This year’s Book Expo America takes place at McCormick Place in Chicago. (Readers may remember this is the same venue where C2E2 takes place.) One of the biggest events in the publishing industry, BEA is a great place to network with other bloggers as well as learn more about upcoming titles.

2016 will mark my fourth year attending BEA, and each year, there are different panels and events I look forward to checking out. Here are a few highlights from my schedule.

Wednesday, May 11

Kids Graphic Novels: How the Industry Has Changed (and Continues Changing)

W184bc, 12 p.m.-12:50 p.m.

Awards, honors, and commercial success – these have changed the children’s graphic novel industry drastically in the past decade, and there are more changes to come with more comics for kids in the market than ever before. A selection of booksellers from all sides of the industry will come together to discuss the kids comics market and its potential.

Popular graphic novels for elementary and middle grade readers are changing the industry, like the popularity of middle grade graphic novelist Raina Telgemeier (Smile, Drama).

Best in Fall 2016 Graphic Novels

Uptown Stage Presented by Hallmark, 2 p.m.-3 p.m.

At this year’s BEA Graphic Novel Stage, learn about the best new graphic novels for fall – including Box Brown’s nonfiction recounting of the story of the video game Tetris, Emil Ferris’ gripping fiction debut, and Raina Telgemeier’s first venture into fiction!

Continuing the graphic novel theme, I’m looking forward to checking out some of this fall’s graphic novels to check out. You might even see some of these on Girls in Capes this fall…

Thursday, May 12

Autographing Session with: Audrey Coulthurst

Table 4, 10 a.m.-10:30 a.m.

Audrey Coulthurst will be signing copies of her debut novel, Of Fire and Stars. From Goodreads:

Betrothed since childhood to the prince of Mynaria, Princess Dennaleia has always known what her future holds. Her marriage will seal the alliance between Mynaria and her homeland, protecting her people from other hostile lands. But Denna has a secret. She possesses an Affinity for fire—a dangerous gift for the future queen of a kingdom where magic is forbidden.

Now, Denna must learn the ways of her new home while trying to hide her growing magic. To make matters worse, she must learn to ride Mynaria’s formidable warhorses before her coronation—and her teacher is the person who intimidates her most, the prickly and unconventional Princess Amaranthine (called Mare), sister of her betrothed.

When a shocking assassination leaves the kingdom reeling, Mare and Denna reluctantly join forces to search for the culprit. As the two work together, each discovers there’s more to the other than she thought. Mare is surprised by Denna’s intelligence and bravery, while Denna is drawn to Mare’s independent streak. Soon their friendship is threatening to blossom into something more.

But with dangerous conflict brewing that makes the alliance more important than ever, acting on their feelings could be deadly. Forced to choose between their duty and their hearts, Mare and Denna must find a way to save their kingdoms—and each other.

Of Fire and Stars will release November 22, and it’s on Amber’s list of 2016 young adult romances to have on your list.

Friday, May 13

Autographing Session with: Mary Robinette Kowal

Table 7, 10:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m.

Mary Robinette Kowal will be signing copies of Ghost Talkers. From Goodreads:

Ginger Stuyvesant, an American heiress living in London during World War I, is engaged to Captain Benjamin Hartshorne, an intelligence officer. Ginger is a medium for the Spirit Corps, a special Spiritualist force.

Each soldier heading for the front is conditioned to report to the mediums of the Spirit Corps when they die so the Corps can pass instant information about troop movements to military intelligence.

Ginger and her fellow mediums contribute a great deal to the war efforts, so long as they pass the information through appropriate channels. While Ben is away at the front, Ginger discovers the presence of a traitor. Without the presence of her fiance to validate her findings, the top brass thinks she’s just imagining things. Even worse, it is clear that the Spirit Corps is now being directly targeted by the German war effort. Left to her own devices, Ginger has to find out how the Germans are targeting the Spirit Corps and stop them. This is a difficult and dangerous task for a woman of that era, but this time both the spirit and the flesh are willing…

Ghost Talkers will be released in hardcover August 16 from Tor Books.

Autographing Session with: Ada Palmer

Table 7, 11:30 a.m.-12:30 a.m.

Ada Palmer will be signing her debut novel, Too Like the Lightning. From Goodreads:

Mycroft Canner is a convict. For his crimes he is required, as is the custom of the 25th century, to wander the world being as useful as he can to all he meets. Carlyle Foster is a sensayer–a spiritual counselor in a world that has outlawed the public practice of religion, but which also knows that the inner lives of humans cannot be wished away.

The world into which Mycroft and Carlyle have been born is as strange to our 21st-century eyes as ours would be to a native of the 1500s. It is a hard-won utopia built on technologically-generated abundance, and also on complex and mandatory systems of labeling all public writing and speech. What seem to us normal gender distinctions are now distinctly taboo in most social situations. And most of the world’s population is affiliated with globe-girdling clans of the like-minded, whose endless economic and cultural competition is carefully managed by central planners of inestimable subtlety. To us it seems like a mad combination of heaven and hell. To them, it seems like normal life.

And in this world, Mycroft and Carlyle have stumbled on the wild card that may destabilize the system: the boy Bridger, who can effortlessly make his wishes come true. Who can, it would seem, bring inanimate objects to life…

Too Like the Lightning is out May 10 from Tor Books.

[blocktext align=”center”]What are you looking forward to at Book Expo America?[/blocktext]

—

Feliza Casano edits and writes for all sections of the site. She is currently keeping up with the 100 Books Challenge on her blog. Keep up with her antics at felizacasano.com and follow her on Twitter @FelizaCasano.