Love Letter to YA with Christen Randall, Shannon Stocker, Ambika Vohra and David Arnold

Presented by The Kentucky Book Festival and Kentucky Humanities, this program is part of the main festival on November 2.

Christen Randall

The No-Girlfriend Rule

When Christen Randall, a queer, fat, neurodivergent author, is not writing joyful stories for the next generation of geeky gay kids, you can find them working at their local library branch or at home planning all the D&D campaigns they’ll run one day, they swear. The No-Girlfriend Rule, their debut novel and an instant USA Today Bestseller, is a queer YA romance in which her boyfriend’s “no girlfriends at the table” rule prompts a high school senior to join an all-girls group of roleplaying game Secrets & Sorcery, only for an in-game crush between her character and a charismatic girl’s to develop into a sweet real-life romance.

Shannon Stocker

Stronger at the Seams

Recipient of the ALA Schneider Family Book Award, the Anna Dewdney Read Aloud Honor, and the Comstock Read Aloud Award, Shannon Stocker is driven to fill bookshelves with diverse protagonists with disabilities, as she believes every child deserves to see themselves on the written page. With themes of self-advocacy and acceptance in the face of medical hardship, her debut YA novel, Stronger at the Seams, is for everyone who has ever felt broken.

Ambika Vohra

The Sticky Note Manifesto of Aisha Agarwal

A Michigan native, Ambika Vohra now lives in San Francisco, writing while surrounded by tiny plants and big books and making Indian-style chai with concerning levels of cardamom pods. Her first novel, The Sticky Note Manifesto of Aisha Agarwal, starts with a deal to get Aisha out of her comfort zone so she can write a college essay, follows a series of sticky note to-dos and dares she accepts in exchange for helping Quentin pass math class, and leaves Aisha and the reader contemplating if winning is worth it if you end up losing yourself in the process.

David Arnold

I Loved You In Another Life

David Arnold is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, winner of the Southern Book Prize and the Great Lakes Book Award, and was named a Publishers Weekly Flying Start for his debut, Mosquitoland. With lyrical prose and original songs (written and recorded by the author), I Loved You In Another Life explores the history of love and how some souls are meant for each other—yesterday, today, forever.