Hybrid Event: Fireblooms, Alexandra Villasante

East City Bookshop welcomes Alexandra Villasante to discuss her young adult novel, Fireblooms, in conversation with Venessa Vida Kelley.

Note on Format: This hybrid event will have both an in-person component with limited seating as well as a virtual broadcast via Zoom Webinar. Both in-person and virtual attendees will be able to pose questions to the author during audience Q&A.

ABOUT FIREBLOOMS

An absorbing speculative Queer YA romance set in a town that uses technology to prevent hate speech and bullying. From the LAMBDA Award-winning author of The Grief Keeper.

When seventeen-year-old Sebastian agrees to come to New Gault to care for his absent and abusive mother after her cancer diagnosis, he is not prepared for the strange new community that awaits him or the distressing state he finds his mother in. He tries to help, but despite being ill, her tongue is as sharp as ever, finding all Sebas’s tender places. But he promised his Abuela he'd try to make this work.

Unfortunately trying also means attending TECH, New Gault’s high school. His first day, he’s assigned to enthusiastic TECH student ambassador, Lu, who introduces him to all TECH can offer—a safe space, free from bullying. But all this safety and technology comes with a catch—not only do you have to watch what you say, but you have to stay within a strict word limit. Sebas declines. To him New Gault feels more like the Stepford Wives than freedom.

For Lu, who suffers from anxiety and has a history of being bullied, TECH is a lifeline somewhere they can be safe. They can’t understand why Sebas would refuse. When Sebas rejects TECH, it feels as if he’s rejecting Lu.

But when Sebas learns if he doesn’t accept the TECH phone and abide by the rules, his mother will be denied cancer treatment, he changes his tune. Slowly, Lu and Sebas form a friendship that morphs into something more, but the closer they get, the more Sebas challenges Lu's beliefs about TECH and what it means to be safe. Meanwhile, Sebas contemplates how to forgive his dying mother for being no mother at all.

This thought-provoking, tender love story examines what we’re willing to give up to feel safe as two broken teens navigate emotional trauma and discover what blooms may come from the ashes.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Alexandra Villasante's Young Adult novel, The Grief Keeper, won the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Children’s Literature/Young Adult Fiction and was a Junior Library Guild Gold Selection. Alex is a contributor to several Young Adult short story anthologies and is a co-founder of the Latinx Kidlit Book Festival and the Latinx Storytellers Conference. When she’s not writing or painting, Alex works for the Highlights Foundation. You can visit Alex at www.alexandravillasante.com

Venessa Vida Kelley is a Nuyorican author, illustrator, and aspiring mermaid who writes fairy tales about the real world so they can draw them too. They hold a BA and MA in English literature with concentrations in film from the University of Delaware and the George Washington University respectively, and their illustrations have decorated LGBTQ+ books worldwide. Venessa lives in Washington, DC, with their spouse, two sons, and an overabundance of teacups and washi tape.

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