Book Launch and Signing at Lethbridge Chapters

I'm so excited to share that I will be doing a book launch and signing for Swimmers! I will be celebrating the release of my new YA novel at the Lethbridge Chapters on Saturday August 16. Come by any time between 1:00 and 4:00 p.m. to visit or pick up a copy of the book!

Artwork by Betty Liang

Goodreads Giveaway July 21 - August 21

Check out the giveaway of my new YA book Swimmers on Goodreads! There are 10 books available, and the giveaway lasts from July 21 - August 21! Thanks to Win

http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/100716-swimmers

Publication Day for Swimmers!

Today is the publication day for my new YA novel Swimmers! I am beyond excited to introduce Swimmers, my second novel for young adults published by Red Deer Press. The book is set in both Victoria, BC and Lethbridge, AB, two Canadian cities that I have spent a good deal of time living in. They're connected by a Greyhound bus trip that winds through the Rocky Mountains, as 17-year-old Hunter returns home.

Both Victoria and Lethbridge are incredibly important cities to me, and while my first novel - Before We Go - was set entirely in Victoria, I haven't written substantially about Lethbridge before. As cities go, they are fairly opposite. Victoria is a smaller city located on Vancouver Island, accessible by an hour and a half ferry ride from Vancouver Island, or a three hour ferry ride from Seattle. There's no escaping the ocean, or the fog, or the long sandy beaches. The header picture of this website was taken in Victoria along Beach Drive, which wraps around the southern part of the island. But Lethbridge is all prairie. You have to drive for a while to find a lake, and to get a really good one, you have to go into BC or Montana. I grew up in both cities, and also returned to live in both of them as an adult. 

Swimmers follows Hunter's Greyhound trip with his ex-girlfriend Lee and a 12-year-old named Poppy. Lee has come to bring Hunter back home because it's time for him to face the one thing that he ran away from. The book traces their journey home and reveals Hunter's past, and the precarious, uncertain present he has been living in. 

I am so, so, so excited that Swimmers will be on bookshelves today, and also available at Amazon (US) and Amazon (Canada)!

Swimmers

I am so excited to announce that my new book for young adults, Swimmers, is available for pre-order and will be published soon.

Swimmers is about 17-year-old Hunter, who is on a Greyhound bus bound for Victoria, BC with his ex-girlfriend Lee and a 12-year-old named Poppy. Hunter is going home, even though he dreads returning there. Lee has come to bring him back, because it's time for him to face the one thing that he ran away from. The book traces their journey home and reveals Hunter's past, and the precarious, uncertain present he has been living.

Swimmers is available for pre-order through Amazon (US) / Amazon (Canada).

OLA Conference and Giveaway

It's been a busy few weeks, which was why I completely forgot to mention that I was recently in Toronto for the Ontario Library Association Conference with Red Deer Press! I met so many Ontario librarians in town for the conference, and was able to sign with Fitzhenry & Whiteside author Jennifer Lanthier.

I was also recently interviewed by Danielle at Bookish Notions:

http://bookishnotions.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/interview-with-author-amy-bright/

She is currently running a giveaway of a signed copy of Before We Go, open until March 16:

http://bookishnotions.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/giveaway-before-we-go-by-amy-bright/

Article in the ALAN Review

I have just found out that my article "Writing Bridges: How Writers Scaffold Mature Content in YA Literature" will be published in the Winter (2013) issue of The ALAN Review. I wrote the article in part as a response to Meghan Cox Gurdon's much publicized discussion in The Wall Street Journal, where she determined recent YA literature to be too dark and too mature for young adult readers. Writers, librarians, readers, and other lovers of YA literature responded to the article, taking Cox Gurdon to task for her generalization and assumption that dark and mature material is too much for contemporary teen readers to handle. One of my favorite responses was written by Sherman Alexie, who said:

"When I think of the poverty-stricken, sexually and physically abused, self-loathing Native American teenager that I was, I can only wish, immodestly, that I’d been given the opportunity to read The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Or Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak. Or Chris Lynch’s Inexusable. Or any of the books that Ms. Gurdon believes to be irredeemable. I can’t speak for other writers, but I think I wrote my YA novel as a way of speaking to my younger, irredeemable self."

My article looks at the way new novels for teens - particularly, Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan, Going Bovine by Libba Bray, and The Marbury Lens by Andrew Smith - use mature content that is consistent with the complexity of language, style, and form. These new novels present content that may challenge readers, but that content is paired with a sophisticated form that mirrors many literary and canonical articles. 

"Private Transit" in Here Be Monsters Issue Seven

My short story, "Private Transit," was just published in the seventh issue of Here Be Monsters, a Canadian anthology.

You can purchase the collection on Amazon, or through the Here Be Monsters website!