Kiara Valdez & Diana Tsai Santos Auction YA Graphic Novel Stepping Up

Stepping Up is Kiara Valdez and Diana Tsai Santos‘ debut YA graphic novel collectively, impressed by Kiara Valdez’s life. Stepping Up follows Kiara as her hard-fought place on the stepping workforce helps her navigate freshman yr as one of many solely Black college students at a predominantly white boarding college, Phillips Academy Andover. Carolina Ortiz at HarperAlley received Stepping Up in a four-house public sale, alongside a second untitled graphic novel.

Kiara Valdez is an Afro-Dominican writer-editor at First Second, however normally when editors write their very own graphic novel, will probably be revealed by one other firm in order to keep away from conflicts of pursuits and has written varied IP storybooks, exercise books, and movie books for Scholastic. Valdez tweeted out “The news is finally out! @daitsaisan and I will be bringing little Kiara’s story to y’all! This memoir is a love letter to Black girls striving in spite of everything and the deep friendships they make along the way. Many thanks to @BrittSiess and @pushthepanorama”. Diana Tsai Santos is a Blasian (West African/Taiwanese) cartoonist who says she “who loves experimenting with different styles which they use to tell more interesting and visually compelling stories.”

Publication of the primary e-book is deliberate for 2024; Kiara Valdez and Diana Tsai Santos’ agent Britt Siess at Britt Siess Creative Management did the deal for North American rights.

HarperAlley is a graphic novel imprint launched from HarperCollins Children’s Books below the course of former artwork director and buying editor at First Second, Andrew Arnold final yr, described as a “collaborative, creator-focused publisher” that can specialise in graphic novels for “readers of all ages.” The new line is “looking to publish books that readers of all ages can enjoy, from the youngest readers to teens and adults. We believe that a good story is a story that any reader can relate to. That’s what we mean when we say “readers of all ages.” HarperAlley is seeking to publish about ten books a season, or about thirty books a yr and is considered one of numerous mainstream e-book publishers that has been quickly growing the variety of graphic novels for youthful readers. And Kiara Valdez and  Diana Tsai Santos have given them one other two.

Founded in 2020, Britt Siess Creative Management is a Seattle-based full-service literary company with an emphasis on graphic novels and illustration.