Join guest author Ebony LaDelle and a selection of the youth authors of The Light Looks Like Me for a conversation about queer youth and love.

About The Light Looks Like Me: Amidst a fraught regime where assaults on queer and trans rights are leveraged for political clout, the voices of queer youth are more important than ever. In this anthology, 28 DC-area writers aged 13-24 share their thoughts, feelings and vulnerability through poems, stories, comics, and art exploring love in all its forms. Running the gamut from self-love, to romance, and the love they show to their family, friends, and community, their work will resonate with readers of all ages. With authors representing varied sexualities and gender identities, as well as diverse ethnic, racial, and religious backgrounds, this tender anthology offers hope and validation to queer young people and cultivates greater understanding in supportive allies. Foreword by award-winning YA author Malinda Lo.

About Bright Before Us, Like a Flame: Spanning memoir, poetry, fiction, comics, and children’s literature, Bright Before Us, Like a Flame is more than a retrospective—it’s a creative writing resource and a call to action. Taking its title from Langston Hughes’ poem “Youth,” this collection ignites both hope for the future and the power to shape it. Through stories of immigration, identity, social justice, and resilience, young authors confront today’s most urgent topics with insight and empathy. Their words challenge, inspire, and invite readers to add their own voices to the conversation.

Ebony LaDelle is the author of Love Radio—which was People magazine’s best book of the summer, a 2023 Audie Award Finalist, a 2023 Michigan Notable Book, Apple Books’ best book of 2022, an Amazon’s Editor Pick and was featured on the Today Show.  A Baldwin Fellow, she’s also the author of the YA romance This Could Be Forever and editor for the anthology You’ve Got a Place Here, Too. Prior to being an author, Ebony was a brand marketing director in book publishing and worked at Penguin Random House and HarperCollins, among others. You can visit her online at www.ebonyladelle.com and follow her on social at @ebonyladelle.

If you’d like to purchase either title online and still support People’s Book, follow the links below:

The Light Looks Like Me: https://bookshop.org/a/88548/9781950807833

Bright Before Us: https://bookshop.org/a/88548/9781950807826

This Could Be Forever: https://bookshop.org/a/88548/9781665948678

This is an in-person event. Seated capacity at People’s Book is 50 patrons. Standing room is an option. All events are first-come, first-served seating. Accessible seating is always available.