Moonshine
Imagining vampires at the heart of the social struggles of 1920s, Moonshine blends a tempestuous romance with dramatic historical fiction, populated by a lively mythology inhabiting the gritty New York City streets.
Zephyr Hollis is an underfed, overzealous social activist who teaches night school to the underprivileged of the Lower East Side. Strapped for cash, Zephyr agrees to help a student, the mysterious Amir, who proposes she use her charity worker cover to bring down a notorious vampire mob boss. What he doesn't tell her is why. Soon enough she's tutoring a child criminal with an angelic voice, dodging vampires high on a new blood-based street drug, and trying to determine the real reason behind Amir's request – not to mention attempting to resist (often unsuccessfully) his dark, inhuman charm.
Alaya Dawn Johnson
Alaya Dawn Johnson has become a writer to watch in both the adult and YA arenas, with her work being consistently praised for its lyrical beauty and incisive commentary. She won the 2015 Nebula Award for Best Novelette for "A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai'i," which also appears in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy (2015), guest edited by Joe Hill. Her debut YA novel, The Summer Prince (Arthur A. Levine, 2013), was longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. Her follow up YA novel, Love is the Drug won the Andre Norton Award in 2015. She is currently based in Mexico City, pursuing a Masters in Mesoamerican Studies. Her other home base is New York City.