Remembering Jane

My friend Jane Yolen passed away a few days ago, and while it’s incredible that her legacy includes 450 published books(!) I’m saddened to not share the world with her anymore. In addition to being brilliant, seemingly always with a twinkle in her eye and a story to share, Jane was remarkably kind. She befriended me early in my kidlit journey, gave me insightful feedback that helped me revise (and sell) my first picture book, and blurbed more than one of my books.

Jane was an amazing ally, too, for years coming to the LGBTQ+ and Allies Socials I facilitated at SCBWI’s big conferences. She was always encouraging. Always real. Always willing to show up and lend her support.

I remember attending a workshop Jane co-facilitated, and when she finished teaching a section, she came and sat down next to me in the front row. The next instructor started by giving the room an exercise and a few minutes to write. Jane began writing. I asked, ‘What are you doing?’ She was teaching the workshop, she didn’t need to do the exercises! She looked over and said something like ‘the minute I stop learning, I’ll stop living.’ I’m sure it was much more pithy and elegantly said than that, but the idea that even with hundreds of books published Jane still wanted to learn more, to grow more, continues to inspire me.

When I heard the news this week, I went for a walk and listened to a podcast Jane was on years ago. (You can listen to that episode of the Book of Life podcast here.) Jane and her co-author were talking about their 2018 release, Meet Me at the Well. It was so nice to hear Jane’s voice. I’m glad we have such a bounty of interviews, and articles, and books to remember her by. And, because Jane knew how to tell one hell of a story, of course I had to order a copy of Meet Me at the Well from my local library as soon as I got home.

It’s pretty cool to have known a legend. Jane, I’m so grateful our paths converged on this wild adventure. I’ll miss you.

June 20 Free Online Launch Party

Please join me for this one-hour online community gathering and celebration of the publication of “A Different Kind of Enemy.” We’ll announce the winners of the Spy Swag Prizes from each of our Queer and Queer-Friendly Independent Bookstore collab partners, and the winners of the Fan Art Contest. RSVP for the zoom link here.

Enter the Fan Art contest by Jun 19!

Post your best ‘Queer Spies Sam and Nico saving the world’ fan art on Instagram or Bluesky, tagging both me and We Need Diverse Books and three people will win. (No AI art, just human art, please.) If you’re not on social media and you’re inspired to do fan art about Queer teens saving the world, you can also email me the art directly at leewind (at) roadrunner (dot) com.

ALA Signings on Saturday June 27

Librarian friends! If you’re going to be at ALA come get a signed copy of A DIFFERENT KIND OF BRAVE! I’ll be signing and giving away copies courtesy of the publisher at the IPG booth #4029 at 10am and then at the IBPA booth #2429 at 3pm.

Hope to see you there!

3 great conversations I’ve had recently that you can listen to:

My BookFest Award conversation with Lesléa Newman – Lesléa’s a friend and one of my heroes, so I admit to being a bit of a fan-boy in this one. And it was very nice (and flattering) to receive this award.

12×12 Podcast: Allyship in the Age of Book Banning – Julie has built an impressive community of writers supporting each other on the picture book adventure, and we had a great talk!

Tall Guy Talks Travel Podcast: Author Lee Wind Writes About LGBTQIA+ History – Rick and I got to chat about some of my favorite (and surprising) people and stories that reveal history is more than just what we’ve been taught. (spoiler: History is pretty Queer!)

Book Recommendations (Besides mine… because recommending my own books would be tacky. But, of course, I hope you check my books out, too.)

Going Bicoastal by Dahlia Adler – Natalya, a Bi Jewish teen with divorced parents on different coasts, has to choose between two different summers… Lucky for us readers, in alternating chapters we get to find out what happens with Natalya in Los Angeles and New York (and each choice comes with its own romance!) I listened to the audiobook of this one and it was wonderful. Special shout out to the author who is the power behind the wonderful lgbtqreads.com website!

Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe – Brave. Honest. Important. By Maia sharing eir very personal story of feeling so alone about eir gender, sexuality, body, pronouns, and so much more, so many other people now know they’re not alone. An essential Queer Graphic Memoir. (“Graphic” here means it’s graphic-novel or comic-book style, not that anything in the book is graphic. The haters are just full of fear about how honest this book is about the gender binary being a big lie.)

That’s all for June!

Thanks for being part of my community. The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you,
Lee