that isn’t taught enough, the forgotten people and events that inspire their novels, and how to balance writing history through fiction.
Adiba Jaigirdar will appear in conversation with Jesmeen Deo and Joya Goffney to celebrate the paperback release of Adiba's novel The Henna Wars.
Adiba Jaigirdar is a Bangladeshi and Irish writer and teacher. She has a BA in English and History, and an MA in Postcolonial Studies. She is also a contributor for Book Riot. Currently, she lives in Dublin, Ireland, where she writes with the help of many cups of tea and a lot of Hayley Kiyoko and Janelle Monáe.
Jesmeen Kaur Deo grew up in northern British Columbia, where she spent most of her childhood daydreaming. She loves books that can make her laugh and tug at her heartstrings in the same paragraph. When not wrapped up in stories, she can be found biking, playing the harmonium, or struggling to open jars. TJ Powar Has Something to Prove is her debut novel.
Joya Goffney grew up in New Waverly, a small town in East Texas. In high school, she challenged herself with to-do lists full of risk-taking items like "hug a random boy" and "eat a cricket," which inspired her debut novel, Excuse Me While I Ugly Cry. With a passion for Black social psychology, she moved out of the countryside to attend the University of Texas in Austin, where she still resides.
This is a unique online event to bring together children's book authors and creatives from the South Asian diaspora to talk about the joys and challenges of the publishing industry.
Whether you are an aspiring author, illustrator, a book reviewer, blogger or a veteran writer of South Asian, Central, and West Asian descent, this gathering will be a virtual space to connect with others, learn together, and share your wisdom.
Discussion with Adiba Jaigirdar will be held through Zoom Meeting on:
🗓️ Saturday, 26 February 2022
🕗 08.00 PM WIB / 08.00 AM EST
LIVE @ YouTube (@thisstoryaintover)
Recommendations with Adiba and Jananie + Q&A
Time: 10am EST/3pm GMT+1
May 28th @ YouTube (@tazisbooked)
4 Bengalis Play Ludo and Talk Unapologetically About Bengali Culture
hosted by Tazrin
featuring Priyanka Taslim and Shubhangi Karmakar
Time: 6pm EST/11pm GMT+1
May 26th @ TikTok (samisbookshelf)
Various videos throughout the day with Sami and other South Asian authors
Time 11am-3pm EST/4pm-8pm GMT+1
Celebrate the release of Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating by joining our bisexual book birthday party! We'll be talking all things Hani and Ishu but specifically the queer and bi representation and the exploration of biphobia.
Time: 10pm GMT+1/5pm EST
East City Bookshop welcomes Adiba Jaigirdar with her new book Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating in conversation with Gabriela Martins, author of Like a Love Song.
Note: Orders of Like a Love Song will begin shipping after its publication date August 3rd, 2021.
About Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before meets LGBT romance in this funny, heart-warming rom-com about first love and identity.
When Humaira "Hani" Khan comes out to her friends as bisexual, they immediately doubt her. Apparently, she can’t be bi if she’s only dated guys. Cornered into proving her sexuality, she tells them she’s dating someone—Ishita "Ishu" Dey, the straight A student who seems more concerned with studying than relationships.
When Hani approaches her about fake dating, she agrees on one condition–that Hani help her become more popular so she can win the school’s head girl election. It’s the perfect plan to help them achieve their goals, until Hani’s friends become jealous that she’s spending more time with Ishu. They’ll do everything they can to drive a wedge between them and ruin Ishu's chances of becoming head girl.
Now, Hani has a decision to make: does she break off her relationship with Ishu for the sake of her friends? Or does she tell Ishu how she really feels and turn their “fake” relationship into something real?
About Adiba Jaigirdar
Adiba Jaigirdar is a Bangladeshi and Irish writer and teacher and the author of Hani and Ishu's Guide to Fake Dating and The Henna Wars, which Kirkus called “impossible to put down.” She is also a contributor for Book Riot. She lives in Dublin, Ireland.
About Like a Love Song
This debut paperback original romance follows a Latina teen pop star whose image takes a dive after a messy public breakup, until she’s set up with a swoon-worthy fake boyfriend.
Fake boyfriend. Real heartbreak?
Natalie is living her dream: topping the charts and setting records as a Brazilian pop star… until she’s dumped spectacularly on live television. Not only is it humiliating—it could end her career.
Her PR team’s desperate plan? A gorgeous yet oh-so-fake boyfriend. Nati reluctantly agrees, but William is not what she expected. She was hoping for a fierce bad boy—not a soft-hearted British indie film star. While she fights her way back to the top with a sweet and surprisingly swoon-worthy boy on her arm, she starts to fall for William—and realizes that maybe she’s the biggest fake of them all. Can she reclaim her voice and her heart?
About Gabriela Martins
Gabriela Martins is a Brazilian kidlit author and linguist. Her stories feature Brazilian characters finding themselves and love. She was a high school teacher and has also worked as a TED Ed-Club facilitator, where she helped teens develop their own talks in TED format to present. She edited and self-published a pro-bono LGBTQ+ anthology (Keep Faith) with all funds going to queer people in need. When she’s not writing, she can be found cuddling with her two cats, or singing loudly and off-key. Her YA romances, Like a Love Song and Bad at Love, come out summer 2021 and summer 2022 (Underlined/PRH). Find her on Twitter at @gabhimartins, on Instagram at @gabhi, and visit her website at gabrielawrites.com.
Two popular YA writers talk reality and romance, dating and making big decisions.
Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating is a funny, heart-warming rom-com about first love and identity. When Hani comes out to her friends as bisexual, they immediately doubt her. Cornered into proving her sexuality, she tells them she’s dating Ishu, the straight A student who seems more concerned with studying than relationships.
Working on the school newspaper, Paige is used to dealing with fake stories. But Paige has had enough lies: she's going to reveal the truth, whatever the cost... Holly Bourne’s tenth YA novel The Yearbook is a scathingly funny and relatable high-school takedown.
Adiba is a Bangladeshi and Irish writer and teacher, and author of the unputdownable YA hit The Henna Wars. Holly Bourne is a best-selling author, passionate mental health advocate and proud feminist.
Holly Bourne & Adiba Jaigirdar will be in conversation with our StoryMachine children and families programmer, Janet Smyth.
Age: 12+
4:05 PM - 4:55 PM ET
All Heart
Authors of uproariously funny romcoms, swoony love stories, and tales that address questions of identity, discuss their novels and the genre.
Tashie Bhuiyan, Counting Down With You (Inkyard Press)
Adiba Jaigirdar, Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating (Page Street)
Marisa Kanter, As If On Cue (Simon & Schuster)
TJ Klune, Flash Fire (Macmillan/Tor)
Sarah Kuhn, From Little Tokyo, With Love (Penguin Young Readers)
Moderator: Susannah Goldstein, Librarian, The Brearley School (NY)
Chatting all things YA romance with Emery Lee, author of Meet Cute Diary
Where: Emery Lee’s YouTube Channel
Join Adiba Jaigirdar, A.J Sass, Alechia Dow, Bethany Rutter and Sasha Laurens in conversation as they talk about queer writing for teens.
A Valentine’s Day Panel all about romance
For many years, the prevailing narrative about queer girl books in YA was ""they don't sell."" Writers heard that agents wouldn't take on queer girl books, p...
For many years, the prevailing narrative about queer girl books in YA was ""they don't sell."" Writers heard that agents wouldn't take on queer girl books, publishers wouldn't buy them, and there certainly weren't enough readers. It was too niche for mainstream publishing. Thanks to trail-blazing efforts by queer writers like Malinda Lo and Tess Sharpe, that narrative is starting to change. Today, YA is enjoying a surge of wonderful queer girl books. From fresh coming out narratives to novels where queerness is a POV lens rather than plot point, there's more for readers than ever before. The Queer Girls in YA panel brings a multi-genre group of authors together to discuss the state of queer girl books in YA, where they see their stories fitting into the larger canon, and what they hope for the future of stories like ours.
Featuring:
JL Dugan
Adiba Jaigirdar
Leah Johnson
Kaylynn Bayron
Isabel Sterling
Five YA authors discuss the religious experience while being queer, what it means to have faith, and the intersections between these realities. Being queer d...
Five YA authors discuss the religious experience while being queer, what it means to have faith, and the intersections between these realities. Being queer doesn't mean you can't be included.
Featuring:
Katherine Locke
Camryn Garrett
Katie Henry
Adiba Jaigirdar
Gabriela Martins
A panel hosted by Kav and Marta, featuring Adiba Jaigirdar, Nina Varela, Mark Oshira, and Anne-Marie McLeMore. 27th June 5pm EST/10pm GMT+1
Our Pride lens tends to often be US Centric. But Pride is global! Hear from authors around the world about their experiences. Featuring: Simon James Green Ma...
Our Pride lens tends to often be US Centric. But Pride is global! Hear from authors around the world about their experiences.
Featuring:
Simon James Green
Marieke Nijkamp
Natasha Ngan
Adiba Jaigirdar
Corinne Duyvis
Sarah Farizan
