Awards

• Winner of Audies (Young Adult) 2024

Overview

Full Product Details

9798200899500

Table of Contents

Reviews

In This Terrible True Thing, Jenny captures the confusion and sadness of the dark days of AIDS, when the closet was still the norm and those who feared judgment were bound by secrecy. Through her intimate voice and illustrations, she powerfully conveys the experience of being a teenager caught between worlds: the straight world and the queer world, childhood and adulthood, secure love and incomprehensible loss. The novel is also about a young woman's political awakening and what it means to be an artist not just of the world but in the world. This is a tender story, a beautiful story. I loved reading it. -- Alysia Abbott, author of Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father

Author Information

Jenny Laden was born in Philadelphia and began painting at the age of nine. She studied art and art history at Barnard College and received her master's degree in fine art from New York University. She has exhibited in New York; Chicago; Washington, DC; McLean; Richmond; Miami; Philadelphia; San Francisco; and Berlin, and had work in multiple publications. After her father's death in 1996, she became an HIV/AIDS educator in New York City and worked with C.O.L.A.G.E. (Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere). She lives in Philadelphia with her family. Gail Shalan (she/her) is a NYC-based storyteller on screen, stage, behind the mic, and with puppets. A 2024 two-time Audie Award winner ( Best Young Adult and Best Middle Grade), as well as a multiple Earphones Award winner, praised by The New York Times, Library Journal, Vulture Magazine, Booklist, and Audiofile, she's narrated 200+ titles. Gail has performed on stage at The Bristol Old Vic, Cherry Lane Theatre, St. Ann's Warehouse, and other various theater spaces across the US and UK. Her work as both an actor and a puppeteer was featured in the award-winning short film Coyote Girl (BostonIFF Best Short). Known for her dexterity with character and dialects, her tangibly emotional reads, and her deep respect for the text, Gail is passionate about stories that center generational healing and mental health, that navigate the sticky spaces between childhood and adulthood, and stories that ask who am ""I""? Who are ""we""? And what swells in the space between us, what dwells in the space within us? For that's where the greatest discoveries and curiosities lie. For more follow her on socials @grshalan and check out www.gailshalan.com

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