"I write about the oppression of women because it makes me so angry." I talk with Kelly McWilliams!

The premise of this podcast is pretty simple: I interview people who were in Teen People magazine as young adults. Some of these kids (now in their 30s and 40s) were featured in Teen People as young models, interns, and journalists. Others had overcome adversity, and shared moving stories with Teen People’s readers. And some, like my guest in this episode, appeared on Teen People’s annual list called, "20 Teens Who Will Change the World".

Kelly McWilliams was a teenager when she published her first novel. These days, Kelly's working on her third novel, while promoting Agnes at the End of the World; a dystopian YA book published in 2020.

Agnes at the End of the World received starred reviews in School Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews, and Publisher’s Weekly. It was also featured, funnily enough, in People magazine’s “20 Best Books to Read This Summer”, in the summer of 2020.

Kelly spoke with me from her home in Colorado, where she told me about an entirely coincidental connection between her and my very first guest on this podcast, Caron Levis. Caron (who once interned at Teen People) teaches in the Creative Writing MFA program at The New School in New York. Guess who took one of her courses? That’s right, it’s my guest, Kelly McWilliams.

Podcast Notes:

Take a look at Kelly's website: www.kellymcwilliamsauthor.com, and find her on Instagram at kellymmcwilliams.

Kelly (an author) and I (a librarian) referenced a whole bunch of books and writers in our chat! They are:

Natalie Babbitt:
Tuck Everlasting (1975, Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Octavia Butler:
Parable of the Sower (1993, Four Walls)

Suzanne Collins:
The Hunger Games (2008, Scholastic)

Christopher Paul Curtis:
The Watsons Go to Birmingham – 1963 (1995, Delacorte Press)

Nalo Hopkinson

N. K. Jemisin:
How Long 'til Black Future Month? (2018, Orbit Books)

Carolyn Jessop and Laura Palmer:
Escape (2007, Broadway Books)

Leah Johnson:
You Should See Me In a Crown (2020, Scholastic)

Caron Levis

Robin McKinley:
The Hero and the Crown (1984, Greenwillow Books)

Kelly McWilliams:
Doormat (2004, Random House Children's Books)
Agnes at the End of the World (2020, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
Mirror Girls (2022, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

Bethany C. Morrow:
A Song Below Water (2020, Tor Teen)

Sarah Moss:
Ghost Wall (2018, Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Jewell Parker Rhodes:
Ninth Ward (2010, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
Black Brother, Black Brother (2020, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

Matt Ruff:
Lovecraft Country (2016, HarperCollins)

Colson Whitehead:
The Underground Railroad (2016, Doubleday)
The Nickel Boys (2019, Doubleday)

Author photo: © Black Forest Photography
Music: © Anna Soper

Find me on Twitter and Instagram at TeenPeoplePod, and take a look at my website, www.annasoper.ca. For more information on my research, check out Sarah Wilson's award-winning podcast, Roots and All. I spoke with Sarah about Kate Crooks, a long-forgotten Canadian botanist: https://rootsandall.co.uk/portfolio-item/episode-91-the-work-of-kate-crooks-with-anna-soper/.