Nevada Humanities features The New York Times bestselling author Axie Oh and her book, The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, as our YA selection for the 2022 Library of Congress National Book Festival. During this online event, author Naseem Jamnia talks with Oh about topics including representation and diversity in YA literature today, what inspired the writing of The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, and how books can bring us together.

Photo courtesy of Axie Oh.

Axie Oh is the New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, XOXO, and the Rebel Seoul series. Born in New York City and raised in New Jersey, she studied Korean history and creative writing as an undergrad at the University of California, San Diego and holds an MFA in Writing for Young People from Lesley University. Her passions include K-pop, anime, stationery supplies, and milk tea, and she currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada, with her dogs, Leila and Toro (named after Totoro). The Nevada Center for the Book is featuring Axie Oh and her book The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea as a Nevada Great Reads from Great Places selection for the 2022 Library of Congress National Book Festival.

Naseem Jamnia (they/them) is a former neuroscientist and MFA graduate from the University of Nevada, Reno. They are the author of The Bruising of Qilwa (Tachyon Publications). Their work has appeared in The Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, The Rumpus, The Writer’s Chronicle, and other publications. They have received fellowships from Bitch Media, Lambda Literary, and the Otherwise, and they were named the inaugural Samuel R. Delany Fellow from CatStone Books. Naseem is also the managing editor at Sword & Kettle Press, a tiny independent publishing house of inclusive feminist speculative fiction, and the former managing editor at Sidequest.zone, an independent gaming criticism website. A Persian-Chicagoan, Naseem now lives in Reno with their husband, dog, and two cats.