Highlights from our conversation with Founder and Publisher of Kokila, Namrata Tripathi:

Namrata Tripathi is Founder and Publisher of Kokila. Previously, Namrata held editorial positions at HarperCollins, Disney-Hyperion, and Simon and Schuster. She is the editor of New York Times bestsellers Hair Love by Matthew A. Cherry and Vashti Harrison and Antiracist Baby by Ibram X. Kendi and Ashley Lukashevsky; the Newbery Honor-winning middle grade novel The Night Diary by Veera Hiranandani; and the National Book Award Finalists Noggin by John Corey Whaley, Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay, and The Legend of Auntie Po by Shing Yin Khor. Namrata grew up in Afghanistan, India, Canada, Pakistan, Germany, and Poland, and has happily called New York City home for the last twenty-five years.

They’re back!!! Here are some highlights from Joanna and Caroline’s first episode after their five-month KLHH hiatus:

Some links from today’s episode:

Here are some highlights from our conversation with the NYTimes bestselling, award-winning cartoonist and graphic novelist Raina Telgemeier: 

Raina Telgemeier is the #1 New York Times bestselling, multiple Eisner Award–winning creator of Smile, Sisters, and Guts, which are all graphic memoirs based on her childhood. She is also the creator of Drama and Ghosts, the adapter and illustrator of the first four Baby-sitters Club graphic novels, and, with Scott McCloud, the co-creator of The Cartoonists Club. Facing Feelings: Inside the World of Raina Telgemeier is based on an exhibition that was held at The Ohio State University’s Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, and will be published in October 2025. Raina lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Our conversation with Aida Salazar is here! Aida shares about how one workshop radically changed her approach to voice, why writing is a spiritual practice, how she stays open to receiving stories from our ancestors, and so much more.

Aida Salazar is an award-winning author, arts activist, and translator whose writings explore issues of identity and social justice. Her critically acclaimed verse novels and picture books have received numerous awards including: a Caldecott Honor, the Malka Penn Award, the Américas Award, Tomás Rivera Book Award, International Latino Book Awards, California Library Association Beatty Award, Northern CA Book Award, Jane Addams Peace Honor, an NCTE Charlotte Huck Honor among other distinctions. She lives with her family of artists in Oakland, CA. 

Here are some highlights from our conversation with NYTimes-bestselling, award-winning author Jasmine Warga!:

• Excavating not simply WHAT your characters want, but WHY they want it

Jasmine Warga is the #1 New York Times-bestselling author of middle grade novels Other Words For Home, The Shape of Thunder, A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall and A Rover’s Story. Other Words For Home earned multiple awards, including a John Newbery Honor, a Walter Honor for Young Readers, and a Charlotte Huck Honor. The Shape of Thunder was a School Library Journal and Bank Street best book of the year, a finalist for the Barnes & Noble Children's and YA Book Award, and has been named to several state award reading lists. A Rover’s Story, her latest novel, was an instant New York Times bestseller, a Indie Next List and a Junior Library Guild selection, and was named a best book of the year by Publishers Weekly and The Washington Post. She is also the author of young adult novel, My Heart and Other Black Holes, which has been translated into over twenty different languages. Originally from Cincinnati, she now lives in the Chicago-area with her family in a house filled with books.

Here are a few highlights from our conversation with the award-winning Adib Khorram:

• How his notes app has come to be bursting with character ideas and peoples' idiosyncrasies

ADIB KHORRAM is the author of DARIUS THE GREAT IS NOT OKAY, which earned the William C. Morris Debut Award, the Asian/Pacific American Award for Young Adult Literature, and a Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor, as well as a multitude of other honors and accolades. His followup, DARIUS THE GREAT DESERVES BETTER, received three starred reviews, was an Indie Bestseller, and received a Stonewall Honor. His latest novel, KISS & TELL, received four starred reviews. His debut picture book, SEVEN SPECIAL SOMETHINGS: A NOWRUZ STORY was released in 2021. He lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where people don’t usually talk about themselves in the third person.

LINKS:

Website: www.adibkhorram.com

IG: Adib Khorram

First listen to Adib's overshare, then watch him white-knuckle (and crush) his speech at the FYE Conference in 2020

Here are highlights from our conversation with award-winning, NYTimes-bestselling author Randy Ribay:

• How characters explore the same internal questions he’s grappling with in his own life

Randy Ribay is an award-winning author of young adult fiction. His most recent novel, Patron Saints of Nothing, earned five starred reviews, was selected as a Freeman Book Award winner, and was a finalist for the National Book Award, LA Times Book Prize, Walden Book Award, Edgar Award, International Thriller Writers Award, and the CILIP Carnegie Medal. His other works include Project Kawayan, After the Shot Drops, and An Infinite Number of Parallel Universes. His next novels, The Chronicles of the Avatar: The Reckoning of Roku (Abrams) and Everything We Never Had (Kokila/Penguin) will be out in 2024. 

Born in the Philippines and raised in the Midwest, Randy earned his BA in English Literature from the University of Colorado at Boulder and his Ed.M. in Language and Literacy from Harvard Graduate School of Education. He currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, son, and cat-like dog. 

Randy's website

Randy's Instagram

Highlights from our episode with the bestselling, awards-winning, queen herself, Grace Lin:

• Picking a setting where you *want* to spend time

Grace Lin, a NY Times bestselling author/ illustrator, won the Newbery Honor for “Where the Mountain Meets the Moon” and the Theodor Geisel Honor for “Ling and Ting.” Her novel “When the Sea Turned to Silver” was a National Book Award Finalist and her picture book, “A Big Mooncake for Little Star” was awarded the Caldecott Honor. Grace is also an occasional commentator for New England Public Radio, a reviewer for the NY Times, a video essayist for PBS NewsHour, and the speaker of the popular TEDx talk, “The Windows and Mirrors of Your Child’s Bookshelf,” as well as the co-host of the Book Friends Forever podcast.  In 2016, Grace’s art was displayed at the White House where Grace, herself, was recognized by President Obama’s office as a Champion of Change for Asian American and Pacific Islander Art and Storytelling. In 2022, Grace was awarded the Children’s Literature Legacy Award from the American Library Association. 

Here are some highlights from our conversation with award-winning, bestselling author Liz Garton Scanlon:

📚 Why setting is not relevant only in hsitorical fiction or fantasy and how it impacts every single experience of ourselves and our characters

📚 Setting as context, and reverse engineering elements of craft

📚Honoring the rhythms of being a s l o w writer

📚 Stories emerging in a dreamscape

📚 How what we know about our fledgling stories becomes self-perpetuating; ask the questions questions, follow the pathways

📚 What to do with envy in a publishing career

Liz Garton Scanlon is the author of numerous beloved books for young people, including picture books Frances in the Country; Kate, Who Tamed the Wind; One Dark Bird; the Caldecott honored All the World, and many others, illustrated by some of the very best artists in the business. She's also co-authored several books with her pal Audrey Vernick, including the hilarious Bob, Not Bob, and the upcoming World’s Best Class Plant. Scanlon’s middle grade novels are The Great Good Summer and Lolo's Light, and her delightful chapter book series Bibsy Cross debuted in 2024. Liz has taught at Austin Community College, the Writing Barn, the Writers’ League of Texas, and at countless schools and conferences. She currently serves on the faculty and is faculty co-chair of the Writing for Children and Young Adults program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, but lives in Austin, Texas. 

Liz's Facebook: Liz Garton Scanlon

Liz's IG @LizGardenSalad

Liz's Website: www.LizGartonScanlon.com

EPISODE LINKS:

• Snag your copy of Liz's irresistable Bibsy Cross!

Highlights from this episode include:

• Starting with a story and discovering theme along the way

Minh Lê is the award-winning author of household favorites Drawn Together (winner of the 2019 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature), Real to Me, The Blur, Lift (an Eisner Award nominee). He also writes popular middle grade graphic novels, including Green Lantern books and Enlighten Me. He is also a has been a contributor to a number of national publications including the New York Times, The Horn Book, HuffPost, NPR, Book Riot, and Reading Rainbow, and was until very recently, on the Board of We Need Diverse Books. He's also on the faculty of the Hamline MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults.

IG: @bottomshelfbks