I'll be at the New York Teen Author Fest!

New York City friends: my first public appearances in support of Anger Is a Gift begin in JUST A WEEK. All of these events are free and open to all, so I hope to see many familiar faces soon. 

  Schedule!

       All appearances are free / open to the public.

My schedule for New York Teen Author Fest is as follows:

Friday, March 23: Queer Voices in YA! 2:00pm - 2:50pm

(With Arvin Ahmadi, Kheryn Calendar, Billy Merrill, Sam J. Miller, Sarah Moon, and Will Walton; moderated by David Levitahn)
Location: 42nd St Branch NYPL Library, South Court

Saturday, March 24: 2018 Debuts 4:10pm - 5:00pm

(With Alisa Kwitney, Derek Milman, A.M. Rose, Julia Rubin, Nisha Sharma, and Ashley Woodfolk; moderated by Leila Sales)
Location: 42nd St Branch NYPL, Bartos Forum

And finally: Tor Teen and I are giving away ARCs of Anger Is a Gift after each of these panels. If you'd like an early copy signed by yours truly, we'll have a LOT of copies to give out!

Hope to see y'all soon!!!

My schedule for HELIOsphere is now live!

New York friends! My next major appearance in 2018 will be at HELIOsphere in Tarrytown, NY! Just under an hour from Grand Central Terminal, you can join me for an intimate weekend of science fiction, fantasy, and writing, as I am one of the Guests of Honor this year!

The full programming schedule has been posted, too, but here's where you'll be able to find me:

Friday

5:00pm: Are We In a Golden Age of Queer SF/F? - Ballroom 2
8:00pm: Hogwarts House Party - Ballroom 6

Saturday

10:00am: Book #2 Reading!!! - Sleepy Hollow Room
11:30am: Dealing With Rejection as a New (Or Even Old) Writer - Ballroom 4
2:30pm: From Prophets to Profits: The Extraordinary Voyages of DS9 - Ballroom 5
4:00pm: Books and Brews Session - Ballroom 6
5:30pm: Guest of Honor Interview - Ballroom 5
10:30pm: Mark Reads Chuck Tingle - Sleepy Hollow Room

Sunday

2:00pm: Science Fiction & Social Justice - Ballroom 2
3:45pm: The Secret Joy of YA - Ballroom 4

I will have ARCs of Anger Is a Gift to sign throughout the con. I'm not telling you where I'll be giving out each of the copies, so you'll just have to show up to try and get one!!!

I hope to see some of y'all next weekend!
 

Welcome the new cover art for ANGER IS A GIFT

Today is a very special day in the journey of my debut YA book, Anger Is a Gift. I was so thrilled with my initial cover, and felt privileged that Tor Teen gave me something I loved so very much. I was sitting in my barbershop when the Paste Magazine article revealing the cover, title, and publisher for Anger dropped, and it was—and will always be!—one of the best days of my life. I have been working so hard on this book, and all that dedication and perseverance had finally paid off. 

As things sometimes go in the publishing industry, we have made the decision to go in a different direction for the cover art. After much work by my talented and fabulous Tor Teen colleagues, I can now reveal that I have blessed by the cover gods… twice.

Behold: the brand new cover for Anger Is a Gift.

This cover was designed by Bay Area artist, Chris Koehler. I am thrilled that this now firmly roots Anger’s cover in Oakland with the iconic Tribune Building in view. As you read the book, you will get to experience the beauty and importance of downtown Oakland through the eyes of Moss Jeffries and his friends. I attended multiple protests on the very street where this cover is set, and it is a perfect match for the emotional and empowering story of Moss. 

This book is set to come out amidst a national conversation about student activism and weapon use on campus. It’s surreal watching it happen; Anger was born out of my desire to explore my own experiences with police forces on high school campuses, becoming an activist while still a teenager, and learning how to join with fellow students to fight for what’s right. It is unfortunate that this is all relevant again, nearly 16 years since I graduated high school. That’s one reason I love this cover so much: it conveys a sense of hope more than anything else. It’s my desire that Anger inspire kids everywhere to join a long tradition of student activism and to feel supported while doing so. 

I am additionally thrilled that Adam Silvera (HISTORY IS ALL YOU LEFT ME, THEY BOTH DIE AT THE END) has provided such a meaningful blurb that now sits on my cover:

"ANGER IS A GIFT is an explosion of fury and revolution. Mark Oshiro's beautiful and brutal debut proves that not only can anyone be a hero, but great change comes when the heroes work together." 

He joins Marieke Nijkamp (THIS IS WHERE IT ENDS, BEFORE I LET GO)

"Raw, unflinching, and full of heart, ANGER IS A GIFT is a masterpiece."

and Kelly Jensen (HERE WE ARE, IT HAPPENS, Book Riot)

"An essential book to read alongside THE HATE U GIVE and DEAR MARTIN."

in support of this book. I am eterntally grateful for them!

I am so happy that I can share this with all of you, and that Tor Teen has gifted me AGAIN with such a wonderful cover. There is going to be a DELUGE of news in the next three months to publication date, so keep an eye out here and on Twitter.

I’m so excited to be on this journey with all of you.

My schedule for Confusion 2018!

I am very pleased to return to the Detroit area for the first of two confirmed appearances in 2018. ConFusion is one of my very favorite conventions, and keep an eye on my Twitter at the end of this weekend for a story of WHY it's so important to me.

In the meantime, here's my schedule for the weekend!

Friday

3:00pm: Writers and Fundraising for Charity (Isle Royale)
9:00pm: Mark Reads 18+ Reading (Petoskey)

Saturday

11:00am: Last Exit Before the Worst Timeline (Petoskey)
4:00pm: Signing! (St.Clair)
5:00pm: Making Money in Fandom (Petoskey)
6:00pm: Mark Oshiro Reading, from both Anger Is a Gift and my next work (Isle Royale)

Hope to see some of y'all there!

My schedule for Arisia 2018 is up!

I am so thrilled to return to Arisia for 2018! This Boston-based convention is one of my very favorite cons to attend, so I hope that I get to see many of you again! I have a very busy schedule this year, so this is the best chance to see me in Boston, at least until Anger comes out and BOOK TOURING IS A THING. 

Here's my full schedule for the weekend:

Friday

7:00pm: Fans of Color Social & Safe Space Meet-up (Otis)
8:30pm: Marginalized in Geek Spaces (Marina 1)

Saturday

10:00am: How to be Political While Completely Terrified (Marina 1)
11:30am: Victoria "V.E." Shwab Reading and Q&A (Marina 2)
1:00pm: Diversity: Still Knows What We Did Last Summer (Marina 2)
4:00pm: 50 Panels in 75 Minutes (Marina 1)

Sunday

10:00am: Writing Realistic Young Adult Fiction (Adams)
1:00pm: Policing Diverse Creators (Marina 1)
10:00pm: Let's (Actually) Talk About Sex (Marina 1)

Monday

1:00pm: El Encanto de Coco (Marina 1)

You can now read the first two chapters of ANGER IS A GIFT!

I am thrilled to announce that Tor Teen has posted a long excerpt from Anger Is a Gift. Read the first two chapters before anyone else, and check out some new promo designs for Anger!

I am proud to announce my YA contemporary debut, ANGER IS A GIFT

The secret is finally out: Paste Magazine has the exclusive cover reveal, title reveal, publishing date, and an excerpt from Anger Is a Gift, my YA contemporary debut novel, which will be released on May 22, 2018 with Tor Teen. 

And look at that beautiful, beautiful cover, designed by Adam Carvalho!

Cover designed by Adam Carvalho | https://www.instagram.com/adamscarvalho/

I am so proud to be working with Tor Teen and Miriam Weinberg, my editor, who introduced herself to me at World Con in 2013 by telling me we should ditch the con and go talk about anime in an empty pool. WE HAVE BEEN FAST FRIENDS SINCE THEN. I am also pleased that my agent, DongWon Song, sold TWO books to Miriam, so that second novel I've been talking about on Twitter will ALSO come out with Tor Teen some time in 2019. (Barring other circumstances, of course. I'm 60% done the manuscript already!)

This is obviously a huge day in my life, and I owe a great debt to the Mark Does Stuff community for supporting me up to this point. Everything's about to get weirder, and I can't wait to share it all with you. 

There's a list of pre-order links here, but for the sake of ease:

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
iTunes/iBooks
Books-A-Million
Indie-Bound
Powell's
Google Play Books
Goodreads

Thank you, each of you, for what you've done for me. HERE WE GO. 

I'm on a panel at New York Comic Con!

Some of you spotted my name in the schedule when it was released this week, but I'm happy to confirm that I will be on a panel at this year's New York Comic Con! I'll be participating as a part of the panel, "Let's Talk About Our Problematic Favs: Marginalized Fans & the Media." My fellow panelists are all extraordinary individuals (some of whom I've become friends with since I moved to NYC!), so I'm very thrilled to be a part of this. AT MY FIRST NYCC EVER.

The panel is at 6:30pm on Saturday, October 7 and will be located in Room 1B03. Please join me, and afterwards, we can all meet up outside the room so folks can say hello if they'd like! I CAN'T WAIT!

I am a Guest at Beach City Con!

In the coming weeks, I am going to be revealing about a thousand million secrets that I've been sitting on, and you can consider this the start of it: I am a guest at Beach City Con, the first Steven Universe fan convention. It's the weekend of October 13 - 15 in Virginia Beach, VA, and I'm so thrilled to appear alongside the voice actors for Stevonnie and Jasper, as well as other members of this lovely fan community. 

This is an incredible honor, and I'm glad I can finally tell y'all. I AM EXCITEMENT.

Thank you, CrossingsCon!

Now that I'm settled back home after a weekend in Long Beach, CA, I wanted to write a quick note to thank the CrossingsCon staff and community for an incredible few days. I expected to have a good time, given how much fun last year's con was for me, and this year was no exception. I was treated so well by everyone who attended, and I can't thank y'all enough for caring about me so much. I got to go on a couple Pokémon raids (congrats to Jenny for catching your first Lugia!!!); I had a number of incredible meals, including that lively dinner the last night of the con; the aquarium was amazing; I participated in countless discussions that were hilarious, insightful, and illuminating; and the CrossingsCon folks are now the very first humans to hear an excerpt from Untitled Book #2, which gave me a lovely boost of confidence. I guess I should stop doubting myself and keep writing!

I cannot wait for the third CrossingsCon, especially since by the time it rolls around, I will have become a published author AND NO SPOILERS SHALL AFFECT ME. Until then: thank you. You are all such wonderful people, cousins!

Dai stiho!