When Words Heal
Order your copy of This is my Brain in Love from The King's English Bookshop and receive a 20% discount.
Despite the huge increase in mental health awareness across the world, suicide rates are the highest they've been in twenty years. What role can teachers and librarians play in helping kids navigate tough times? What does good mental health representation look like? I.W. Gregorio will talk about the choices she made while writing her Schneider Award-winning THIS IS MY BRAIN IN LOVE and highlight other important books with neurodiverse characters. Gregorio will also speak about Asian American children’s literature and the role of We Need Diverse Books in her publishing journey.
"Deftly navigating issues of race and mental health, as well as giving voice to the reality of American teens born to immigrant families, many of whom grapple with different cultural and familial expectations, Gregorio has written a heartwarming foodie rom-com."―School Library Journal, Starred Review
Author: I.W. Gregorio
I. W. Gregorio is a practicing surgeon by day, masked avenging YA writer by night. After getting
her MD at Yale, she did her residency at Stanford, where she met the intersex patient
who inspired her debut novel, None of the Above (Balzer + Bray / HarperCollins), which was finalist for the 2016 Lambda Literary Award, a Spring 2015 Publishers Weekly Flying Start, an ALA Booklist Top Ten Sports Book for Youth, and a 2015 ABC Children’s Group Best Book for Young
Readers. It was also named to the 2016 American Library Association Rainbow List. Her second novel, This is My Brain in Love, is forthcoming in April 2020 from Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. She is
proud to be board member of interACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth, and is a founding member of We Need Diverse Books™ and its former VP of Development. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Newsweek, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, New York Daily News, Scientific American and Journal of General Internal Medicine, among others. A recovering ice hockey player, she lives in Pennsylvania with her husband
and two children.
