We are very excited to welcome Jonny Garza Villa to the shop in conversation with Sim Kern to celebrate their new book, Canto Contigo.

JONNY GARZA VILLA (they/them) is an author of contemporary young adult literature with characters and settings inspired by their own Tejane, Chicane, and queer identities, including the Pura Belpré Honor Book Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun and Ander & Santi Were Here, a Bookshop.org Best YA of 2023 selection. Whatever the storyline, Jonny ultimately hopes Latines, and, more specifically, queer Mexican American young people will feel seen in their writing. When not writing, Jonny enjoys reading, playing Dungeons and Dragons, visiting taquerías, listening to Selena, and caring for their many cacti children. They live in San Antonio.

Sim Kern is the USA Today bestselling author of The Free People's Village, an Indie Next pick. Their debut horror novella, Depart, Depart!, was selected for the Honor List for the 2020 Otherwise Award, and their short story collection, Real Sugar is Hard to Find, was hailed in a starred review by Publishers Weekly as, “a searing, urgent, but still achingly tender work that will wow any reader of speculative fiction.” As a journalist, they report on petrochemical polluters and drag space billionaires. Sim spent ten years teaching English to middle and high schoolers in Houston, Texas, before shifting to writing full-time. Find them all over the internet, but especially on tiktok at @simkern.

For more information or to order books, please visit: https://www.bluewillowbookshop.com/event/garzavilla-2024