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Joy McCullough

@joymccullough.bsky.social
1.8K followers 1.1K following 300 posts

Author @ PRH & S&S, resident playwright at Seattle Public Theater, mom. She/her Up next: TEAM AWKWARD (S&S, 2/11)

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Reposted by Joy McCullough
BookBreak @bookbreak4schools.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Happy book birthday to: 📚 Izzy vs. Cheerleading by Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social We can’t wait to read it! Thank you for being part of BookBreak!
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Reposted by Joy McCullough
kidsbookaday.bsky.social @kidsbookaday.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Two great new middle-grade novels about girls and dogs, perfect to kick off summer reading! @joymccullough.bsky.social kidsbookaday.com/2026/06/23/g...
kidsbookaday.com
Girls and dogs
Strays by Gia Gordon (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 272 pages, grades 4-7). When Campbell sees a puppy dumped from a van, she knows only to well what is likely to happen: her dad is the head of animal…
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Happy book birthday to KESTREL TAKES FLIGHT!!! Kestrel is my 7th MG novel but my 1st MG in verse! I hope you'll check it out! It's a JLG Gold Standard Selection w/a star from @thehornbook.bsky.social. And yes, I AM wearing both a sweater and dress I made to match the book!
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Deborah Kalb @deborahkalb.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Q&A with Joy McCullough about her new middle grade novel in verse, KESTREL TAKES FLIGHT. deborahkalbbooks.blogspot.com/2026/05/q-wi... @joymccullough.bsky.social
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Do I know any Bard College grads? I've got a kid considering it for creative writing/studio art. It was pretty high on her list until she found out the college president has Epstein ties. (And I know Gaiman taught there too...) Trying to figure out if this trickles down into the school culture.
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The Horn Book @thehornbook.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
KESTREL TAKES FLIGHT (Atheneum/ @simonkids.bsky.social @ssedlib.bsky.social ) by @joymccullough.bsky.social will receive a starred review in the May/June 2026 #HornBookMagazine. Congratulations! #HBMag #HBStars www.hbook.com/story/may-ju...
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
I am so thrilled to share the cover of my upcoming memoir, SUFFER A WITCH! Designed by the brilliant Theresa Evangelista and (I love that I get to say this) art by Artemisia Gentileschi. Available for pre-order now! www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/746826...
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 13/11/2025
Librarians: If someone was researching something in 1978 and they wanted to see newspaper articles from three months earlier, would those already be on microfiche? Or would they have to get back issues of the actual paper?
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
Seattle area friends, there are four more performances of Stage of Fools at Seattle Public Theater. The Stranger called it "hilariously cathartic" & The Sound On-Stage called it "brilliant" and "raucously hilarious"! Tickets start at $10 - don't miss it! www.seattlepublictheater.org/current-prod...
Three actors on a stage dressed in medieval style garments - one older white man wearing a crown, and two white women.Three actors in a scene, wearing contemporary dress, laughing and drinking.A white woman wearing a t-shirt with an Artemisia Gentileschi painting on it, with the title "Girls will be girls."
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Oh hey, it's another cover reveal! This middle grade novel in verse comes out on 5-26, with gorgeous cover design by Greg Stadnyk and art by Suzie Mason! (Don’t miss Kestrel’s shadow!) Available for pre-order now!
A middle grade book cover on a blue background. On the book cover, a blond child stands with her arms outstretched and back to the viewer, facing mountains in the distance. There is a black and white dog at her side, and the girl's shadow is in the shape of a bird.
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 20/10/2025
COVER REVEAL!!! Team Awkward: Izzy vs. Cheerleading is coming on June 23rd! I'm so thrilled each girl is getting a book. I had a ball writing cheerleading & mascot shenanigans & Iove how designer Karin Paprocki & artist Laura Catrinella have maintained the format but made each cover so fresh & fun.
A graphic with a blue background, featuring three books in a series. The largest is a cover reveal of Team Awkward: Izzy vs. Cheerleading, with four 6th grade girls on a colorful background. The smaller two books have similar cover styles.
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Reposted by Joy McCullough
Jen @popgoesthereader.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
🌼 42 2025 Middle Grade and Young Adult Novels-In-Verse 🌼 popgoesthereader.com/42-2025-midd... #BookSky #KidLit #YALit #MGLit
A collage of twenty-one 2025 middle grade and young adult book covers. Books featured include This Is The Year, Glitch Girl!, Top Heavy, Lilac and The Switchback, The Girl In The Walls, Safe Harbor, The Extraordinary Orbit of Alex Ramirez, Under The Neon Lights, The Leaving Room, Octopus moon, 13 Ways To Say Goodbye, Zarina Divided, Truth Is, Where The Heart Should Be, (S)kin, Everything is Poison, Radiant, The Burning Season, Island Creatures, The Siren and The Star and Please Pay Attention.
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
Seattle area friends, my new play Stage of Fools opens at Seattle Public Theater on Friday and tickets are on a sliding scale, starting at $10. It's funny and also bad man faces consequences, what more could you want? www.seattlepublictheater.org/current-prod...
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 17/09/2025
Pssst readers of audiobooks and middle grade! The audiobook of Jojo vs. Middle School is only $4.99 for a limited time. This is the first in the series, with the second out and two more on the way next year. www.audiobooks.com/promotions/p...
audiobooks.com
80% OFF Jojo vs. Middle School
After having hilariously terrible first days of sixth grade, four girls vow to ride out the super highs and cringe-worthy lows of middle school together, no matter how awkward it gets, in this first b...
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
When a woman risks her place, her very life to speak a truth the world despises? Believe her. Always. Blood Water Paint
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
Bidding is open! The #KidLitforCeasefire We the People auction benefits families in Gaza, as well as immigrant & trans rights orgs. I have two items, including a custom order of one of my crocheted baskets based on book covers. Also a 30 minute video call AMA. www.32auctions.com/organization...
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
For everyone with a sudden interest in Ophelia, may I offer my book ENTER THE BODY, which tells--and retells--her story, along with Juliet, Cordelia, and Lavinia? www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/676666...
penguinrandomhouse.com
Enter the Body by Joy McCullough: 9780593406779 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
“At once tender, poetic and ferocious, Enter The Body breathes new life into the Bard’s most tragic heroines. More than a tribute to Shakespeare, this kaleidoscopic, ambitious novel-in-verse...
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 13/08/2025
Hey #KidLit friends, the #KidLitforCeasefire auction items are live & will open for bidding on the 18th! I'm offering a 30 minute AMA, and a custom crocheted basket based on the book cover of your choice, a la the examples below. Peruse all the items at the link! www.32auctions.com/organization...
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
ARTISTS: I need to get my daughter a college laptop. She is an artist designing her own major that will likely include sequential art. She currently does digital art w/Procreate on an iPad. Is there a reason a MacBook would be better FOR ART STUFF than a PC?
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Sandra Proudman @sandraproudman.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
Hey everyone, #KidLit4Ceasefire has now fundraised the evacuation of 10 people. I am focusing on the next two families. One family of 6 and another of just 3, with a 4-month-old baby. I need 500 items for this fundraiser. I only have 218 at the moment. Donate here: airtable.com/appJkEF7W6Sl...
airtable.com
Airtable | Everyone's app platform
Airtable is a low-code platform for building collaborative apps. Customize your workflow, collaborate, and achieve ambitious outcomes. Get started for free.
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
Nando is a member of Seattle's theater community, a union member, father, and a public school employee, and none of that should have to be true for him to avoid being disappeared without due process because he showed up for a compulsory immigration check-in. www.gofundme.com/f/help-bring...
gofundme.com
Donate to Help Bring Fernando Home — A Beloved Union Brother Detained, organized by Blake Whitmore
Our friend, coworker, and union brother Fernando Rocha needs … Blake Whitmore needs your support for Help Bring Fernando Home — A Beloved Union Brother Detained
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
Sending so much love out to anyone who was abused as a teenager, who knows that none of the endless outrage about The List is about justice or healing for those girls, that no matter what proof is found, it will never matter because our country has already made clear we're cool w/sexual predators.
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
I just signed some books at an indie and the bookseller said, "Oh! You also wrote..." and I waited for her to say Blood Water Paint and instead she said, "...the periods one!" I love BWP but it's always to nice to know people have read some of my others.
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Ms. Yingling @msyingling.bsky.social · 13/07/2025
@joymccullough.bsky.social & @veedabybee.bsky.social @simonkids.bsky.social LEAH VS. ART: TEAM AWKWARD #2 is a great choice for fans of THE CUPCAKE DIARIES or @bethcody.bsky.social FOREVER FOUR. msyinglingreads.blogspot.com/2025/07/leah...
msyinglingreads.blogspot.com
Leah vs. Art (Team Awkward #2)
Middle school books, middle grade books, books for tweens, middle school library, middle grade literature, #MGLit, librarian, kids
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
New book announcement! I'm delighted to be working with Justin Krasner and @sourcebooks.bsky.social on this picture book. I was blown away when I saw @hellatoons.bsky.social's portfolio and his early sketches for HOW TO TRAIN YOUR EVIL ROBOT are utterly adorable!
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 19/06/2025
I speak fluent Spanish and would like to use that for good in These Times - on an information hotline or something? I've reached out to the org that should be my local resource (a couple months ago) and not heard back. Is there something national? (I'm in the Seattle area.)
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Happy book birthday to Team Awkward 2, the number 1 Amazon pick in the extremely niche category of Children's Babysitting Books, despite there being not a single instance of babysitting in the book. (Which is why one should rely on librarians & booksellers for recommendations, and not algorithms.)
A middle grade book cover with four brightly colored quadrants, each with a different 12 year old girl on them - one holds up a piece of art, one holds up a buzzer, one holds a cookie, and the fourth holds a cat.
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Voice to text didn't know it should capitalize penguin, and I think I prefer this way. 🐧🧑‍⚖️
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Reposted by Joy McCullough
Abbie James @abbiewjames.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
WE ARE THE ASHES, WE ARE THE FIRE by @joymccullough.bsky.social is such a powerful book. It's a thought-provoking, relatable, and timely piece of art that will stay with me. Impeccable illustrations by Maia Kobabe. #amreading #YA #kidlit 📚👍
book cover shows a hand at the bottom and golden flakes extending up from the hand; the cover background is black; the title is in white; the photo is the book in my hand with an off-white background
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 03/06/2025
My memoir has officially been launched (in the sense that my editor presented it to his colleagues, not that you can buy it yet) and I am feeling Feelings.
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
I spent my weekend watching callbacks for my new play, and the director had each group put the token dude in a wheelbarrow and navigate him through a maze of stuff, and I highly recommend this as an exercise, even if your play doesn't involve moving a dead guy's body, for some reason.
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
I fully support the need for publishing professionals to have a healthy work life balance but also when you live on the west coast, you really have to have any summer Friday business accomplished by 9 am and I am NOT that pulled together in the mornings.
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The Horn Book @thehornbook.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
⭐ #Fiction #HBReviewoftheWeek EVERYTHING IS POISON by @joymccullough.bsky.social (@penguinteen.bsky.social): "This is an unforgettable novel of courage, chemistry, + female solidarity in a casually violent, misogynistic world—in short, in many ways, a topical story" www.hbook.com/story/review...
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 26/05/2025
My book We Are the Ashes, We Are the Fire came out in 2021 w/four starred reviews, but otherwise crickets. Every week it sells a handful of copies. Usually single digits. But last week it sold 0 copies. I know social media doesn’t sell many books, but I just want more than 0 the next time I look.
A book cover with a black background and white text that says WE ARE THE ASHES, WE ARE THE FIRE. In the background, a white hand and gold glitter/ashes
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
I have a (not finalized) cover for my memoir coming next year. The process of writing & publishing memoir is fairly harrowing, but also incredibly affirming when your publishing team clearly gets what you're doing and levels up the work (thereby validating the story) with their own kickass skills.
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 15/05/2025
Me when going through prose copyedits: You want me to add a comma? Remove a comma? Whatever gets me through this faster. Me when going through verse copyedits: DO NOT ALTER MY PUNCTUATION I WILL WRITE AN ESSAY LONGER THAN THIS BOOK ABOUT WHY EACH COMMA STAYS OR GOES CAN I GET A STET FROM THE BACK?
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 14/05/2025
Editors, it is SUCH a gift when you go through copy-edits before the author and pre-stet things, say when things aren't relevant or don't need to be changed. It's so affirming and makes me feel like less of a diva. (Don't get me wrong - I don't hesitate to stet. But it's still nice.)
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Bethany @bethanyrobison.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
Just noticed that the titles of my current library books make it look like Joy and John are arguing, lol 💙📚 @joymccullough.bsky.social
Screenshot of two ebooks: Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green and Everything is Poison by Joy McCullough
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Celeste Pewter @celestepewter.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
All, most of you know by now what happened to me in February. I've written an essay about this for @harpersbazaar.uol.com.br.web.brid.gy, and I hope you'll give it a read:
harpersbazaar.com
All The Women I Met in Jail
A law meant to help victims of domestic violence often results in their arrest. One woman details surviving abuse and the system that claimed to protect her.
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 23/04/2025
If you're feeling like pre-ordering books for whatever reason, from whatever retailer, here's what I've got to offer!
A yellow background with two middle grade book covers - one that's black with some creepy eyes and a cupcake, called Basil & Dahlia, and the other that's got four different girls illustrated on four different color quadrants.
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 21/04/2025
Seattle Public Theater has announced their next season! After the election I wondered if this was the time for this particular play - a comedy - but then I decided that no, they don't get to take our laughter and joy too. So if you're in the area, I hope you'll come laugh with us!
A graphic of many small, warm lights coming through a dark background, with the words World Premiere Stage of Fools written by Joy McCullough directed by Amy Poisson.
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Maggie Tokuda-Hall @maggietokudahall.bsky.social · 17/04/2025
I wrote an open letter to my fellow book ppl because no one is coming to save us. We have to save us. And I am weary of waiting for my colleagues to join the fight. Any fight. I chose book bans, but you don't have to www.prettyokmaggie.com/blog/2025/4/17/an-open-letter-to-my-fellow-book-creators
prettyokmaggie.com
An Open Letter to My Fellow Book Creators — Pretty Ok Maggie
Inside me there are two wolves: the one that understands that the best activism happens behind closed doors and that everyone does what they can and that not everyone can be asked to do the same thing...
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
Texas librarians, I've just landed in Dallas! Here's where I'll be at #TLA!
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
So @andrewkarre.bsky.social told me, "Teenage readers of Blood Water Paint have kids now" and I AM FURIOUS.
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Penguin School & Library @penguinschoollib.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
"The world will tell you not to be outraged, love. They will tell you to sit quietly, be kind. Be a lady. And when they do? Be Judith instead." #EduSky #BookSky @joymccullough.bsky.social
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
Today a podcaster I usually adore said, in making the point that there's a place for "low-quality" books that are just for fun (which I agree with), "I love YA and they're all bad!"
media.tenor.com
a cartoon character with a very angry face is wearing a tie and a white shirt .
ALT: a cartoon character with a very angry face is wearing a tie and a white shirt .
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
I ADORE my Astrohaus Freewrite Traveler, but it's dying. I really like having a dedicated device that's just for writing and I prefer a flat, laptop-like keyboard. Freewrites are sooo spendy. Are there any alternatives anyone recommends? #kidlit #writers
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 03/03/2025
Thank you to Horn Book for EVERYTHING IS POISON's fifth starred review!!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A graphic on a dark maroon background with text in yellow of a review pull quote. To the right, a partial view of a woman in a red 17th century gown consulting a measuring tool.
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
Some nice publications gave me starred reviews, so I made a pretty graphic. Et voila. Please read and leave reviews and tell your friends, etc!
The book cover of Everything is Poison - with a woman in a red 17th century gown checking the pulse of an apparently dead man, surrounded by a black background with yellow stars and pull quotes from trade journals.
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Joy McCullough @joymccullough.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
Ten years ago today, the world premiere production of my play Blood Water Paint opened in Seattle. As it did, I was thinking, "She's seventeen during most of the play. I think this could be a YA novel." So much love to the original cast, especially Alex Highsmith & Daniel Christensen, seen here.
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