Photos of Heidi Kling, Nina LaCour, and Jandy Nelson

If you didn't make it to our Reality Bites event with Heidi Kling, Nina LaCour, and Jandy Nelson you want to see photos - right? All three are Bay Area debut novelists of teen realistic fiction, all with unique voices, all who write incredibly well.

Nina LaCour is a high school English teacher and former bookseller. Hold Still is her first novel, was a finalist for the 2010 Morris Award and was named one of five fall 2009 Publishers Weekly “Flying Starts”. Jandy Nelson was a literary agent for many years, and a published poet. The Sky is Everywhere was a Indie Next List pick for Spring, a Junior Guild selection and a YALSA Best Fiction Nominee for Young Adults. It depicts grief in a way I haven’t read in YA before and even the prose seems at times like poetry - big and bold and full and real. Heidi Kling, well, Heidi is remarkable. She comes to lots of events and is the best networker I've ever met. She's the creator/co-moderator for the 2010 YA debut group: the tenners and Sea was an Indie Next List pick for the summer (er yes, my review), and has been garnering simply tremendous reviews from just about everywhere.

What an inspirational group of women they are. /a> It felt like a party. There was cake and t-shirts for sale and a raffle (including gorgeous Sea t-shirts even aphrodisiacal roses). I think they worked because I left just a little in love with all three books. So if you haven't already read them, add them to your summer reading list.