KELLY: Hi Joanna! I’m thrilled to talk to you about your first ever YA!

JOANNA: Hi, Kelly! I’m so excited to talk with you about PRIVATE LABEL, your upcoming YA. The cover of your next book is so beautiful, it is stuck in my brain. Can you tell me what it’s about and where the story came from?

KELLY: Of course! PRIVATE LABEL is my first YA romance! It’s about a 17 year old Chinese American girl Serene, whose mom is a fashion designer. When Serene’s Mom gets pancreatic cancer, Serene has to come in and take over her mom’s business. And in the process, she finds out a lot about herself and falls in love with a new boy in town (who could not be less fashionable). The story is inspired by my mom’s own diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. What about your book, THE SILENCE THAT BINDS US?

JOANNA: That sounds amazing! THE SILENCE THAT BINDS US is also about a Chinese American girl. Maybelline Chen loses her beloved older brother to suicide and in the aftermath of his death, city leaders turns against her family and the Asian community, claiming that it is the Asian culture that increases the stress and pressure in their schools. In effect, they blame May’s parents for their own son’s death. It’s the story of May’s journey of grieving, healing, and finding her voice when so many want to keep her silent.

I’m so sorry to hear about your mom’s diagnosis. That must have been such a difficult experience for all of you. Challenging personal experiences are often hard to live through, let alone relive by talking about them. What inspired you to build a story based on this painful experience?

KELLY: That’s such a great question. I have always thought of writing as a therapeutic experience. Growing up, writing was the way for me to process the world. Especially when my world felt like it was spinning out of control, which as a young immigrant was often. So I think about 3 months into my mom’s cancer journey, when some of the chemo was really starting to get to my mom, and I truly felt like I had no real tangible way of helping her, and it was a heartbreaking feeling, I started drafting this manuscript. Writing this book allowed me and my mom to think about something else besides cancer, allowed us to fall in love with the characters, to be able to connect through the lines, and LAUGH – because one of my characters is an aspiring stand up comic. It was such a healing experience for us. This story gave us strength and hope! And I am so glad that you are talking about suicide in your story, because I feel like both cancer and suicide are things that we don’t always talk about in the Asian American community but they’re so important. They’re things that so many families struggle with and these stories are so necessary.

For you, how did you get the inspiration for your book?

JOANNA: I wanted to write a book that explored anti-Asian racism. This was long before “stop Asian hate” became a slogan on protest posters, before it was a topic of public conversation. It was a way for me to explore my own experiences with racism, and also the topic at large. My high school community was racked with two teenage suicide epidemics soon after I graduated. Several years ago, I was at a group dinner and a wealthy white businessman stated that it was the Asians in the community that caused the stress and pressure and suicides. I was sitting directly across the table from him and was so invisible that he didn’t even see me. I began to wonder how it would feel to be a parent or a sibling to not only experience this deep personal tragedy, and then be blamed for them. To your point about silence in the Asian American community around mental health, cancer, and other difficult topics, I think racism is something we all know exists and we discuss behind closed doors, but don’t speak about publicly enough. I hope this story offers many openings to dialogue about topics we all need to discuss more openly.

How do you hope that PRIVATE LABEL lands with readers? What do you hope they will take from the story?

KELLY: I hope that teenagers reading PRIVATE LABEL feel less alone when life suddenly throws them curveballs and they find themselves in the eye of a storm they never ever saw coming. I had no idea my mom was going to get cancer, and suddenly we’d be on this journey. I have no idea what the future will bring, but I’m grateful for every day that we have. In some ways, I think her cancer has brought us closer together. We’ve been able to have some deeply honest conversations, just like in the book, about life, what coming to this country meant for her, and our hopes and dreams for the future. Ultimately, as much as this book is a love story between Serene and Lian, it’s also a love story between Serene and her mom, finally being able to bond, in the most unexpected of circumstances.

What is your greatest hope for your book?

JOANNA: Although the topics of suicide and racism are heavy and painful, I really hope this story offers a message of hope, healing and empowerment. I hope it offers a lens through which we can collectively examine the invisibility of Asians in our society, the nuances and challenges of working in solidarity, the value of speaking out about mental health, and the power of working together to change dominant narratives that have confined us for too long. Similarly to you, writing this book has also brought me closer to my mom. In some ways, it’s been a vehicle for me to learn about my own history and heritage and this has strengthened our bond.

You were able to create a story of love and laughter from unexpected and difficult circumstances. How do you hold on to that light in your own life?

KELLY: Great question! Well, I write next to a 60 lb fuzzy labradoodle, who always helps me see the humor and lighter side of life! I also have three rascals, Eliot, Tilden, and Nina, who remind me every day why I do what I do. Why I get up and I write, on the good days and on the bad days. It’s always to inspire the next generation. To show them that life can be unpredictable, and sometimes downright terrifying, but I’m going to keep trying, and I don’t know what is going to happen, but I’m going to approach it with love, kindness, and humor.

What about you? How do you hang onto the light?

JOANNA: My kids! Cookies! Nature! I eat a lot of chocolate chip cookies! I agree with what you shared also. My kids really remind me what matters and give me such hope for the future. Spending time with them is genuinely my joy and they fill my reserves, even if mommying can be exhausting! When my daughter is drawing leopard dots on herself with Sharpie in the middle of church, or my son is lecturing me about the ten million trains that he would like to own one day, I feel grateful to be their mom and this in and of itself is light and life for me.

KELLY: That is the sweetest thing! It’s such a joy and an honor being in conversation with you and I cannot wait for the world to read THE SILENCE THAT BINDS US!

JOANNA: I can’t wait to meet your three rascals, especially after I finished reading NEW FROM HERE! I can’t wait until PRIVATE LABEL is out in the world!

The post Authors In Conversation: Kelly Yang and Joanna Ho appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

We had the pleasure of chatting to author Joanna Ho about her debut picture book, Eyes That Kiss In The Corners, which features illustrations by Dung Ho. Joanna speaks about her love of writing, resolutions, book recommendations, and so much more!

2020 was an incredibly bizarre year, and it’s rolling on into 2021. Have you set any resolutions for the year?

I’m one of those people who LOVES setting new year’s resolutions. I write them down on a piece of paper and I put the paper on my wall. Each year when it’s time to write new ones, I look back at the resolutions from the previous year and take stock of what goals I completed, made progress on, or forgot completely. Some goals I have for 2021 include: redesigning the spaces in my home to reflect the changing structure of my family, writing and revising a middle grade novel and at least 3-5 new picture books, going on more outdoor adventures and hopefully somewhere on plane, and visiting friends and family I didn’t get to see in person in 2020!

When did you first discover your love for writing?

My love for writing comes from my love of story. I was that kid who signed up for the library summer reading challenge and read a billion books every summer. I think academic writing in high school and college really inhibited the connection between story and writing for me as a student. I struggled to write essays and often spent hours trying to craft a single sentence for a five-page paper. I did, however, always love journaling.

It wasn’t until I became a mom that I started to see writing as a way to tell stories, to have my voice heard. I started a blog to capture moments and thoughts I wanted to share with my kids when they grew up and this, coupled with my desire for more inclusive children’s books inspired me to begin writing books of my own. Writing gave me a voice.

Your debut book, Eyes That Kiss In The Corners, is out January 5^th 2021! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Girl becomes empowered through family.

Now tell us a little more! What can readers expect?

Eyes that Kiss in the Corners is about a young Taiwanese American girl who wishes for big eyes and long lashes, like the ones she sees in books and movies. But, through loving relationships with women in her family, she comes to realize not only that her eyes are beautiful, but that she has power to create change for the future.

What was the inspiration behind this novel?

I wrote EYES THAT KISS IN THE CORNERS for myself when I was young and for my daughter who was in my belly when I wrote the first draft. Growing up, I used to wish for differently shaped eyes. I remember standing in front of the mirror and pulling up my eyelids to see what I would look like if my eyes were bigger. I envied girls with big eyes and long lashes, thinking I need those things to be beautiful. Every image of beauty, every animated movie, featured someone who looked totally different than me. It wasn’t until I was almost 30 and traveling in Taiwan that I had an epiphany in the middle of a 7-11 while standing in line to purchase snacks. I picked up a magazine, flipped through it, and was struck by all the Asian faces on the pages. Beautiful faces. With eyes and noses and hair like mine. It was a powerful moment when I realized I could be beautiful too. Ultimately, I wanted to write a book that was about more than just recognizing one’s own beauty; I wanted to write a book that could point people to their own power and ability to define the world around them.

What was the illustration process like?

Magical! Every time I got to see sketches or drafts, I teared up. I feel so fortunate that I was able to work with Dung Ho on my first book. Her art is beyond anything I could have dreamed up myself, and I could see in her art that she truly understood the story I was trying to tell. She added layers of meaning that I still discover now even though I’ve flipped through the book’s pages so many times!

What do you hope readers take away from your story?

I hope readers recognize that they don’t need to fit a narrow, unrealistic definition of beauty to be beautiful. That learning to recognize our beauty in a world that tells us opposing messages is truly an act of resistance and revolution. That we have power to change the societies in which we live.

What’s next for you?

I hope I get to keep telling stories! I have a second picture book out in the fall of 2021 titled, PLAYING AT THE BORDER: A STORY OF YO-YO MA, and I’ve been working on revisions for an upcoming YA novel titled, THE SILENCE THAT BINDS US. I have a few more picture books coming out soon too.

I just recently started my first MG novel, and I’m excited to dive into a new project and see where it takes me!

Lastly, what are you currently reading and what 2021 book recommendations do you have for our readers?

I just finished THE BOYS IN THE BACK ROW, by Mike Jung, and I’m currently reading DEAR GIRLS, by Ali Wong. I highly recommend both! Ali Wong’s books has my stomach hurting from laughing so hard.

I’m part of a picture book debut group, @Forever21PBs, and I’m excited for every single picture book coming from this group. I’m also excited for I DREAM OF POPO by Livia Blackburne, it’s also a story of a Taiwanese American girl and it is so beautiful.

The post Q&A: Joanna Ho, Author of ‘Eyes That Kiss In The Corners’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.