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Liz Rios Hall's avatar

Thank you, Ann! I loved this deep dive into romance publishing, which rarely gets its due in the lit community. I'm excited to see read part 2! Have you read Sarah Brouillette's recent Post45 article on "Wattpad's Fictions of Care"? Her research looks at how young women are reading and writing YA on the platform in ways that seem like an evolution of the romance segment you describe in your piece.

Also, a small but important (to me anyway :)) distinction: LGTBQ+ YA books aren't being "banned by school libraries." They are being banned *in* school libraries (often technically by school districts but really by conservative groups and new legislation). Libraries and librarians--another feminized and underpaid/unappreciated profession--have largely been vocal advocates for access to diverse YA and romance reads and many other critically under-valued genres they believe their communities want/need to read. I like to think of librarians as a foil to the big boys of publishing--they're the anti-lit snobs!

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Ann Kjellberg's avatar

Liz, thank you so much, and of course you are so right! What an awful mistake. I am a huge supporter of librarians. I wrote about these bans a couple of weeks ago myself. Will certainly make this correction, with thanks for pointing it out, and I'm looking forward to reading Sarah Brouillette. I'm very curious about these other-than-book forms, so much can be done there. Thank you for writing and for reading!

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Liz Rios Hall's avatar

Ann, I can't believe I missed the posts on school libraries! Going back to read them now. Thank you for covering the topic at Book Post! I'm always a little sad libraries don't get more love in the lit world (and endlessly curious as to why), so that's really why I brought it up above. Plus I see some parallels between romance publishing and librarianship as (feminized) corners of the book ecosystem that often get glossed over in discussions about book culture. One of my favorite things about Book Post is how you pay attention to these areas that are sometimes ignored or neglected--thank you!

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Ann Kjellberg's avatar

Thank you so much! So encouraging! When I set out to make Book Post I really wanted to get out of the insular publishing-media world—I felt like we were really losing touch with a lot of what was going on around reading—and it's been such a joy to me to discover all the ways people connect with books. When you see it all as a big reading ecosystem, there is so much to a make a person glad and hopeful.

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