The Epic Reads Spring Tour came to Chicago and I was excited to hear from some of the leading ladies in contemporary YA, and FINALLY meet Becky Albertalli!
Most book events take place at Anderson's Bookshop which is about one hour outside of Chicago. I was pleasantly surprised that Epic Reads teamed up with my favorite Chicago indie,
The Book Cellar, to bring the tour to the Chicago Public Library. I will happily take a 30-minute commute over an hour commute any day.
The Spring Tour highlighted Becky Albertalli, Julie Murphy, and Katie Cotugno. Speaking honestly, Becky Albertalli was the reason I came to this tour and I'm not too familiar with the other two authors. I've read Dumplin', and could barely tell you what happened. Generally, I'm just not a big YA contemporary reader, but it was still fun to hear from the authors. Julie Murphy had some great insight and she was hilarious! Becky was an absolute sweetheart and it was emotional to see the moments she shared with some readers who were getting their books signed. Without further ado, here are some highlights from the event!
- Katie Cotugno wrote Molly to be very divisive and wanted to explore double standards in genders.
- Julie wanted to "take fat back". She said, "fat is a negative word because we made it a negative word."
- Both Katie and Julie didn't expect to write a sequel.
- Julie had fun writing Puddin' because she said it was like writing fanfiction to your own books.
- Becky always wanted to write Leah's story and said that Leah picked her own love interest.
- The cover of Leah on the cover was based on a photo of Julie Murphy.
- In high school, Julie got into a fight with a girl in a locker room over eyeliner.
- There are Spotify playlists for Becky's book/characters!
It was a fun event with a really big turnout; I really hope that'll bring more book events to Chicago proper!
Have you read anything by the above authors?
Did you check out the Epic Reads tour?
How did you like Leah on the Offbeat?
Labels: becky albertalli, book tour, epic reads, epic reads spring book tour, julie murphy, Katie Cotugno, leah on the offbeat