Posted in: Comics | Tagged: candlewick, Nora Shalaway Carpenter, Rocky Callen

Ab(solutely) Normal Mixes Comics With Prose And Poetry

Published Thu, 05 Aug 2021 06:57:10 -0500

Ab(solutely) Normal is a mixed genre YA anthology co-edited by Vermont College of Fine Arts graduates Nora Shalaway Carpenter and Rocky Callen. It has been picked up by Kaylan Adair at Candlewick Press of Somerville, Massachusetts, who has acquired world rights, to be published in the spring of 2023.

The collection features diverse #OwnVoices mental health fiction in different forms (graphic, prose, and poetry) for young adults, and aims to subvert stereotypes with inspiring and hope-filled stories. In addition to the anthologists, contributors include novelists and YA authors Eric Gansworth, Nikki Grimes, A.S. King, Sonia Patel, Marcella Pixley, and spoken word poet Ebony Stewart.

Ab(solutely) Normal Mixes Comics With Prose And Poetry — Nora Shalaway Carpenter, photo credit: Chip Bryan.

Nora Shalaway Carpenter is the author of the YA contemporary novel, The Edge Of Anything and contributing editor of Rural Voices: 15 Authors Challenge Assumptions About Small-Town America. Rocky Callen is the author of the YA novel, A Breath Too Late.

Victoria Wells Arms at Wells Arms Literary LLC/Hannigan Getzler Literary and Holly McGhee at Pippin Properties were the agents who negotiated the deal for Nora Shaloway Carpenter and Rocky Callen, respectively.

In 1992, Candlewick Press, established in 1992 and located in Somerville, Massachusetts, opened its doors as an independent children's publisher and remains an independent publisher today. As part of Walker Books Group, Candlewick Press enjoys a unique ownership structure which includes more than 75 of the employees in their US office, staff in our UK and Australian offices, plus more than 150 authors and illustrators. Founded by Sebastian Walker, who launched Walker Books from his spare bedroom in his London home in 1978, Candlewick Press opened with only six employees and now has one hundred. where she works on everything from picture books to young-adult novels. Kaylan Adair is an editor at the publisher, and among the middle-grade novels she has edited are Down Sand Mountain by Steve Watkins, Small as an Elephant by Jennifer Richard Jacobson, Freakling by Lana Krumwiede, Garden Princess by Kristin Kladstrup, and The Bomb by Todd Strasser.

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