Join Leon Egan (Lover Birds; Listen Closely), Lex Croucher (Not For The Faint Of Heart), and Dean Atta (The Black Flamingo) in conversation with Lizzie Huxley-Jones (Vivi Conway) as they discuss queer identities in YA fiction.
BIOGS
LEON EGAN (he/they) is a trans author from Liverpool. Shortly after graduating from an MA in Publishing, the world fell apart, so mostly he’s just been getting a lot of writing done. Leon is the writer and producer of scripted fiction podcast Tell No Tales and their debut YA novel LOVER BIRDS published in 2024.
LEX CROUCHER grew up in Surrey, reading a lot of books and making friends with strangers on the internet, and now lives in London. With a background in social media and NGOs, Lex now writes historical-ish rom-coms and fantasy for both adults and teenagers. They are a YA Book Prize 2024-winning, the Nero Award-shortlisted, New York Times, Indie & USA Today bestselling author of GWEN AND ART ARE NOT IN LOVE.
DEAN ATTA is the author of YA novels-in-verse The Black Flamingo and Only on the Weekends. Named as 'one of poetry's greatest modern voices' (Gay Times). The Black Flamingo was a top-selling debut of 2020 and was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize, CILIP Carnegie Medal, The Jhalak Prize and The YA Book Prize. The Black Flamingo was also awarded the prestigious Stonewall Book Award and the Carnegie Shadowers' Choice Award 2020, and sold to the US in a five-way publisher auction.
LIZZIE HUXLEY-JONES (they/them) is an autistic author and editor based in London. They are the author of the forthcoming queer holiday rom-com Make You Mine This Christmas (2022) from Hodder Studio and fantasy middle grade series Vivi Conway and the Sword of Legend (2023) from Knights Of. They write joyful stories that centre queerness and disability. They are the editor of Stim, an anthology of autistic authors and artists, which was published by Unbound in April 2020 to coincide with World Autism Awareness Week. They are also the author of the children's biography Sir David Attenborough: A Life Story (2020) and a contributor to the anthology Allies: Real Talk About Showing Up, Screwing Up, And Trying Again (2021), which was chosen to be a World Book Day Title for 2023, renamed as Being an Ally (2023). They also work with writers and publishers as a sensitivity reader and editorial consultant, and were an editor at independent micropublisher 3 of Cups Press. In their past career lives, they have been a research diver, a children's bookseller and digital communications specialist. They tweet too much at @littlehux, taking breaks to walk their dog Nerys. They are represented by Abi Fellows of The Good Literary Agency.