June 2025 News
ALA book signing on June 28! Book news, podcast interviews, and two new online workshops!
A few of you may have noticed that a full moon passed without a newsletter from me. Did I fall asleep after Wake the Wild Creatures entered the world, or somehow get devoured after the intense, hair-raising, heartrending experience of putting out a book right now and talking in public to people about it? No, I've just taken a step back from promotion to focus on writing and building what's next. As I do so, I decided to be a little gentler with myself when it comes to writing newsletters on a regular schedule. But that doesn't mean I've stopped sharing news about the book!
Right now I wanted to tell you about...
- A book signing on June 28 at the ALA conference...
- A beautiful review in The Washington Post...
- An essay in CrimeReads...
- Two podcast interviews...
- Two upcoming online classes, including a new intensive and a webinar...
Book Signing at ALA
Will you be at the American Library Association conference in Philly this month? I have a book signing!
I'll be signing hardcovers of Wake the Wild Creatures... and paperbacks of The Walls Around Us.
Saturday, June 28, 2025
Nova Ren Suma: Wake the Wild Creatures
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Location: Little, Brown Booth 205
These books are free giveaways, so if you're attending ALA, please join me for a signed copy of one or both of my books! No need to RSVP.
The Washington Post on Wake the Wild Creatures
The Washington Post said Wake the Wild Creatures "vibrates with rage but also reveals a scorching tenderness as it muses on the power and problems of community." I loved that so much and felt so understood.
I wrote about what this mention meant to me here, and you can read the full review as well as the other books featured here (may be paywalled).
Nova Ren Suma
Essay on Outlaw Women in CrimeReads
The essay I wrote in CrimeReads begins like so: "I was twelve years old when I met my first outlaw. She was a woman whose face had graced the FBI’s '10 Most Wanted List' for her part in the radical leftist movement of the late 1960s and 1970s—not that I would have known what that meant or recognized her by name. I was an unbearably shy girl with bangs shadowing my eyes, some nameless kid she surely doesn’t remember. But I remember her. . . ."
I was delighted to explore my fascination with outlaw women in fiction and how that connects to Wake the Wild Creatures, and I'd love for you to read it!
Nova Ren Suma
Two Podcasts Featuring Me and Wake the Wild Creatures
I was interviewed for some podcasts recently, and two episodes are now out!
You can find me talking about "Maintaining Momentum as a Creative" with the SCBWI Podcast... This interview feels like a time capsule to me, because it occurred last summer before the book was all finished and before I knew what would happen with it. I spoke about inspirations and creative influences from the far past—from the place where I'm from to the photographs of Francesca Woodman—and so much more. You can listen here or here or wherever you tend to listen to podcasts.
You can find me on On the Shelf with Honora Quinn talking about "ascending to the Neves," Wake the Wild Creatures, why I write YA, and more. You can listen here or here, or wherever you tend to listen to podcasts.
Online Class: Strange Places Craft Intensive — July 13
One day only, on Sunday, July 13, I'm teaching a class with Tin House called Strange Places... This generative fiction intensive will delve into crafting fantastical, haunted, hallucinatory, or just simply strange settings that stem from the world around us and the world of untapped ideas inside your own mind.
There are still seats available, so if this sounds interesting be sure to grab one now! One scholarship is also offered.
If you can't attend live, you will still gain access to the recording so you can do this class on your own time.
Online Class: Compelling Characters in YA Webinar — August 22
I also have a webinar coming up with the Writing Barn, and this one is about creating Compelling Characters in YA and Coming-of-Age Fiction. In this webinar, we will consider the ways to build a satisfying, memorable coming-of-age story and delve into methods to deepen your young characters and illuminate their inner journeys. This webinar is for writers of all genres who want to go beneath the surface and write riveting and resonant character-driven coming-of-age stories.
If you can't attend live, you will still gain access to the recording so you can do this class on your own time.
Please be advised that if you took my Character Craft in YA Fiction seminar with Tin House in the spring of 2024, there will be some repeated material in this webinar.
Thanks, as always, for being here for news about the book and more! I'll share another batch of news later this summer, once I have something more to tell...