UKYA Blogger Awards

The UK YA Blogger Awards were started in 2015 by author Andy Robb. They were created in recognition of the support, publicity and appreciation given to authors and publishers by the book-blogging community. Each year bloggers are voted for by authors and publishers and even fellow bloggers occasionally.

The longlists have been released today for 2018’s awards, and we have been longlisted! We have been longlisted in the Champion of Diversity category and are surrounded by some incredible bloggers in that list, i feel very proud just to be up there with some of the other names in that list.

It feels very nice to be recognised for the work we have put in to reading diverse novels and promoting them. Some of my favourite reads in the last few years have been diverse novels and it occurred to me more recently that Own Voices novels are incredibly important and need shouting about. It’s been such a pleasure to talk about these stories, creating read-alongs, book clubs and just about anything we could in order to get more people talking about diverse stories.

Without doubt it’s a pleasure i get to talk about these books so often on our blog and share my opinions.

Hey! I also just wanted to say a huge thanks and just say how proud I am that we are up on that list with wonderful bloggers both that we know of already or we now do and are very happy about this! It’s a lovely thing to be recognised in the long list for the Champion of Diversity category.

Inclusivity is something I strive for in everyday life, in my own work and in my choices of reading and other media too. One of my goals this year is to make sure to read more Own Voices works and read a wider range of books generally. It’s important to branch out and go out of your way to find new authors and books which may not be pushed to the forefront in the mainstream. It’s so easy to miss out on brilliant stories because of who society favours.

I can’t wait for this year of reading: to find more positive representations of people of colour, LGBTQ+ people, people with disabilities, people from different countries – and so, so much more! And to make sure to read more by authors who aren’t straight, white and cis too. I have been more aware and actively trying to diversify my reading for the past couple of years in particular and this year I want to improve more.

If anyone has any suggestions of authors or books to check out, please let me know!