Join us as we host Bessie Flores Zaldívar to talk about her first novel, Libertad - a queer YA coming-of-age set during the rigged Honduran presidential election about a young poet discovering the courage it takes to speak her truth about the people and country she loves. It’s already received two starred reviews, is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, and a Kirkus Reviews Editor’s Pick!

As the contentious 2017 presidential election looms and protests rage across every corner of the city, life in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, churns louder and faster. For her part, high school senior Libertad (Libi) Morazán takes heart in writing political poetry for her anonymous Instagram account and a budding romance with someone new. But things come to a head when Mami sees texts on her phone mentioning a kiss with a girl and Libi discovers her beloved older brother, Maynor, playing a major role in the protests. As Libertad faces the political and social corruption around her, stifling homophobia at home and school, and ramped up threats to her poetry online, she begins dreaming of a future in which she doesn’t have to hide who she is or worry about someone she loves losing their life just for speaking up. Then the ultimate tragedy strikes, and leaving her family and friends—plus the only home she’s ever known—might be her only option.

Bessie Flores Zaldívar is a queer writer from Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Bessie received her MFA from Virginia Tech and is currently based in the New Haven area, where she is a professor of fiction at Quinnipiac University.