In celebration of Pride Month, we are thrilled to launch Create Pride, a brand new Instagram Live series that brings you up close and personal with your favorite LGBTQ+ YA authors and comics creators, hosted in partnership by Fierce Reads and First Second. This week-long event series will run from June 21 - June 26, spotlighting two creators each day in conversation on topics ranging from coming of age, queer identity, adventure + deadly missions, stories written from personal experiences, and much more! Check out the full author lineup below, and be sure to follow @FierceReads and @01FirstSecond on Instagram! Learn more about the participating authors and their books below.

C.B. Lee, author of A Clash of Steel: A Treasure Island Remix

Two intrepid girls hunt for a legendary treasure on the deadly high seas in this YA remix of the classic adventure novel Treasure Island.        

Mariko Tamaki, author of Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me

Laura Dean, the most popular girl in high school, was Frederica Riley's dream girl: charming, confident, and SO cute. There's just one problem: Laura Dean is maybe not the greatest girlfriend.      

Wendy Heard, author of She’s Too Pretty to Burn  

An electric romance set against a rebel art scene sparks lethal danger for two girls in She's Too Pretty to Burn, an expertly plotted YA thriller by Wendy Heard.        

Alex London, author of Black Wings Beating

In this first young-adult fantasy novel in a trilogy, Alex London launches a soaring saga about the memories that haunt us, the histories that hunt us, and the bonds of blood between us.        

Zoe Hana Mikuta, author of Gearbreakers

Two girls on opposite sides of a war discover they're fighting for a common purpose—and falling for each other—in Zoe Hana Mikuta's high-octane debut Gearbreakers, perfect for fans of Pacific Rim, Pierce Brown's Red Rising Saga, and Marie Lu's Legend series.      

Natalie Riess and Sara Goetter, authors of Dungeon Critters

Natalie Riess and Sara Goetter's Dungeon Critters is a middle-grade graphic novel about a gang of adorable animal friends on a D&D style dungeon crawl.        

Miel Moreland, author of It Goes Like This 

In Miel Moreland's heartfelt young adult debut, It Goes Like This, four queer teens realize that sometimes you have to risk hitting repeat on heartbreak.          

Mike Curato, author of Flamer

It's the summer between middle school and high school, and Aiden Navarro is away at camp. Everyone's going through changes—but for Aiden, the stakes feel higher. As he navigates friendships, deals with bullies, and spends time with Elias (a boy he can't stop thinking about), he finds himself on a path of self-discovery and acceptance.      

A.M. Strickland, author of In the Ravenous Dark

A pansexual bloodmage reluctantly teams up with an undead spirit to start a rebellion among the living and the dead, in this dark YA fantasy by A.M. Strickland, author of Beyond the Black Door, whom Richard Kadrey calls “a storyteller of both grace and power.”      

Colleen A.F. Venable, author of Kiss Number 8

Kiss Number 8, a graphic novel from writer Colleen AF Venable and illustrator Ellen T. Crenshaw, is a layered, funny, sharp-edged story of teen sexuality and family secrets.        

ZR Ellor, author of May the Best Man Win

A trans boy enters a throw-down battle for the title of Homecoming King with the boy he dumped last summer in ZR Ellor's contemporary YA debut.        

Kiku Hughes, author of Displacement

Kiku is on vacation in San Francisco when suddenly she finds herself displaced to the 1940s Japanese-American internment camp that her late grandmother, Ernestina, was forcibly relocated to during World War II.