Panel: A Legendary Remix: Fresh Fairy Tale Faces

Tracy Deonn is a writer and second-generation fangirl. She grew up in central North Carolina, where she devoured fantasy books and Southern food in equal measure. After earning her master’s degree in communication and performance studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Tracy worked in live theater, video game production, and K–12 education. When she’s not writing, Tracy speaks on panels at science fiction and fantasy conventions reads fanfic, arranges puppy playdates, and keeps an eye out for ginger-flavored everything. She can be found on Twitter at @TracyDeonn and at TracyDeonn.com.

Aurora Dominguez is a high school English teacher, college professor and journalist in South Florida. Her work has appeared in The Miami Herald, Where Magazine and J-14 Magazine, all places where she worked as a writer and editor before going from the newsroom to the classroom. She teaches at Boca Raton Community High School and writes about young adult books for Frolic Media. Her work has been featured in the book compilation Saved by the Page.

Chloe Gong is a student at the University of Pennsylvania, studying English and international relations. During her breaks, she’s either at home in New Zealand or visiting her many relatives in Shanghai. These Violent Delights is set in 1926, a time when Shanghai hummed to the tune of debauchery. A blood feud between two gangs runs the streets red, leaving the city helpless in the grip of chaos. At the heart of it all is eighteen-year-old Juliette Cai, a proud heir of the criminal Scarlet Gang. Their only rivals are the White Flowers, who have fought the Scarlets for generations. And behind every move is their heir, Roma Montagov, Juliette’s first love, and first betrayal. But when gangsters on both sides show signs of instability, there are whispers — a contagion, a madness, perhaps a monster in the shadows. As the deaths stack up, Juliette and Roma must set their guns—and grudges—aside and work together. Otherwise, soon there will be no city left for either to rule. Joan He, author of Descendant of the Crane, celebrated how Gong set “a Shakespearean classic in the rich soil of 1920s Shanghai, allowing her characters to grow, flourish, and steal your heart while warring against their own.”

Lilliam Rivera is the author of the young adult novels Dealing in Dreams and The Education of Margot Sanchez. Her work has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Elle, and Magazine for Fantasy & Science Fiction. In Never Look Back  (Bloomsbury YA) Lilliam Rivera’s Latinx retelling of the Greek myth Orpheus and Eurydice, Eury arrives to the Bronx as a girl haunted. She’s haunted by losing everything in Hurricane Maria–and by Ato, an evil spirit. She fully expects the tragedy that befell her and her family in Puerto Rico to catch up with her in New York. Yet, for a time, she can almost set this fear aside, because of Pheus, a golden-voiced, bachata-singing charmer. When he meets Eury, all he wants is to put a smile on her face and fight off her demons. But as the world threatens to tear them apart, Eury and Pheus must fight for each other and their lives. In a starred review, BookPage celebrated it. “Honors the Afro Latinx music, language, heritage and history of its characters. […] Never Look Back is a book not to be read with the mind but to be experienced with the soul. It is a revelation.”

Kalynn Bayron is a classically trained vocalist. She grew up in Anchorage, Alaska. When she’s not writing you can find her listening to Ella Fitzgerald on loop, attending the theater, watching scary movies, and spending time with her kids. This is her first book. In Cinderella Is Dead (Bloomsbury YA) Kalynn Bayron take us 200 years after Cinderella found her prince — but the fairy tale is over. Teen girls are now required to appear at the Annual Ball, where the men of the kingdom select wives based on a girl’s display of finery. If a suitable match is not found, the girls not chosen are never heard from again. Sixteen-year-old Sophia would much rather marry Erin, her childhood best friend. At the ball, she makes the desperate decision to flee, and finds herself hiding in Cinderella’s mausoleum. There, she meets Constance, the last known descendant of Cinderella and her step sisters. Together they vow to bring down the king once and for all–and in the process, they learn that there’s more to Cinderella’s story than they ever knew. It’s a fresh take on a classic story that will make readers question the tales they’ve been told, and root for girls to break down the constructs of the world around them. Shelf Awareness Pro called it “A queer dystopian fantasy that questions written history and societal expectations.”