Last month, Carolrhoda Books editor Amy Fitzgerald, wrote a teaser post about her upcoming trip to Book Expo America (BEA). If you haven’t yet read it, her to-do list at the end is worth a spare moment of your time.

In addition to consuming an absurd amount of leafy greens prior to her departure, Amy also mentioned practicing her Editors’ Buzz Panel speech about Auma’s Long Run, a debut novel by Eucabeth Odhiambo. 

For those of you who may not know, the Middle Grade Book Editors’ Buzz Panel is a highly selective program highlighting five of the most highly anticipated middle grade books for 2017. Both the editor and the author are invited to speak about the process of writing and editing the book.

Both Amy and Eucabeth knocked it out of the park and I’ve got the iPhone footage to prove it.

Amy gets to the heart of what Auma’s Long Run is all about:

“As Americans we’re so used to stories that carry a ‘follow your dreams’ message. It’s not that simple for Auma; it isn’t that simple for many children in the US. Instead Auma’s path forward is to hang on to her dreams even when she has to put them on hold; to hang on to her dignity even when she has to make difficult compromises; to hang on to her faith in herself and in others even in the midst of this darkness nobody knows how to banish.”

Eucabeth shares why she chose to write for a middle grade audience:

“Auma asks a lot about culture and questions, ‘Why do I have to do that?’ . . . and I had the same questions. It came naturally that I was going back into myself.”

Auma’s Long Run pubs September 1, but you can enter our Goodreads contest now for a chance to win an advance reader’s copy. Digital review copies are also available for request on both NetGalley and Edelweiss. 

And hey, if you read it and love it as much as we do, please consider nominating it for the Indie Next program and/or rating it on Goodreads. We’d love to know what you thought about it!