K. Ibura

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24hr YA Book Blog, most anticipated: Tempest RoundUp

Posted on 8 January 2025

Inspired by YA debut author K. Ibura’s own upbringing in New Orleans, this is a beautifully written and lyrical contemporary novel with magical elements. Perfect for fans of A Song Below Water and Shadowshaper. After her parents passed away in Hurricane Katrina, Veronique (a.k.a. V) moved to her MawMaw’s house in the Louisiana countryside.

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An Army of Fear

Posted on 14 April 2024

When I think about trying to dive back into fiction, I feel a soft pulsing fear shoot through me. I’m not talking about envisioning a novel, writing an outline, and executing the plan. I mean sitting down to surrender to an idea and wandering with it, finding my way to a throughline. We all have… »

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Clearing Space

Posted on 7 December 2023

I used to do quite a bit of traveling. International travel is a magical space for me. I think that I love the fact that it erases all the structures, habits, and daily duties of your life and you get to live in a free space of discovery. You listen to yourself everyday to determine… »

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Essay

A Few Rules For Predicting the Future by Octavia E. Butler

Posted on 15 June 2023

Here is the text from Octavia E. Butler’s essay “A Few Rules for Predicting the Future” “SO DO YOU REALLY believe that in the future we’re going to have the kind of trouble you write about in your books?” a student asked me as I was signing books after a talk. The young man was… »

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Real Costs, Real Talk

Posted on 28 April 2023

“You shouldn’t get disillusioned when you get knocked back. All you’ve discovered is that the search is difficult, and you still have a duty to keep on searching.”—Kazuo Ishiguro Greetings from the climb out of a dark place. Middle age is a surprisingly bewildering space to navigate. Years turn into decades and you lose some… »

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Yes or No?

Posted on 5 March 2022

It can be hard to determine when you need to take an action and when you need to bow out. Especially for us striving artists, where the mythology says that your future is based on you taking every opportunity and stepping up at every turn. A unique feature of writing for children is school visits…. »

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I’m in Stores!

Posted on 1 February 2022

It’s a book birthday, y’all. As of today, When the World Turned Upside Down is in stores! I had a wonderful conversation with Varian Johnson last night about the book. I really appreciated him pushing me to talk about the structure and his acknowledgment that it takes skill to weave together four different story lines… »

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Promos, promos, promos—or You see me!

Posted on 30 January 2022

When the World Turned Upside Down finally comes out next week. As the launch events draw near, so do the publicity requests. I’ve been doing a bunch of Q&As, and this weekend I had to film three promos. Two read-aloud videos and a few videos answering three questions about my book. This is the author… »

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KIS.list

Kwanzaa in Senegal

Posted on 23 January 2022

I took a break from the pandemic struggle and the book pushes to spend two weeks in Senegal with friends. It was a beautiful journey full of road trips, connections and laughter. It was deeply healing and restorative. While there, I thought a lot about lineage. I thought about how you don’t even need to… »

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January Goals and Inspiration

Posted on 16 January 2022

One thing that is stunning about human beings is the shades of hate that we can visit on ourselves. We are extremely talented at finding ways to criticize ourselves—no matter where we are in our process and development. January is a time of setting goals and looking forward at the year ahead. As you know,… »

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