Join us for the book launch of "Wild Tongues Can't Be Tamed" edited by Saraciea J. Fennell, the founder of The Bronx is Reading! Janel Martinez, Zakiya N. Jamal, and Ibi Zoboi will be joining the festivities with a reading and discussion. 

PREORDER  signed copy of "Wild Tongues Can't Be Tamed" by Saraciea J. Fennell at WordUpBooks.com!

ABOUT WILD TONGUES CAN'T BE TAMED
In Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed, bestselling and award-winning authors as well as up-and-coming voices interrogate the different myths and stereotypes about the Latinx diaspora. These fifteen original pieces delve into everything from ghost stories and superheroes, to memories in the kitchen and travels around the world, to addiction and grief, to identity and anti-Blackness, to finding love and speaking your truth. Full of both sorrow and joy, Wild Tongues Can't Be Tamed is an essential celebration of this rich and diverse community.

The bestselling and award-winning contributors include Elizabeth Acevedo, Cristina Arreola, Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Naima Coster, Natasha Diaz, Saraciea J. Fennell, Kahlil Haywood, Zakiya Jamal, Janel Martinez, Jasminne Mendez, Meg Medina, Mark Oshiro, Julian Randall, Lilliam Rivera, and Ibi Zoboi.

ABOUT THE PANELISTS
Janel Martinez is a Bronx-raised writer and founder of the award-winning blog, Ain’t I Latina?, an online destination celebrating Afro-Latinx womanhood. She’s appeared as a featured guest on national shows and outlets, such as Buzz- Feed, ESSENCE, NPR, and Sirius XM, and her work has appeared in Adweek, Univision Communications, Oprah Magazine, Remezcla, and The New York Times. She received the Afro-Latino Festival of New York’s Digital Empowerment Award and was recognized at City Hall by the New York City Council, the Black, Latino, and Asian Caucus, and the Bronx Delegation to the NYC Council for her contributions as a woman of Garifuna descent.

Zakiya N. Jamal was born in Queens, raised in Long Island, and currently resides in Brooklyn. In other words, she’s a New Yorker through and through. She holds a BA in English from Georgetown University and an MFA in Creative Writing with a concentration in Writing for Children and Young Adults from The New School. She currently works at Scholastic as the Trade Social Media Manager and has been published in Romper, BuzzFeed, People.com, Thought Catalog, and more.

Ibi Zoboi is the New York Times bestselling author of the middle-grade novel My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich and the young adult novels American Street, a National Book Award finalist, and Pride. She is also the co-author of Punching the Air with prison reform activist Dr. Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five and editor of Black Enough: Stories of Being Young and Black in America. Ibi holds an MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her writing has been published in The New York Times Book Review, the Horn Book Magazine, and The Rumpus, among others. As an educator, she is the recipient of several grants from the Brooklyn Arts Council for her community-based programs for teen girls in both Brooklyn and Haiti. She’s worked for arts organizations such as Teachers & Writers Collaborative and Community Word Project as a writer-in- residence and teaching artist in New York City public schools. Born in Port-au- Prince, Haiti, and raised in New York City, Ibi now lives in Maplewood, New Jersey, with her husband and their three children.

Saraciea J. Fennell is a Black Honduran writer, and the founder of The Bronx is Reading. She is also a book publicist who has worked with many award-winning and New York Times bestselling authors. Fennell sits on the board for Latinx in Publishing as well as on the Advisory Board of People of Color in Publishing. She lives in the Bronx with her family and dog, Oreo.