We chat with co-editors Dahlia Adler and Jennifer Iacopelli about their new anthology Out of Our League, which is a compelling YA anthology about the trials and triumphs of girls in sports and features stories from Dahlia Adler, Jennifer Iacopelli, Carrie S. Allen, Sara Farizan, Juliana Goodman, Maggie Hall, Leah Henderson, Sarah Henning, Naomi Kanakia, Miranda Kenneally, Yamile Saied Méndez, Cam Montgomery, Marieke Nijkamp, Amparo Ortiz, Aminah Mae Safi, and Kayla Whaley.
Hi, Dahlia and Jennifer! Welcome back to The Nerd Daily! It’s been a couple of years since we last spoke with you both, so how have you been?
Dahlia: Busy, mostly!
Jennifer: So, so busy.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
Dahlia: I actually don’t remember the time before it. I was an early reader, and because I’m the youngest child by a wide margin, my house was already full of books at all levels.
Jennifer: I’m about to be incredibly cliché, but same. Stories were always a part of my life and I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t obsessed with telling my own.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading:
- Dahlia: Little Bear by Else Homelund Minarik, illustrated by Maurice Sendak
- Jennifer: Corduroy written and illustrated by Don Freeman
- The one that made you want to become an author:
- Dahlia: Ellen Tebbitts by Beverly Cleary
- Jennifer: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about:
- Dahlia: Sadie by Courtney Summers
- Jennifer: The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe
Releasing on January 23rd, Out of Our League is a new YA anthology, which is co-edited by you both! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Dahlia: Sporty, passionate, varied, authentic, and fun!
Jennifer: Can I claim Dahlia stole all of mine? No? Okay. Heartfelt. Action. Diverse. Inspiring. Exhilarating.
What can readers expect?
Dahlia: All sorts of sports, all sorts of levels of athletic competition, and all sorts of voices. It was really important to us that sports not be seen through a single lens or experience, and to show there’s just as much beauty in doing it for fun or a way to bond with friends as doing it for a medal or trophy.
Jennifer: Authenticity. One of the things Dahlia and I talk about a lot when it comes to sports fiction is an accurate portrayal on the page being as important as the plot and the character arcs. We made sure to recruit authors that would prioritize that, along giving our readers a variety of authentic perspectives as far as the level of competitiveness and the diversity of the athletes themselves.
Where did the inspiration for Out of Our League come from?
Dahlia: Honestly we’ve been talking about it for so long, I don’t even remember! We’ve both been writing about girls in sports for almost a decade now–between Jen’s tennis girls in her fantastic OBX series and my lax queen in Right of First Refusal, and we spent so much time talking about wanting a collection like this, and finally, we just made it happen!
Jennifer: Years. This project is literally years in the making. I think the earliest conversations we had about it trace back to 2017 or 2018, but as Dahlia said, we’ve been writing about sports for nearly a decade and have known each other for even longer than that, so the foundations for a project like this were always there, it was just a matter of making it happen.
With a few anthologies already under Dahlia’s belt, what was the process like for you Jennifer with Out of Our League being your first anthology?
Jennifer: I was so intimidated by the process at first. Dahlia and I, as we mentioned before, have known each other for more than a decade, so I knew that she would guide me through, but I also didn’t want to feel like deadweight, someone just along for the ride or that she would have to carry (and anyone who has worked on group project knows, sometimes it’s just easier to do the thing yourself if people aren’t pulling their weight). But soon enough we both realized that despite being incredibly type a, working together was incredibly seamless. It wasn’t even one of those partnerships where we’d compensate for each other’s weaknesses, but instead by working together, we made each other better. As far as the nitty gritty, it was really interesting to get a better understanding of how an anthology should be laid out, where each story belonged within the context of the whole and then, most importantly, assigning writers to a sport that we knew they could bring to life on the page.
Was there any particular story that resonated with yourself or perhaps one that you wished you had read when you were younger?
Dahlia: I definitely wrote my story, “Volley Girl,” for my younger self, though my sport was actually hockey, not volleyball. I wasn’t a huge or preternaturally gifted athlete or anything, but my love of hockey was so defining for me in camp, and knowing when I left my last summer as sports staff that I’d likely never play it again was something I really needed to grieve.
Jennifer: I remember when we read Leah Henderson’s crew story, Power Ten in Two, Dahlia mentioned the main character Emersyn being a lot like who she imagined I was in high school and wow, did that absolutely hit the nail on the head. I probably could have used a nudge like Emersyn gets, to not take myself so seriously and to learn about playing for the love of something!
What’s next for each of you?
Dahlia: Well, in the world of girls in sports, the paperback of my football/cheerleading romance, Home Field Advantage, releases in June, but in terms of new stuff, I have a new novel and a new anthology coming in 2025. The former is a romance about a girl who goes to boarding school and gets put in an all-boys’ dorm, then tries to reinvent herself as a bad girl through a pact with one of her delinquent new dormmates, and the latter is a collection of holiday stories celebrating different cultures. How many holidays can I cram into my own story? Find out next year!
Jennifer: I’ve got an adult contemporary romance novel, my debut in that category, under a new pen name, Jennifer Hennessy, coming out later this year. It’s called Degrees of Engagement, and it follows a young woman who just completed her Ph.D. whose friends and family can’t be bothered to show up to her celebration when she’s bent over backwards for years to attend every party for their weddings and the babies that followed. She gets her revenge by faking an engagement to a fellow student, an archaeologist turned librarian whose passion is returning artifacts to their countries of origin. And then in 2025, because my sports obsession can’t be held back for too long, I’ll be writing a baseball romance about the head of analytics for a major league team who butts heads with the team’s new manager as they try to build a team together. I’m drafting it right now and it’s been so much fun!
Lastly, are there any 2024 book releases that you’re looking forward to?
Dahlia: Sure are, because my brilliant co-editor happens to be releasing her adult debut–Degrees of Engagement by Jennifer Hennessy–and I cannot wait. I’m a huge fan of Lev Rosen’s Andy Mills series, about a gay detective in the 1950s, so I’m extremely excited for the third book, Rough Pages. A few of my favorite Romance authors are releasing books in 2024, so I’ll definitely be grabbing Happily Never After by Lynn Painter, The Art of Catching Feelings by Alicia Thompson, and The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren. And in YA, I have some big faves releasing new books, too; I’m excited for Icarus by K. Ancrum, Kill Her Twice by Stacey Lee, Flawless Girls by Anna-Marie McLemore, and, on the topic of girls in sports, Playing for Keeps by Jennifer Dugan. And we’ve got some contributors with new books coming, too! Can’t wait for Marieke Nijkamp’s Splinter & Ash and Sarah Henning’s The Lies We Conjure, and already read and adored Naomi Kanakia’s Just Happy to Be Here!
Jennifer: Dahlia is a literal rec’ing ball so I feel like I shouldn’t have to answer after her! Absolutely echoing The Art of Catching Feelings by Alicia Thompson, which I was lucky enough to get an early copy of and as a baseball girlie, it hit me right in the-forgive me-feelings. Even if you aren’t necessarily a baseball fan, trust me, you’re going to love it. This one already came out, but I’m really looking forward to reading Stay with my Heart by Tashie Bhuiyan and later on in the year, The Perfect Guy Doesn’t Exist by Sophie Gonzales.
