Gene Yang: Special Edition Podcast

We're back with another episode of our special edition series of our podcast, Librarians are ROCKSTARS! We're thrilled to collaborate once more with Steve from Circulating Ideas, the librarian interview podcast. Steve and Allison met up at the American Library Association Conference in June to talk to some fantastic authors about their thoughts on libraries and librarians.

To kick off this round of Librarians are ROCKSTARS!, we're sharing an interview with Printz Award winning author and artist, Gene Luen Yang. We had a blast chatting with Gene about his perspective on libraries as an author and an educator, as well as his upcoming graphic novels, Boxers and Saints, which will be out in bookstores everywhere next month.

Also, even though Michelle wasn't at the conference with us, the two of us settle a VERY IMPORTANT debate about the Great Lakes in this episode.



Want to download this podcast? Click here for an mp3 or find us on iTunes!

Keep up with Gene at his website, and stop by his publisher, First Second. Be sure to check out Circulating Ideas for the next episode of Librarians are ROCKSTARS! (and a whole bunch of awesome librarian interviews, to boot). And if you missed our earlier collaboration with Steve on the Librarians are ROCKSTARS! series, check here for an interview with Kirby Larson and here for an interview with Tom Angleberger.

Podcast hosting courtesy of archive.org. Intro music by 46bliss. Special thanks to our sound engineer, Marc Conrad Tabula, for his awesome audio editing skills. Please subscribe to Authors are ROCKSTARS! on iTunes so you'll never miss an episode-- and if you leave a review, we might be your BFFs. 

Gene Luen Yang: Special Edition

We here at Authors are ROCKSTARS! are pretty big fans of the Nickelodeon animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender. (Yeah, we're hugging on an adorable Appa plushie in that photo. It's okay to be jealous!)

So you can imagine our elation at the opportunity to chat with Gene Luen Yang, author of the new graphic novel, Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Promise, Part 1, which picks up right where the original series left off and continues the story in an amazing way. It's seriously awesome!

In addition to being a super talented, award-winning author and artist, Gene is quite possibly one of the nicest guys ever, and has such great insights. We had a blast discussing his perspective on diversity in fiction and the media, how he got started in creating graphic novels, and, of course... the whereabouts of Zuko's mom. Dun dun dunnnn! (spoiler: the truth cannot yet be revealed, of course!)

If you're an Avatar: The Last Airbender fan, we hope you'll enjoy listening to this episode of the podcast as much as we enjoyed recording it. We even kick off this podcast in an extra special way. It's pretty epic. And if you're wondering what this whole Airbender thing is all about... what are you waiting for?? Go watch the show! Then run out and get the graphic novel. And then come back and listen to this interview.

Want to download this podcast? Click here for a mp3 or find us on iTunes.

Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Promise, Part 1, is published by Dark Horse Books. Look for it in comic stores on January 25th, and in bookstores everywhere on February 7th. Learn more about Gene Yang at his website.

Hosting courtesy of archive.org. Avatar: The Last Airbender theme song © The Track Team. Please subscribe to Authors are ROCKSTARS! on iTunes for more awesome author interviews.