P&P Live! Jason Reynolds & Danica Novgorodoff | LONG WAY DOWN with Gene Yang

Join us for an exciting conversation with Jason Reynolds, Danica Novgorodoff, and Gene Yang about LONG WAY DOWN: THE GRAPHIC NOVEL.

Click here to purchase LONG WAY DOWNTHE GRAPHIC NOVEL and other titles by our featured authors

Fifteen-year-old Will stands in his building’s elevator, a gun tucked into his waistband and his heart thudding with grief and fear. When he reaches the lobby, he knows what he has to do: kill the man who shot his brother, Shawn. Revenge is one of the three “rules” Shawn taught him, along with “don’t cry” and “don’t snitch.” Will is determined to do right by his brother. But as the elevator grinds from the seventh floor to the first, something unbelievable happens. Taking place over a single minute, Long Way Down is an unforgettable exploration of gang violence and the rigid “rules” of masculinity.

Jason Reynolds’ galvanizing novel in verse, released in 2017 to immediate acclaim from readers and critics alike, is now available as a stunning graphic novel. Celebrate the release of this triumph with its author and illustrator Danica Novgorodoff, in conversation with celebrated graphic novelist Gene Luen Yang. Before a book discussion and Q&A with all three guests, Reynolds and Yang will discuss being Library of Congress National Ambassadors for Young People’s Literature—Reynolds is the current ambassador, while Yang held the position from 2016-17—and a spoken-word film of Reynolds’ poem For Every One produced in partnership with the writing nonprofit 826 National.

Jason Reynolds is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, a Newbery Award Honoree, a Printz Award Honoree, a two-time National Book Award finalist, a Kirkus Award winner, a two-time Walter Dean Myers Award winner, an NAACP Image Award Winner, and the recipient of multiple Coretta Scott King honors. Reynolds is also the 2020–2021 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. His many books include When I Was the Greatest, The Boy in the Black Suit, All American Boys (co-written with Brendan Kiely), As Brave as You, For Every One, the Track series, Look Both Ways, and Long Way Down, which received a Newbery Honor, a Printz Honor, and a Coretta Scott King Honor. He lives in Washington, DC.

Danica Novgorodoff is an artist, writer, graphic designer, and horse wrangler from Louisville, Kentucky, currently living in Brooklyn, New York. Her books include A Late Freeze; Slow Storm; Refresh, Refresh (included in Best American Comics 2011); and The Undertaking of Lily Chen. Her art and writing have been published in Best American Comics, Artforum, Esquire, VQR, Slate, Orion, Seneca Review, Ecotone Journal, and many others. She was awarded a 2015 New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship in Literature and was named Sarabande Books’ 2016 writer in residence. She has been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony, Blue Mountain Center, VCCA, Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, and Willapa Bay AiR.

Gene Luen Yang has been making comics since the fifth grade. American Born Chinese, which he published in 2006, was the first graphic novel to be nominated for a National Book Award and the first to win a Printz Award. His numerous other books include the two-volume Boxers & Saints, Avatar: The Last Airbender, the Secret Coders series, Dragon Hoops, and Superman Smashes the Klan. He teaches creative writing through Hamline University’s MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults. He was the Library of Congress National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and received a MacArthur Genius Grant in 2016.

Ages 12 and up