Join young adult authors Brittany Cavallaro, Jilly Gagnon, and Stephanie Strohm for a panel discussion on complicated relationships in young adult literature. Moderated by Chicago author Gloria Chao, the evening will include readings from the authors, both directed and audience questions, and a signing event. Brittany Cavallaro is the New York Times bestselling author of the Charlotte Holmes series, including A Study in Charlotte and The Last of August. Currently, she’s a PhD candidate in English literature at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She lives in California with her husband, cat, and collection of deerstalker caps. Jilly Gagnon is currently based in Chicago, but is originally from Minnesota, a fact she'll likely inform you of within minutes of meeting you. In the past, Jilly has written humor, news, essays, and op-ed pieces for Newsweek, Elle, Vanity Fair, The Huffington Post, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, The Onion, The Toast, and Boston's alt-weekly, The Dig, among others. She is the author of young adult novel #FAMOUS, and cowrites the darkly comic CHOOSE YOUR OWN MISERY series with Mike MacDonald. Stephanie Kate Strohm is the author of It's Not Me, It's You; The Taming of the Drew; Pilgrims Don’t Wear Pink; Confederates Don’t Wear Couture; and the upcoming The Date to Save and Prince in Disguise. She graduated from Middlebury College with a dual degree in theater and history and has acted her way around the United States, performing in more than twenty-five states. She currently lives in Chicago with her husband and a dog named Lorelei Lee. Gloria Chao is a Chicago-based MIT grad turned dentist turned writer. Her forthcoming debut novel, AMERICAN PANDA, is inspired by her experiences as a second-generation Taiwanese-American. It follows a 17-year- old college student whose parents, of course, want her to become a doctor and marry a Taiwanese Ivy Leaguer. Visit her tea-and- book-filled world at gloriachao.wordpress.com and find her on twitter @gloriacchao.
