Karis Rogerson
I'm a journalist and writer.
PROJECTS
Lit Reactor
"Brazen" Celebrates Women Throughout History, and So Should We
In honor of the special day this year, MacMillan’s First Second imprint is republishing as a full graphic novel, Penelope Bagieu’s 30 vignettes of women throughout history.
The book, Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked The World, was originally serially published by the French newspaper Le Monde on a weekly basis.
“I was on a very tight schedule during that whole year,” Bagieu said. “I had an amazing time doing all that research, I learned so much, and it was so inspiring!”
Reflecting that her ye...
ravishly.com
How Other People's Kids Help With My Depression
I hold the tiny baby in my arms, feeling how small and fragile he is. He is less than two weeks into life, and I swear, he is the most beautiful creature I’ve loved. He does not belong to me; it’s been several years since I concluded that childbirth and child rearing is not my jam.
Not that I don’t love children — I just don’t have that desire — and, frankly, I think I’d make a terrible mom. However, in recent months, children have kept me going when depression has struck the hardest.
Joseph,...
yainterrobang.com
Giving aspects of myself to a character meant she could have more of a hopeful ending.
There was something so comforting about reading a hospital book about mental illness while I was in the hospital for my own mental illness. During a four-day psych hospitalization, Abby Sher’s latest YA novel All the Ways the World Can End released from Macmillan and acted as both a mirror of my own experience and a window into the outside world.
All the Ways the World Can End is a young adult novel about a girl who’s obsessed with chronicling how the world can end, whose father has cancer.
I...
Lit Reactor
Zoraida Cordova Writes Fantasy She Can See Herself In
“I have really searched for the fantastical things in the world,” she said. “It’s my own way of looking at the world and figuring out why do we do things, why do we exist…and I’m not really sated with the answer of religion, it’s more about searching for my own explanation of the possibility of something magical out there.”
She first realized writing was a viable career as a 13-year-old whose school assignment led to reading In the Forests of the Night by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, published when...
ravishly.com
Children Of Blood And Bone
Image from the cover of Children of Blood and Bone out from Pan Macmillan
Tomi Adeyemi might be the writer whose book deal seared me with insane jealousy and sent waves crashing through the book world, and her upcoming novel might be one of my most highly anticipated 2018 reads, but she’s an all-around rad person in general. She's a hip-hop dancer and choreographer, an honors graduate of Harvard University, and the creator of a blog for writers that was voted one of Writers Digest’s 101 Best ...
broadwayworld.com
BWW Feature: Vivian Reed Combines Lena Horne's Class And Feistiness With Her Own In Her Feinstein's/54 Below Tribute Show
A profile of entertainer, Vivian Reed
Lit Reactor
James Joyce Loved Trieste, As Do I
There is a statue of James Joyce on a bridge across the Grand Canal in Trieste, Italy. A few steps down the road is a bar (coffee shop) called Café James Joyce. It has green walls, a shiny gold bar, and tables set into the wall in front of windows, so you can sip an espresso, people-watch, and ruminate about James Joyce, all at the same time.
It’s a fact that James Joyce spent most of his Italian life in the port city of Trieste; it’s also a fact that most of the world doesn’t even know how t...
yainterrobang.com
You Bring the Distant Near
Mitali Perkins’s You Bring the Distant Near was released on the same day it was longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. It’s a gorgeous novel that twines the tales of three generations of women in one family, taking readers on a beautiful journey that includes heartbreak, love and, of course, familial strife and reconciliation.
“It’s probably the hardest thing I’ve ever written because there’s so many characters… whether it be faith or politics or friendships or ...
broadwayworld.com
BWW Feature: What Being Green for A Year Meant to WICKED'S Jessica Vosk And How She's Channeling That Into Her New Show At Feinstein's/54 Below
Life on the road can be grueling, especially if you're a performer belting "Defying Gravity" several times a week for over a year, as actor/singer Jessica Vosk did from September 2016 to 2017. Now that she has her feet planted firmly back in New York, she's detailing her experience with BEING GREEN, her new show at Feinstein's/54 Below premiering this week.
"This [show] is covers of songs," Vosk said. "But everything sort of ties itself into a unique experience from what it was like to be on ...
Lit Reactor
What It's Like to Be Young and Writing for Young Adults
If Tomi had been 30, or 37, or 48, rather than 23, I would have been able to curb my jealousy. I would have applauded her for fighting for her dream and seeing it come true. I would have happily read all the think pieces about how success doesn’t have an age limit.
But she was my age. I couldn’t reconcile being happy for her for this massive, amazing life change with the fact that I wanted what she had.
It’s been nearly a year since then, and my feelings have changed. I’m no longer envious of...
Lit Reactor
In Defense of YA Twitter
Listen, I’ve been a fan of social media since I signed up for my first Xanga (if you know it, you know it) site back in middle school. I’ve been singing the praises of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, et. al for years, and refuse to so much as take one day off because, well, I kinda look down on people who take a hiatus for anything but intense personal or professional reason.
So it’s no surprise that I’ve become a big fan of Book Twitter, or more specifically, Young Adult (YA) Book Twitter. It’...
ravishly.com
An Interview With Lana Popovic, Author of WICKED LIKE A WILDFIRE
An interview with YA author Lana Popovic
Lit Reactor
Why Art is So Important During Turbulent Times
I recently got into a yelling fight with my mother because I thought she was being too “privileged” by turning off the TV and not taking in the news. And she told me that she was sinking into a legitimate depression because of what she heard or read there.
These are scary times. They're so fraught that it feels almost obscene to even think about thinking about something unrelated to the travesties in our world. Look outside America and find no peace — Europe is splintering, Syria is burning, ...
Lit Reactor
Thank You, Louisa May Alcott, For Writing the Perfect Book For Me
There’s no jealousy like that of an intense shipper watching Amy flirt with Jo’s should-have-been-man.
And there’s no sorrow like that of a wanna-be March family member getting to the part where that one thing happens to Beth.
I’ve read Little Women multiple times, and even watched the movie a few Thanksgiving breaks ago — Winona Ryder was a fire Jo March, and I’ve loved her fiercely since — and I’ve always felt a deep connection to the book. I just read it at the right time and it was the ri...
ravishly.com
Jennifer Mathieu: English Teacher, Author of Moxie
Jennifer Mathieu has spent much of her adult life pouring into the lives of teenagers, both through her day job as a high school English teacher and through the four books for young readers she has written.
The fourth, MOXIE, released Sept. 12 from MacMillan Roaring Book Press; it’s gotten some buzz based on its premise as a feminist novel about a young girl who starts distributing feminist zines in her Texas high school, inciting something of a revolution reminiscent of the Riot Grrrls in th...