Proud : Stories, Poetry and Art on the Theme of Pride

【Product Information】

Celebrate the fifth anniversary of PROUD in this dazzling new edition of the anthology, featuring a brand-new story and artwork.

A stirring, bold and moving anthology of stories and poetry by top LGBTQ+ YA authors and new talent, giving their unique responses to the broad theme of pride. Each story has an illustration by an artist identifying as part of the LGBTQ+ community. Compiled by Juno Dawson, author of THIS BOOK IS GAY and CLEAN.

A celebration of LGBTQ+ talent, PROUD is a thought-provoking, funny, emotional read.

Contributors: Steve Antony, Dean Atta, Kip Alizadeh, Fox Benwell, Alex Bertie, Caroline Bird, Kathi Burke, Tanya Byrne, Moïra Fowley, Frank Duffy, Simon James Green, Leo Greenfield, Saffa Khan, Karen Lawler, David Levithan, Priyanka Meenakshi, Alice Oseman, Michael Lee Richardson, David Roberts, Cynthia So, Kay Staples, Jessica Vallance, K Valentin and Kameron White.

【Author Information】

Juno Dawson

#1 Sunday Times best-selling novelist, screenwriter, journalist, and a columnist for Attitude Magazine. Juno’s books include the global bestsellers, THIS BOOK IS GAY and CLEAN. She won the 2020 YA Book Prize for MEAT MARKET. Her first adult fantasy trilogy HER MAJESTY’S ROYAL COVEN launched in 2022, becoming an instant best-seller. She has written for Glamour, The Pool and the Guardian and regularly appears on television and radio discussing feminism, gender and identity.

Saffa Khan

An artist focusing on illustration and print through DIY culture, creating tangible, self-published printed matter on the themes of identity, community, and mental health. They utilize print as an accessible medium to skill-share and platform marginalized communities.

K Van Dam

K Van Dam hails from England and Las Vegas and presently calls Washington her home. This far-ranging combination of formative locations makes her very proper, occasionally scandalous, and extremely emo. When she’s not writing about aliens, she’s writing about hackers or elves, most often in the Adult category. As a poet, her work has been featured in the Latino Book Review. As a comic writer and illustrator her work has been published in Puerto Rico Strong, Proud: a LGBTQ+ YA Anthology, and Oath Anthology.

Tanya Byrne

Born in London where she spent forty years before moving to Brighton.

After eight years at BBC Radio, she left to write her debut novel, HEART-SHAPED BRUISE, which earned her a nomination for New Writer of the Year at the National Book Awards.

Since then, she has written five more. Her most recent, AFTERLOVE, hit both the Amazon and Waterstones bestseller lists. She has also contributed to several short story anthologies including A CHANGE IS GONNA COME, which was named Sunday Times Children’s Book of the Week and was honoured with a Special Achievement Award by the YA Book Prize.

Her next novel, IN THE SHALLOWS, is out in February published by Hodder Children’s Books.