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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.