Diverse

"Bringing together interviews with the most highly esteemed verse novelists writing for young adults and children, DiVerse develops illuminates how the genre exemplifies inclusive storytelling. Getting into the nuts and bolts of process, inspiration, technique and more, the writers discuss themes in their work such as representation of diverse voices, identities and lived experiences, empowering stories of girls and women; resilience; and characters between countries, cultures, identities and languages. With 27 interviews with writers discussing their best-loved work, the collection includes authors such as Margarita Engle, Rajani LaRocca, Carole Boston Weatherford and Jasmine Warga alongside many more from Australia, the US and the UK"--

Linda Weste is a writer, researcher, teacher and editor based at the University of Melbourne, Australia, where she teaches poetry and poetics and completed her PhD in creative writing. Her verse novel Nothing Sacred (2015) won the Wesley Michael Wright Prize and was shortlisted for the Anne Elder Prize. She is editor of The Verse Novel: Australia & New Zealand (2021) and Inside the Verse Novel: Writers on Writing (2020). Previously, she was an editor of TEXT Journal of Writing and Writing Programs.

Editor's Bio Preface Acknowledgments Introduction Margarita Engle: Your Heart, My Sky (2021) Rima's Rebellion (2022) Kirli Saunders: Bindi (2020) Carole Boston Weatherford: Becoming Billie Holiday (2008) Beauty Mark (2020) Rajani LaRocca: Red, White, and Whole (2021) Safia Elhillo: Home Is Not a Country (2021) Jasmine Warga: Other Words for Home (2019) Melanie Crowder: Audacity (2015) Aida Salazar: The Moon Within (2019) Land of the Cranes (2020) A Seed in the Sun (2022) Cordelia Jensen: Skyscraping (2015) The Way the Light Bends (2018) Thanhhà Lai: Inside Out and Back Again (2011) When Clouds Touch Us (2022) Dean Atta: The Black Flamingo (2019) Only on the Weekends (2022) Lucy Cuthew: Blood Moon (2020) Rukhsanna Guidroz: Samira Surfs (2021) Mariko Nagai:Dust of Eden (2014) Under the Broken Sky (2019) The Sword of Yesterday (2025) Ishle Yi Park: Angel and Hannah (2021) Jion Sheibani: The Silver Chair (2022) Kaija Langley: The Order of Things (2023) Ann E. Burg: All the Broken Pieces (2009) Serafina's Promise (2013) Unbound (2016) Marilyn Hilton: Full Cicada Moon (2015) Reem Faruqi: Unsettled (2021) Golden Girl (2022) Call Me Adnan (2023) Sarah Tregay: Love and Leftovers (2012) Jasminne Mendez: Aniana Del Mar Jumps In (2023) Holly Thompson: Orchards (2011) The Language Inside (2013) Falling into the Dragon's Mouth (2016) Chris Baron: All of Me (2019) The Magical Imperfect (2021) Spark (2025) Stephanie Hemphill: Your Own, Sylvia (2007) Language of Fire: Joan of Arc Reimagined (2019) Chun Yu: Little Green: Growing up during the Chinese Cultural Revolution (2005) Leza Lowitz: Up from the Sea (2016) Helen Frost: Keesha's House (2003) The Braid (2006) Diamond Willow (2008) Crossing Stones (2009) All He Knew (2020) Notes Bibliography Index