Mar 5

Mar 5 This Weekend: Best-selling Young Adult author to be at Lexington Book Festival

Amber Smith, a New York Times best-selling author, will be among 15 writers who will be at the Second Annual Lexington Book Festival this Saturday Match 09, 2024.

Smith, who writes novels for young adults (14 years old and up) and middle-grade readers, is best known as the author of her debut novel, “The Way I Used to Be,” which was published in 2016 and was on the New York Times best-seller list, as well as the sequel, “The Way I Am Now,” which was also on the New York Times and USA Today best-seller list when it was published this past November. There’s even a hardcover and paperback boxed set of the two books now.

The first book is a coming-of-age story about how a female high-school student named Eden copes with a traumatic sexual assault and subsequently navigates adolescence and relationships with friends and family, as well as first love with a boy named Josh. The sequel has her finding her inner strength in college to seek justice in a courtroom and consider if she and Josh have a possible future.

In a guest post on the Teen Librarian Toolbox website, Smith wrote that she decided to write a sequel years later in the aftermath of the Me Too Movement and the fact that her first book had gained traction among new YA readers on social media because her books had been banned in libraries.

“As a survivor who has struggled to speak my truth, writing the first book helped me to find my voice. I hope that one of the messages that shines through in this new book is that the potential for healing and thriving are always within reach because they are always within us. And I hope that message stays accessible, on shelves, so that young people can continue to believe in the power of stories to heal and connect,” she wrote.

Smith also has won critical acclaim for her other YA novels, “The Last to Go” and “Something Like Gravity.”

She is a contributor to the nonfiction YA anthology, “Our Stories, Our Voices: 21 Authors Get Real About Injustice, Empowerment and Growing Up Female in America.”

The author has also ventured into the middle-grade genre with a novel titled “Code Name: Serendipity,” which is a story about family, friendship and the special connection between a girl and her dog that was inspired in part by her own love of animals and a life spent rescuing them.

“An advocate for increased awareness of mental health, gendered violence and LGBTQIA+ equality, she writes in the hope that her books can help to foster change and spark dialogue surrounding those issues,” according to her website biography.

Smith grew up in Buffalo, N.Y., and has a Bachelor in Fine Arts in painting and a Master’s degree in art history from the University of Buffalo (State University of New York). But the lure of writing developed early on.

“I definitely took a roundabout path into writing, but in some ways I don’t think I would've gotten here any other way,” she said in a recent interview with Davidson Local. “I’ve always written, ever since I was a young person, but it was more in the form of private writing, like journaling and poetry that I didn’t really share with anyone. It wasn’t until I was out of grad school working in the art world and began publishing nonfiction work (on art and art history) that I began to seriously think about writing fiction as a creative outlet. And then I approached it very much like I had my journaling practice, as a way to work through stuff.”

Smith said she chose to write YA fiction because when she was a teenager she wanted to see stories with which she could identify.

“I got into reading in middle school and high school and I really craved any and all coming-of-age stories I could find — and being a teenager in the mid to late nineties didn’t offer nearly the breadth of selection available today. I found solace in books. They made me feel less alone in what I was going through as a teenager and that has stayed with me into adulthood. So now I strive to write the kinds of books I really needed as a young adult.”

The author said she is looking forward to returning to Lexington for the book festival because it was such a great experience in its inaugural year.

“I loved meeting so many different readers and book lovers,” she said. “Everyone working the festival was so warm and welcoming, and it was clear that it was a true labor of love for the bookstore and all the volunteers — and for the city itself. It seemed everyone here got involved. For authors, so often book festivals are simply going from a hotel to a convention center and you never even get a chance to see where you are. That was one of the things that set this festival apart for me. I loved getting to actually know Lexington and get a feel for the people here — it really made me feel like I was a part of a community rather than just passing through.”

As part of the festival’s authors panel, Smith will be speaking with Angela Frith from 3 to 3:45 p.m. Saturday in the Black Box Theatre at the Arts Davidson building at 202 N. Main St. in Lexington.

She will also participate in “LGBTQ Voices,” a discussion with fellow author Jeffrey Dale Lofton, who wrote “Red Clay Suzie,” in the Auxiliary Space of the building at 1 p.m.

She will do a book signing from noon to 12:45 p.m. Saturday in the vendor area behind the Arts Davidson building.