Nicola and David Yoon are planning to bring diversity to the young adult romance genre.
The married couple will lead a new imprint, Joy Revolution, for Random House Children’s Books, Publishers Weekly reports. It will focus on “young adult romance novels by people of color, about people of color,” the publisher said in a news release.
The Yoons are themselves critically acclaimed authors of young adult novels. Nicola Yoon’s novels Everything, Everything and The Sun Is Also a Star were both New York Times bestsellers, and the latter was a National Book Award finalist. She is a judge for this year’s Kirkus Prize for Young People’s Literature.
David Yoon made his literary debut with the 2019 young adult novel Frankly in Love; his follow-up, Super Fake Love Song, is slated for publication in November.
Nicola Yoon said that the imprint was inspired in part by her love of romantic comedies and romance novels.
“The Joy Revolution imprint is all about telling stories of big love,” she said.” The characters in them have big ideas about the world and their place in it. I believe love stories are truly revolutionary. Because love has the power to unmake and remake the world.”
David Yoon said the imprint will be an “antidote” to an overwhelmingly white literary landscape.
“After a literal lifetime of waiting for more romantic literary heroes who look like us—largely to no avail—we’re thrilled to help take the lead in making sure those heroes’ stories are told to a wide and beautifully diverse audience,” he said.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
