Yoo are living the jet set life on the road for my RISING FROM THE ASHES book tour with Author Village! Some recaps of my latest adventures…
March 11-13, 2025: Yoo had the honor of speaking with the awesome students and faculty of C.W. Baker High School (Baldwinsville, NY), Marcellus High School (Marcellus, NY), and North Syracuse Junior High School (North Syracuse, NY). The students asked fantastic questions and were very committed to social justice and examining history at a deeper level. I was very moved by meeting these young students and their brilliant faculty and librarians, including Leslie Cartier, Kelly Forsyth, and Kelly Moses. Our future is in good hands!
I also found out the Onondaga County Public Library was walking distance from my hotel in beautiful downtown Syracuse! I stopped by to say hello and was excited to see many of my books at the library! Here’s a photo of Yoo with Access Services Librarian Trudi J. Antoine! It was a pleasure to meet Trudi and the entire library staff! #SupportLibraries #LibrariansRock #BanBookBans
March 27, 2025: I had a blast at today’s author panel at the annual AWP Conference & Bookfair being held this year at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Our panel, “Crafting Powerful Stories (with Difficult Topics) for Young Readers” featured Yoo and brilliant authors Hannah V. Sawyerr, Aaron Aceves, Federico Erebia, and Rex Ogle who also served as our moderator and organized the entire event! (Please click on their names to go directly to their websites and find out more about their critically acclaimed work.)
Panel description: “Modern readers are living in difficult times—luckily, stories offer an escape. But books also act as mirrors and windows for young readers to see themselves and come to better understand others. Creating strong narratives with universal emotional arcs is no easy feat, especially in a time when we need more diversity in our media as book bans flourish. Join authors Hannah Sawyerr, Aaron Aceves, Federico Erebia, Paula Yoo, and Rex Ogle as they discuss culture, identity, and a love of story.”
It was standing room only at our panel even though it was 9 AM in the morning. Early bird gets the worm indeed! 🙂 Grateful thanks to the wonderful audience of educators, authors, publishers, and aspiring writers who asked such insightful questions. I’m also grateful to have made four new friends for life. K-Pop hearts to Rex, Aaron, Federico, and Hannah!
L-R below: Rex Ogle, Aaron Aceves, Paula Yoo, Federico Erebia, Hannah V. Sawyerr. (Photo credit: Federico Erebia)
Afterwards, Rex and I signed our books at the Norton Young Readers Booth and got to meet a lot of cool writers! Thank you to Norton’s Senior Marketing Manager Nick Curley and Norton editor Steve Colca for being such great hosts and for all your hard work for Norton! And thank you AWP! For more information on this fantastic organization, go here: https://awpwriter.org/AWP/AWP/AWP-Homepage.aspx
April 1, 2025: And there’s no rest for the weary! Yoo are back on the road next week to speak at University High School in Normal, Illinois next week! I’ll be discussing my books RISING FROM THE ASHES and FROM A WHISPER TO A RALLYING CRY at the U-High Library to Experience Literature classes. Grateful thanks for this visit made possible with funding from the ISU College of Education Seed Grant for Equity, Diversity, Inclusivity, and Accessibility.
Future trips for 2025 include the ALA Conference in Philadelphia, PA where I am honored to accept my 2025 YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award in person at the annual ceremony, plus another trip to Seoul, Korea at the end of May where I will be delivering an address at the graduation ceremony of my alma mater, Seoul Foreign School, as their Alumna of the Year!
I am also grateful for the recent awards RISING FROM THE ASHES has received for 2025. They include:
2025 YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award
2025 In the Margins Nonfiction Award: YA Nonfiction Recommended List
Oh yeah, and I’m also writing. Excited about my new book and TV projects and look forward to revealing more soon (uh once I finish these deadlines haha)! I am forever grateful to the Erin Murphy Literary Agency and my awesome agent Tricia Lawrence, as they – and Yoo – are now part of our new agency, Aevitas Creative! For more info on the recent merger, go here: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/97171-erin-murphy-literary-agents-join-aevitas.html
If you would like to find out more about how to book Yoo for your school, university, conference, corporation etc., please contact The Author Village here: https://theauthorvillage.com/presenters/paula-yoo/
Off to pack for my next trip! Until my next blog, remember… Join Yoo and WRITE LIKE YOU MEAN IT! #WriteLikeYooMeanIt