This wasn’t my originally-intended post for today, but given that we’re in some pretty extraordinary times, I wanted to do something that felt like it could make even a tiny impact.

I was scheduled to attend the Texas Library Association Conference next week, with ARCs of Body Talk being available for the first time. As a former Texan who has a lovely network of librarians across the state, I was so looking forward to it. The cancelation is, of course, logical. But that doesn’t mean there’s not a real impact on a personal level — let alone on a bigger level.

A few weeks ago, I was talking with the owner of my local indie about the potential impact on Independent Bookstores were covid-19 to become a pandemic. Unfortunately, the time is here.

Every ripple branches out, and I can only hope this ripple does the same. Here’s what I’m doing:

 

 

I’m giving away a $50 gift card to my local indie, Read Between The Lynes. They ship across the USA, so no need to be local. The giveaway is open through March 20 — Friday — and for US residents only.

You have up to 11 entries in the giveaway, as noted below:

1. Preorder Body Talk: 37 Voices Explore Our Radical Anatomy. This gets you two entries!
2. Order or preorder any book publishing between March and September this year. Each purchase, up to three, will get you two more entries.
3. Share this giveaway on social media for one entry, whether or not you make a purchase.
4. I don’t want to tell people where to order their books. We all have different realities here. But if you order from an indie, you’ll get an extra pair of entries.

You can mix and match the above options. If you do everything here, you’ll get the total 11 entries. Make sense?

Once you do the purchasing, forward your proof of purchase to my email, kellybjensen [at/] gmail.com.

FAQs:

• If you’re a librarian or educator with purchasing power, that counts. Just send proof of purchase, either via receipt or a photo of said receipt.
• Orders from any book retailer count.
• Any books published between March and September this year are eligible for bonus entries. Want some personalized recommendations? Ask in the comments here or on Instagram and I’ll send you some!

 

About Body Talk:

There’s no cover yet, so let me just drop the synopsis here. I assure you the cover is fabulous and I am so freaking excited to eventually share it with you.

It’s time to bare it all about bodies!

We all experience the world in a body, but we don’t usually take the time to explore what it really means to have and live within one. Just as every person has a unique personality, every person has a unique body, and every body tells its own story.

In Body Talk, thirty-seven writers, models, actors, musicians, and artists share essays, lists, comics, and illustrations—about everything from size and shape to scoliosis, from eating disorders to cancer, from sexuality and gender identity to the use of makeup as armor. Together, they contribute a broad variety of perspectives on what it’s like to live in their particular bodies—and how their bodies have helped to inform who they are and how they move through the world.

Come on in, turn the pages, and join the celebration of our diverse, miraculous, beautiful bodies!

I have a book coming out in August. The 18th, in fact! It’s called Body Talk: 37 Voices Explore Our Radical Anatomy, and it is, I think, my favorite anthology so far. It so perfectly captures exactly how I envisioned the topic and digs into topics that I have not seen covered in YA before like this.

There aren’t ARCs yet of the book and the cover hasn’t been revealed, but you can preorder it on Amazon, at Barnes and Noble, and through Indie Bound. If you want to, you can order through my local indie, Read Between the Lynes. When you preorder, save your proof of purchase, as I’ll be doing a preorder incentive to thank you for doing just that and all of those will count.

In the meantime, before I have more to share, I thought it’d be fun to do a giveaway. For the chance to win all three of my anthologies, hop over to my Instagram post below, like it, and tag a friend. I’ll pick one winner and a friend to win Here We Are and (Don’t) Call Me Crazy now, as well as preorders of Body Talk for August.

Easy as that!

Giveaway is for US only and ends February 10.

 

It feels way too early to be thinking about the end-of-year holidays, but it is November, and they’re not as far away as I like to think they might be. If you’re considering gifting either (Don’t) Call Me Crazy: 33 Voices Start the Conversation About Mental Health or Here We Are: Feminism For The Real World this season to a loved one, first: thank you! Second: I’d love to sweeten the deal a little bit.

Through December 1, if you’re a US resident and purchase a copy of either book, I’ll send a signed, personalized, handmade book mark to insert with the gift. If you purchase (Don’t) Call Me Crazy, in addition to the book mark, I’ll send along one of the custom “Mental Health Matters” enamel pins. Supplies on each will be limited, and I will send all out the first week of December.

 

 

 

To redeem: email proof of purchase of either book between November 9 and December 1 — a photo of a receipt with the date is fine — to kelly@stackedbooks.org. I’ll reply to all emails I receive as soon as I send out thank yous, which will be done once a week until December 1. If you’d like me to sign the bookmark to someone, note that when you forward your receipt.

Feel free to purchase from wherever you prefer, but if you’d like to support my awesome local independent bookstore, you can buy through Read Between The Lynes.

And as always, remember you’re allowed to gift things to yourself, so I won’t say no if you’ve purchased either book in this time frame for you <3.

Good Friday, everyone. I don’t know if you feel how I do, but this has been a very long week. One spot of bright news was meeting the goal of funding not only 33 classrooms on Donors Choose in honor of my birthday later this month, but reaching a goal of funding 56 classrooms, in honor of one of my editors, Elise Howard, who also celebrates a birthday very soon. To know we funded 56 class projects in a little over a month is incredible. That’s a lot of kids who’ll have books and school supplies, and all of those kids come from underprivileged backgrounds, so the message they’re getting is not only that they deserve these things, but that we see them and are eager to see them reach their fullest potentials. That they matter.

Over the course of the project, a number of different people have reached out asking if they can donate or give to the cause. Today, I’m sharing an opportunity for teachers to receive one of two books for their classroom.

Thanks to Penguin Young Readers, I have 17 copies of Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena and Christian Robinson, as well as 16 copies of brown girl dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson.

 

 

This giveaway will allow teachers to enter for ONE copy of EITHER book. I’ll let it run until all copies are claimed. In order to claim a copy, I need either a school email address for your entry or the mailing address of the school for which you teach. Ideally, these will be classrooms in need, so please, if you can afford to bypass this giveaway, that would be rad. You know your kids and your school, so I’ll trust your judgment!

I will email all winners when the copies have been claimed so you can know to expect a book.

 

 

How about a giveaway? It’s been a minute since I’ve given away books here because I love them, so in honor of that and in honor of two excellent reads, it’s time.

Up for grabs are a pair of books to one winner. The books are Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert and When I Am Through With You by Stephanie Kuehn. Both were released this month.

This giveaway will run through Friday, August 25. Winner must be a US resident. To enter, just fill out the painless form below.