Malinda Lo

Over the weekend the YA community was slapped in the face yet again by a major mainstream news source, when the Wall Street Journal published a review essay in its Books section titled “Darkness Too Visible” by Meghan Cox Gurdon. The teaser stated: “Contemporary fiction for teens is rife with explicit abuse, violence and depravity. ... More→

Ever since I blogged about the casting of Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss, I’ve been thinking about a broader question: How exactly should one write about race in a novel of speculative fiction that is not set on this here Earth right now, so that readers understand what you mean? I’ve blogged on writing about race ... More→

This post was originally published at GayYA.org. In my two young adult fantasy novels, Ash and Huntress, the main characters are girls who fall in love with other girls. I admit there’s something different about the love stories told in my books, but it’s not that they’re gay love stories. The difference is: in the ... More→

I have been doing a lot of interviews lately since Huntress was just published, and I almost always get a question along these lines: Did you have any problem getting your gay YA novel published? Have you experienced any homophobic backlash to your books? I always find these questions a little jarring, because from where ... More→

I grew up with music in my house because my mother is a pianist. Before we immigrated to the United States, she was a professional musician in China. After we moved here, one of the first things my parents bought was a little upright piano. I began having piano lessons when I was about four ... More→

I was recently talking to a writer friend of mine about a book she’s writing. I’d read the manuscript and given her some feedback on it, suggesting that she intensify certain themes, draw out particular threads, etc. Basic high-level (as in broad in scope, not focusing on grammar or punctuation) feedback about a work in ... More→