Out of the Blue Donation Drive

In Which We Talk About Giving Queer Summer Reads to the Teens Who Need Them

Okay, wow! It has been a loooooong time since I last sent out an update. In a nutshell, here’s what happened:

✨ My debut YA, Jay’s Gay Agenda, launched and it’s been so fun getting reader reactions! It also sold in France and will be getting a French translation! And more news about Jay is on the horizon 😏

📚 I sold 4 new novels, none of which have been announced, but hopefully will be very soon!

🧜🏻‍♂️ Wrote, copy-edited, and sent off to the printers my next novel, Out of the Blue, my queer merperson/fish out of water/fake dating YA rom-com, coming to bookstores on MerMay 31st! That’s just around the corner! Here’s the cover, illustrated by the amazing Ricardo Bessa and designed by the brilliant David DeWitt:

And it’s because of this upcoming release that I’m kicking off my newsletter again. As many of you know, books written by and about queer folks are coming under increasing attack. They’re being challenged or pulled from schools and public libraries, and the teachers and librarians who make sure queer teens have access to books with people like them in their pages are often threatened with termination for having LGBTQ+ collections.

So, that got me to thinking how we could get queer books into the hands of teens who need them in safe spaces that can’t be challenged. This led me to reaching out to a ton of LGBTQ+ centers for teens or that have teen programs, and finding out that they do indeed often have libraries and they can help give books to teens who are hoping to read about characters like them. And here is where the Out of the Blue Donation Drive was born.

I’ve partnered up with three indie bookstores (Auntie’s Bookstore in Spokane, WA; Brain Lair Books in South Bend, IN; and Brazos Bookstore in Houston, TX) where you can preorder a copy (or copies!) of Out of the Blue to be donated to a LGBTQ+ youth center where that book will be paired with a teen looking for a queer summer/beach read. After a year of constantly seeing books featuring characters like them banned or challenged, this will be an opportunity for queer teens to get a summer read written specifically for them.

So far, I’ve partnered with almost 30 LGBTQ+ centers and had requests for nearly a thousand books! So we need a lot of books! Here are the links where you can preorder copies to donate. When ordering, please note in the comments section of your order that the copies are for the donation drive. Choose in-store or local pickup for delivery because I’ll be covering shipping of all the donated copies!

Auntie’s Bookstore: https://www.auntiesbooks.com/donate-out-of-the-blue

Brain Lair Books: https://www.brainlairbooks.com/event/blb-partnership-out-blue-book-drive

Brazos Bookstore: https://www.brazosbookstore.com/preorder-donation-drive-out-blue

Also, if you know of, or work at, a center and would like to be included, please reach out and email me at heyjasonjune@gmail.com. Similarly, if you’re a teacher or librarian who keeps queer books in your library, I’d be happy to donate copies to you too (as long as, you know, we get people donating books!). This is the trifecta of helping out a queer author, helping out indie bookstores, and, most importantly, giving books to the teens who need them most. For a list of the centers who’ve signed up for copies so far, read below.

As always, thank you for keeping up with my author life, and for supporting queer authors and readers everywhere! ❤️

Jubilantly,

Jason June

LGBTQ+ Center Partners for the OOTB Donation Drive

Center on Halsted Youth Program

The Center of Wichita

Dennis R. Neill Equality Center

Grand Rapids Pride Center

Hatch Youth at the Montrose Center

Hawaii LGBT Legacy Foundation

Just Us at Oasis Center

Kaleidoscope Youth Center

Lambert House

Los Angeles LGBT Center

Lost-n-Found Youth

Lucie's Place

Magic City Acceptance Center

NMGSA

Odyssey Youth Movement

one-n-ten

Orlando Youth Alliance

Pride Center of Maryland

Queer Youth ATX

Rainbow Alliance for Youth

Seacoast Outright

SMYAL

SMYRC

Triangle Community Center

We Are Family

Wyoming GSA Network - Wyoming Equality

Youth First

Youth Forward EmpowerMT

Youth Pride, Inc.