Event Description

In Ollie in Between, a modern take on Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, debut writer Jess Callans delivers a tender, queer coming of age story about finding your voice and choosing to live authentically, even when it’s easier to blend in.

Puberty, AKA the ultimate biological predator, is driving a wedge between soon-to-be 13 year old Ollie Thompson and their lifelong friends. Too much of a girl for their neighborhood hockey team, but not girly enough for their boy-crazed BFF, Ollie doesn’t know where they fit. And their usual ability to camouflage? Woefully disrupted by all the changes around them. When a school project asks them to write an essay on what it means to be a woman (if anyone’s got an answer, that’d be great), and one of their new friends is the target of bullying, Ollie is caught between the safety of fleeing from their own differences or confronting the risks of fighting to take their own path forward.

Shampoo Unicorn: (noun)1. A shower hairstyle in which one styles their lathered hair into the fluffiest soapy unicorn horn possible. 2. A podcast by two mysterious hosts exploring rural queer life–the isolation, the microaggressions, the boredom, and occasionally, the sky-shattering joy.

In the small town of Canon, West Virginia, most people care about three things: God, country, and football. Brian is more into Drag Race, Dolly Parton, and his gig as one of the mystery hosts of his podcast, Shampoo Unicorn. Greg’s life should be perfect as the town’s super-masc football star, but his secret is he’s just as gay as Brian. Leslie is a trans girl living in nearby Pennsylvania, searching for reasons to get out of bed every day. Her solace is listening to her favorite podcast. . . .When a terrible accident occurs, it’s Shampoo Unicorn that brings the three teens’ lives together. And what begins as a search for answers becomes a story of finding connection. Sawyer Lovett’s powerful and ultimately joyful debut novel is about three teens, one podcast, and carving out a rainbow pocket in an otherwise red state.

Jess Callans is a queer children’s author and wanna-be-illustrator with an MFA from Rosemont College. He lives outside of Philly with his partner and four amazing kids, where they collectively bake, garden, and tirelessly pursue the human experience.

Sawyer Lovett is a trans writer living just outside of Philadelphia by way of Tazewell, VA. He’s a graduate of the Rosemont College MFA program and the human parent to two chaotic rescue dogs. He is an accomplished balloon twister, a pretty good barista, and an occasional bookseller.

Erin Entrada Kelly is the author of the Newbery Medal-winning novels Hello, Universe and The First State of Being, which was also named a finalist for the National Book Award. She received a Newbery Honor for her acclaimed novel We Dream of Space. Erin Entrada Kelly grew up in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and now lives in Delaware. She teaches in the MFA in writing for children and young adults program at Hamline University. Her short fiction has been nominated for the Philippines Free Press Literary Award for Short Fiction and the Pushcart Prize. Before becoming a children’s author, Erin worked as a journalist and magazine editor and received numerous awards for community service journalism, feature writing, and editing from the Louisiana Press Association and the Associated Press.