“I made him the Asian American phenomenon that I never had as a kid” - an interview with Marie Lu, 14-time bestselling writer

besea.n's own Isabelle attended the Waterstones x Penguin 'House of YA (Young Adult) LitFest' earlier this month, and got the chance to interview Marie Lu - 14-time New York Times bestselling writer, and author of the new YA novel ‘Stars and Smoke’ out now. Isabelle and Marie chatted about the joy of YA (Young Adult) literature, BTS and K-pop, Asian representation in her new book, mental health and trauma, and Marie's relationship to London, which is one of the settings in the book. Check out the transcript of this episode, together with Isabelle's writeup of the House of YA litfest, in our new Spotlight article. Social Media: Marie: Instagram | Twitter besea.n: ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠Twitter⁠ Isabelle: ⁠Instagram⁠ | ⁠Twitter⁠ -------------------------------------------- Want to share some thoughts that could be played on our podcast? Send besea.n a LISTENER VOICEMAIL:https://besean.co.uk/voicemails  -------------------------------------------- Follow besean and slide into our DMs and keep the conversation going! https://www.instagram.com/besea.n/  https://twitter.com/besea_n  Support the podcast by buying besean a coffee, 100% of the donations now go towards besean! http://bit.ly/Kofibesean  Sign petitions:  STAND WITH MYANMAR AND TAKE ACTION https://linktr.ee/meemalee ESEA HERITAGE MONTH: Sign the petition to support the launch of East & South East Asian Heritage Month in the UK https://www.change.org/ESEAHeritageMonth We've reached 30,000 signatures! Sign the petition for media outlets to stop depicting ESEA people in Coronavirus related media: https://www.change.org/p/bbc-stop-depicting-east-asians-in-coronavirus-related-media -------------------------------------------- Credits: Jingle by John Clapper: https://www.instagram.com/john_clapper/