Win-It Wednesday: Contemporary YA!

Over at The Contemps, we've declared June Contemporary YA month (it also happens to be the birthday month of Sarah Dessen and Gayle Forman and yours truly--yay!), and other bloggers are joining in to create a whole summer of real-life reading. I'm so into it. So to make up for this blog's long absence, and to celebrate June Contemps, I'm giving away these four books:

That's Sarah Dessen's What Happened to Goodbye (advanced reader copy), Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why (new paperback!), Nova Ren Suma's Imaginary Girls (hardcover) and Libba Bray's Beauty Queens (advanced reader copy).

I have read them, I heart them, and you will too. (And okay, I know a couple of these skirt contemp lines, but all are rooted in contemp spirit, which basically means that they're realistic fiction--as opposed to otherworldly stuff.)

To win this set of awesome, answer this question in the comments: What's the best Contemporary YA novel you've read in the past year? If you're a strictly paranormal/dystopian/fantasy reader, name a Contemp you'd like to read soon (and then go get it!). You can get some ideas from The Contemps list of members' books.

I'll post a randomly chosen winner next Wednesday. Happy June!

PS-Every Thursday this month, Claire June is giving away a Contemp novel too, so check her out.

PPS-I forgot to announce a winner for the last Win-It Wednesday, pre-blog outage! The randomly chosen winner of Morgan Matson's fabulous Amy & Roger's Epic Detour is... Jessica! Send me your address, J.

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If You Like Sarah Dessen...

How cool is it that the lovely and amazing Ms. Dessen recommended Violet on the Runway, officially, to readers? I feel like I just won a major award. Check out all these fantastic books by Gayle Forman, Elizabeth Scott, John Green, Laurie Halse Anderson and Susane Colasanti -- I've actually read all of these titles, and I can assure you that Sarah D. has good taste! (In books and TV and hometowns, naturally.) Happy Thursday!

Photo Friday: Cover Girls (Sarah Dessen and... Me!)

When my hometown magazine, Chapel Hill, contacted me and Sarah Dessen about doing a joint interview, I thought I might be imagining things. They wanted to feature both of us, as authors from Chapel Hill who write for teens. Which is, pretty much, the biggest honor ever.Sarah and I had a great time--she's as cool and fun as you'd expect her to be--and the magazine ran a looong story in the January/February issue. Which also happens to have us on the cover! This big photo is from the interior--I just like it better because on the cover I feel like I look ridiculous! And I like that jacket.

Anyway, I'll paste each page of it below... feel free to click to enlarge so you can read details on my 9th grade crush (Yes! They named names!) and Sarah's take on perfectionism and parking lot slacker-dom. We also both talk basketball, of course (though they did cut some of that conversation--I think we each had three or four Carolina basketball stories. It comes with the town.)

Happy Friday!

PS-I know, I know, my scanner isn't what it should be. Sorry about the crookedness and the patchy color! Best I could do.