
Hello everyone!
Our next tour is for Come On In, edited by Ali Asaid. Check out the book information for the full list of authors!
This is our very first anthology and it features stories about immigrant experiences. We are so excited for you to be a part of it. This is going to be a 2 week tour: one pre-publication and the other post-publication. Since it’s an anthology and there are various OwnVoices representation our form is a bit different.
Please review the following before filling out the form:
New Question #1

The question states that there are two segments to the tour Pre and Post publication. Please pick the segment that works BEST for you and your schedule. Make sure to pick the pre-pub or post-pub option next to your identity.
Spots for your representation are first come first serve. When a spot has been claimed the option will disappear. Please do not choose a spot that does not match your identity.
Notice that there is an option that refers to US BASED, if you are based internationally please do not click on this option.
Here are the amount of spots per representation:
- Fijian (1 Spot)
- Pacific Islander (2 spots)
- Persian (2 spots)
- Turkish (3 spots)
- Japanese (3 spots)
- Puerto Rican (3 spots)
- African-American (2 spots)
- Indian Kashmir (1 spot)
- Indian Bombay/Mumbai (1 spot)
- Indian (2 spots)
- Venezuelan (3 spots)
- Korean (3 spots)
- Argentinian (3 spots)
- Mexican-American (3 spots)
- Mexican (2 spots)
- Ecuadorian (3 spots)
New Question #2:

If you ALREADY HAVE AN ARC you will be forwarded to this question which asks what section of the tour you want to participate in. Keep in mind that you still need to match the representation of the book even if you have the ARC.
New Question #3

Since this is an anthology interview requests are different as well. If you wish to interview the author, it must be the author that matches your identity. If you answer yes you will be prompted to answer in which platform.
That was A LOT of information! I apologize we just want you to know what’s new, so there aren’t any surprises.
Please do not hesitate to ASK US FOR ASSISTANCE when filling out this sign up form. We want to make sure you get your correct entries in!

Adi Alsaid Yamile Saied Méndez Zoraida Córdova Maurene Goo Alaya Dawn Johnson Justine Larbalestier Sona Charaipotra Nafiza Azad Misa Sugiura Sharon Morse Lilliam Rivera Varsha Bajaj Isabel Quintero Sara Farizan Maria E. Andreu
Adi Alsaid
Adi Alsaid is the author of several young adult novels, including Let’s Get Lost, Never Always Sometimes, and North of Happy. He was born and raised in Mexico City, where he now lives and spills hot sauce on things.
Yamile Saied Méndez
Yamile (sha-MEE-lay) Saied Méndez is a fútbol-obsessed Argentine-American who loves meteor showers, summer, astrology, and pizza. She lives in Utah with her Puerto Rican husband and their five kids, two adorable dogs, and one majestic cat. An inaugural Walter Dean Myers Grant recipient, she’s also a graduate of Voices of Our Nations (VONA) and the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA Writing for Children’s and Young Adult program. She’s a PB, MG, and YA author. Yamile is also part of Las Musas, the first collective of women and nonbinary Latinx MG and YA authors. She’s represented by Linda Camacho at Gallt & Zacker Literary.
Zoraida Córdova
Zoraida Córdova is the author of many fantasy novels, including the award-winning Brooklyn Brujas series, Incendiary, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge: A Crash of Fate, and The Way to Rio Luna. Her short fiction has appeared in the New York Times bestselling anthology Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View, Star Wars: Clone Wars Stories of Light and Dark, and Come On In. She is the co-editor of Vampires Never Get Old. She is the co-host of the writing podcast, Deadline City, with Dhonielle Clayton. Zoraida was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador and raised in Queens, New York. When she’s not working on her next novel, she’s finding a new adventure.
Mauren Goo
MAURENE GOO IS THE AUTHOR OF SEVERAL ACCLAIMED BOOKS FOR YOUNG ADULTS, INCLUDING I BELIEVE IN A THING CALLED LOVE, THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL, AND SOMEWHERE ONLY WE KNOW. SHE LIVES IN LOS ANGELES WITH HER HUSBAND AND CAT, MAEBY.
Justine Larbalestier
Justine Larbalestier is an Australian–American author of eight novels, two anthologies and one scholarly work of non-fiction, many essays, blog posts, tweets, and a handful of short stories.
Her most recent book, My Sister Rosa, is about a seventeen-year-old Australian boy whose ten-year-old sister is a psychopath. It’s set in New York City and published by Allen and Unwin in Australia/New Zealand and by Soho Teen in North America. Of her other books, the most popular are the novel Liar and the Zombies Versus Unicorns anthology which she edited with Holly Black.
Justine lives in New York City, where her game of choice is basketball. She’s a season ticket holder for the New York Liberty and spends too much money on vintage clothes and watching cricket played all over the world.
Alaya Dawn Johnson
ALAYA DAWN JOHNSON has been recognized for her short fiction and YA novels, winning the 2015 Nebula Award for Best Novelette for “A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai’i,” which also appears in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy (2015), guest edited by Joe Hill. Her debut YA novel, The Summer Prince, was longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. Her follow up YA novel, Love Is the Drug, won the Andre Norton Award in 2015. A native of Washington, D.C., Johnson is currently based in Mexico City, where she received a masters degree in Mesoamerican studies and sings in a blues band.
Sona Charaipotra
Sona Charaipotra is author of the doc dramedy Symptoms of a Heartbreak and co-author of the YA dance duology Tiny Pretty Things, a 2020 Netflix original series. A former People reporter, she’s writes for publications like the NYTimes and Cosmopolitan, and co-founded CAKE Literary, a boutique book packager focused on delicious, diverse reads. She has a masters in screenwriting from NYU and MFA in fiction from New School. Next up: How Maya Got Fierce and The Rumor Game.
Nafiza Azad
Nafiza Azad was born in Fiji and spent the first seventeen years of her life as a self-styled Pacific Islander. Now she identifies as an Indo-Fijian Muslim Canadian, which means she is often navigating multiple identities. Nafiza has a love for languages and currently speaks four. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Children’s Literature from the University of British Columbia and co-runs The Book Wars (thebookwars.ca), a website dedicated to all things children’s literature. Nafiza currently lives in British Columbia with her family.
Misa Sugiura
Misa Sugiura’s ancestors include a poet, a priestess, a samurai, and a stowaway. Her first young adult novel, It’s Not Like It’s A Secret, won the Asian Pacific American Librarians’ Association’s Youth Literature Award; her second novel, This Time Will Be Different, was a Junior Library Guild selection, and made it onto the Best of 2019 lists of YALSA, the New York Public Library, and the Chicago Public Library. Misa was born in Chicago, majored in English at Princeton University, and taught English as a second language in Japan before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, where she now lives under a giant oak tree with her husband, two sons, and two cats.
Sharon Morse
Sharon Morse was born in Caracas, Venezuela to an Argentine father and an American mother. At the age of six, her family moved to Houston, Texas where Sharon refused to speak a word of English until her first bite of a Shipley’s donut. She then declared that it was delicious.
Sharon still lives in Houston with her husband. They have four children, three of whom have disabilities. When she’s not busy advocating for her kids or writing, you can catch her in the kitchen where she runs a small cake business.
A story in the upcoming young adult anthology, COME ON IN (Inkyard Press/Fall 2020), will be her first publication. Sharon is represented by Saba Sulaiman at Talcott Notch Literary Services
Lilliam Rivera
Lilliam Rivera is an award-winning writer and author of the young adult novels Dealing in Dreams, The Education of Margot Sanchez, the middle grade novel Goldie Vance: The Hotel Whodunit, and the forthcoming Never Look Back (September 2020) by Bloomsbury. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Elle, to name a few. Lilliam lives in Los Angeles.
Varsha Bajaj
Varsha Bajaj also wrote the picture books The Home Builders and This Is Our Baby, Born Today (a Bank Street Best Book). She grew up in Mumbai, India, and when she came to the United States to obtain her master’s degree, her adjustment to the country was aided by her awareness of the culture through books. In addition to her previous picture books, she wrote the middle-grade novel Abby Spencer Goes to Bollywood, which was shortlisted for the Cybils Award and included on the Spirit of Texas Reading Program. She lives in Houston, Texas.
Isabel Quintero
Isabel Quintero is the daughter of Mexican immigrants and an award winning writer from the Inland Empire of Southern California. She is the author of the award winning young adult novel, Gabi, A Girl in Pieces, which received the Morris Award, California Book Award, the Tomas Rivera Award, along with other awards. Isabel also authored a chapter book series, Ugly Cat and Pablo (Scholastic, Inc.), a non-fiction YA graphic biography, Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide (Getty Publications, 2018), which received the Boston Globe Horn Book Award, and most recently, a picture book, My Papi has a Motorcycle (Kokila, 2019). Isabel also writes poetry and essays. Her work can be found in The Normal School, Huizache, The Acentos Review, As/Us Journal, The James Franco Review, and other publications.
Sara Farizan
Sara Farizan is an Iranian American writer and ardent basketball fan who was born in and lives near Boston. The award-winning author of If You Could Be Mine and Tell Me Again How a Crush Should Feel, she has an MFA from Lesley University and a BA in film and media studies from American University. Here to Stay is her third novel.
Maria E. Andreu
Maria E. Andreu is a writer and author of the forthcoming Love in English (Balzer + Bray, 2021) as well as an as-yet untitled book (B+B, 2022) . Her work has appeared in Newsweek, The Washington Post, NJ.com, and the Newark Star Ledger. Her debut young adult novel, The Secret Side of Empty is a Junior Library Guild Selection, a National Indie Excellence Book Award winner, an International Latino Book Awards Finalist and has been called “captivating” by School Library Journal. Maria currently lives in New Jersey with her two children.

Come On In
by Adi Alsaid (Editor)
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Release Date: October 13th 2020
Genre: YA Anthology

This exceptional and powerful anthology explores the joys, heartbreaks and triumphs of immigration, with stories by bestselling and beloved YA authors who are themselves immigrants and the children of immigrants.
WELCOME
From some of the most exciting bestselling and up-and-coming YA authors writing today…journey from Ecuador to New York City and Argentina to Utah, from Australia to Harlem and India to New Jersey, from Fiji, America, Mexico and more… Come On In.
With characters who face random traffic stops, TSA detention, customs anxiety, and the daunting and inspiring journey to new lands, who camp with their extended families, dance at weddings, keep diaries, teach ESL, give up their rooms for displaced family, decide their own answer to the question “where are you from?” and so much more, Come On In illuminates fifteen of the myriad facets of the immigrant experience.