To continue to celebrate the release of Watch Us Rise, we were so pleased to offer an interview with Renée Watson and Ellen Hagan.

We’re thrilled to help celebrate the publication of Renée Watson and Ellen Hagan’s fabulous new YA novel “Watch Us Rise.” Renée and Ellen were kind enough to share some outtakes from the novel with us. Take a look — and go find this book!

[…]Look at me. No, no—don’t turn away. See all of this.  All this fat girl curve, this belly, these hips. See me. […]

We wanted to highlight some of the new YA novels some of our fantastic alums have released in 2018. Perhaps one of these would be perfect for someone on your holiday shopping list!

YARN alum Elizabeth Maria Naranjo offers up a wonderful creepy, bittersweet tale, which was one of the runners-up chosen by Rin Chupeco for last year’s Halloween Contest. Enjoy! 

He’d never been to the ocean and didn’t know what the waves sounded like when they broke against the shore, but Timothy knew they didn’t sound like the voices of girls.

With many thanks to our judge Nisha Sharma, we present our winner to you, “Tequila” by YARN alum Laura Gonzalez!

In all my seventeen years, I have always been second. Rosa, my twin, was twenty-two minutes older, and she has held those twenty-two minutes over me for our entire life.[…]

One of our wonderful Humor Contest Runners-Up, “Citrus and Ash.”

Geoffrey lifted the knocker and brought it down on the witch’s door. Three short authoritative raps to get the job done.[…]

General submissions are now closed, but we’ll have lots of great stories and poems for you to keep reading through July, including our announcement of our Humor Contest Winners.

Brendan Kiely’s “Tradition” explores the ways young men help create and perpetuate rape culture, as well as fight it in alliance with young women. We’re thrilled he agreed to talk about his work.