Parker Goodreau

i only get to RI rarely these days, but perhaps @heartleafbooks.bsky.social would be interested?

[image: cover of the book Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert, a novel by Bob the Drag Queen. the cover features a stylized broken chain and a close up on a Black person's hands, fingers laced around a microphone.]

[image: cover of the book The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates. the cover art is a collage that looks like wall with many layers of paint and paper imperfectly removed, leaving behind some almost legible words and scraps of different colors.]

alright. it's the last day of Black History Month, so here's a couple adult titles i read this month that really knocked my socks off. also, unfortunately, relevant to the times.

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#TransSky #WriteSky

Picture of Marjane Satrapi alongside a quote from her. The quote reads: The world is not divided into countries. The world is not divided between East and West. You are American, I am Iranian, we don't know each other, but we talk together and we understand each other perfectly. The difference between you and your government is much bigger than the difference between you and me. And the difference between me and my government is much bigger than the difference between me and you. And our governments are very much the same... - Marjane Satrapi, Iranian-French graphic novelist

Thinking about this quote from Persepolis creator Marjane Satrapi again.

[image: the cover of WEEABOO by Alissa Sallah. the illustration shows three teenagers: a white person eating pocky, a Black girl in a lolita dress, and a mixed-race boy wearing headphones. below them is an anime-style reflection showing each teen as a counterpart character: a prince, a princess, and a mage.]

[text: The Dangerous Ones Lauren Blackwood One vampire to kill. Another to love.] [image: the cover shows an illustration of a Black woman's hand gripping an elaborate silver spear with gilded filigree. The spear pierces a bloody flower, and shed petals and crow feathers float around the spear.]

[text: BRONX MASQUERADE Nikki Grimes Winner of the Coretta Scott King Award] [image: the book cover is a photo of a young Black teen boy in front of a brick wall, looking up into a bright overhead light.]

[image: cover of the book Harlem Summer by Walter Dean Myers. the illustration shows a Black man with a saxophone among stylized city building.]

day 27! a little collection to round out the YAs, chosen because they include some of my favorite things: manga, vampires, poetry, and the harlem renaissance.

Thank you to @authorsabb.bsky.social heroes @beccacoffindaffer.bsky.social and Ed Underhill, we have some slides that can be shared by anyone about this, with particular reps to target. Let's kill this bill in committee.

[text: "World Fantasy Award-winning Author Nnedi Okorafor Akata Witch Read by Yetide Badaki"] [image: the audiobook cover has an illustration of an African-American girl with vibrant green eyes. her face is painted with white lines, and a bright green insect sits in the center of her forehead.]

day 26! kind of a gimme, but seriously a must-read for any MG/YA fantasy fans that missed it. using the audiobook cover because that narrator is a total star.

[image: cover of the picture book Radiant Child: the Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. the illustration is a portrait of a Black boy in a collaged, pieced-together style.]

[image: cover of the picture book One Day in June: a Story Inspired by the Life and Activism of Marsha P. Johnson, written by Tourmaline, illustrated by Charlot Kristensen. the illustration shows a large, colorful drawing of Marsha, eyes closed and smiling. smaller drawings of people sitting together on a park bench or holding each other and smiling fill the bottom of the picture.]

[image: cover of the picture book Josephine, words by Patricia Hruby Powell, pictures by Christian Robinson. the illustration is a stylized Josephine Baker in a banana-yellow dress with pearl jewelry, a leopard sitting at her side.]

[image: cover of the picture book Jump at the Sun: the True Life Tale of Unstoppable Storycatcher Zora Neal Hurston. the illustration shows a young Black girl in overalls leaping off her porch across a sundrenched landscape, small cartoons of folkloric animals around her.]

we're running out of days!! here's a round-up of some picture book biographies, which are my favorite thing.

[image: the audiobook cover for Sunset Springs: a short story by national book award winning author Kacen Callender. there is an "only from Audible" banner in one corner. the illustration shows two young men talking over a fence with a sunset in the background. the Black man reaches across to touch the white man's arm. a saddle hangs on the fence nearby.]

aaand back to romance again. this one's a short but fantastic take on the "returning to small hometown" trope, with horses, so i'm obviously all in. Kacen Callender is one of my favorite queer writers, with protagonists i often find way too relatable (currently reading MOONFLOWER, which. ouch.)

[image: book cover of The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis. the photo is a Black woman with a stylized flower mark on her neck and dressed like a western hero, with a colorful desert sky behind her.]

day 23! i really enjoyed the blend of western, fantasy, and dystopia vibes in this YA. definitely one to check out for fans of sister stories, found family, and MAD MAX: FURY ROAD.

The homeless should have housing and be off the street, then given a base stipend to work from. Nobody should be stripped and reduced of their human dignity, but should be given oppourtunities to re-enter society. In cases of extreme abjection, state supports should exist for help

[image: book cover for Shadows of Sherwood: a Robyn Hoodlum Adventure by Kekla Magoon. the illustration shows a tween girl jumping between roofs, a cityscape behind her.]

and a MG for day 22! i will read basically any Robin Hood retelling, but this is one of my favorites. love a girl Robyn, love pitting her against a dystopian government, great for budding scifi fans.

[image: cover of the picture book Red Shoes: a dazzling journey! by Karen English, illustrated by Ebony Glenn. a young Black girl strikes a pose, showing off her cute red flats.]

a little late for day 21, but here's another picture book! a sweet story about two little girls an ocean apart connected by a pair of beloved shoes, with a Ramadan tie in that makes it particularly appropriate atm. and Ebony Glenn's art is so adorable and charming.

Cover of Werewolves Versus Space, styled to look like an old pulp magazine complete with dogeared edges. A human astronaut raises an arm in defence against a werewolf ripping out of its space suit in front of the full moon.

Did you know that the complete run of Werewolves Versus is now FREE? Ten issues of art and writing themed around everything from Hollywood to The Nineties. Oh, and I have a story in Versus: Space and it's about the Soviet space dog programme!
werewolvesversus.com/issues

i loooove an agent of chaos, they make fun antivillains too.

i guess the best way to describe Gil's motivation is self-discovery. being aroace, they have this idea of what they want out of their relationships, but fear that no one else will match those expectations has kept them from exploring that part of themself before. #QueerWritersChat

lol, yeah, not as fun in the real world.

i feel like i write a lot of villains trying to control their world/the protagonists out of fear. but sometimes a selfish, overconfident person who just does whatever they want is fun, too. #QueerWritersChat

in the beginning, the ideas are the motivation. if character creation and outlining isn't enough to get me started then it hasn't cooked enough/doesn't have legs. mid-draft when writing becomes harder, i'm just trying to get it over with so i can edit, which i usually enjoy. #QueerWritersChat

The Need for Dandelions is a great title!

i'm late by hi #QueerWritersChat!

i'm an ace nonbinary writer/illustrator of mostly specfic and kidlit. just finished a short story about vampires, currently playing around with a draft of a shifter romance novel i was supposed to be letting sit, lol.

[text: Belly of the Beast: the Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness Da'Shaun L. Harrison] [image: the cover is black and white blocks with the title in red. in the white block are nine square copies of the same photo of a Black person leaning back in a chair.]

day 20! quick break from the romances for one of my rare nonfiction favs. really fascinating look into how racism, fatphobia, and cisnormativity are interconnected.

In case you missed it yesterday!! I'm doing a graphic novel with the mega-talented @riadoodles.bsky.social!! Wild to have their stickers on my computer and now we are literally working together!!!

Today we're featuring MG books that are great for readers who enjoy magical worlds, mythic figures, and stories rooted in African and African-diasporic folklore.

fromthemixedupfiles.com/middle-grade...

#mgreads #middlegrade #bookrecomendations

As someone who has witnessed and participated in the magical, collaborative artistry that is transforming the written word into performance:

Not for all the fucking money on earth.

[image: book cover of The Corruption of Hollis Brown by K. Ancrum. the cover in very red, with two hands reaching for each other through a glowing bright field that bleeds off the bright pale yellow title text, creating a lava or smoke-like effect as the colors stream around their fingers.]

ok so. day 19, the book i am currently reading, because i'm obsessed. is it weird? is it fucked? is it codependent? yes. but i love mess and i'm here for it. i really liked ICARUS also but this one is hitting me where it hurts, in a good way.

The mystery of the bitten peach, a lesbian time travel romance mystery. By Cecilia Tan. “Full of queerness, generative solidarity, and gently profound insights into love and choice, Tan’s tale goes down smoothly but its wisdom lingers. Not to be missed.” —Shelley Parker Chan, author of She Who Became the Sun

Sooo... I know I just released a new book 30 days ago. But... check out what's coming from Neon Hemlock at the end of April. I just posted a sample chapter at my patreon if you want a taste: www.patreon.com/post...

[image: the cover of the graphic novel New Kid by Jerry Craft. the illustration has a split black and white background with a Black kid in a school uniform drawing in a sketchbook.]

[image: the book cover for J vs. K by Kwame Alexander and Jerry Craft. the illustration shows two Black boys leaning into each other, looking intense and competitive, one with a notebook and the other with a sketchpad.]

day 18! gotta shout out the Newbery boundary-breaking graphic novel i spotlighted for my comic club kids this month (along with his new collaboration J VS. K, which I'm very excited to read soon)!

for grownups, or does kidlit also count? assuming grownups...

GENDER QUEER, LIGHT FROM UNCOMMON STARS, REAL LIFE by Brandon Taylor, CAMP DAMASCUS, and THE LONG WAY TO A SMALL ANGRY PLANET come to mind.

Photograph of five Black women and five Black men in front of a building that may be the library. They are all wearing suit/ties for the men and dresses with gloves for the women. In the upper left is a very young Jesse Jackson.

Before the Tougaloo Nine, the Greenville Eight. These eight people, including the late Jesse Jackson, demanded their right to use the Greenville SC "whites only" library in 1960. They were arrested and defended by Greenville's first Black lawyer. #BlackHistoryMonth
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenvi...