garza villa
Jonny Garza Villa is a product of the Great State of Texas, born and raised near and along the Gulf Coast and currently lives in San Antonio. They are a Sagittarius sun, Capricorn everything else, a former very bad baseball player, and a former pretty good drag queen.
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Jonny is an award-winning author of contemporary young adult and new adult novels inspired by their own Tejane & Chicane and queer identities including their debut novel Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun, a Pura Belpré Honor Book, a Finalist for the Texas Institute of Letters' Jean Flynn Award for Best Young Adult Book, and a Kirkus Best YA Fiction of 2021 selection; Ander & Santi Were Here, a Stonewall Honor Book, an International Latino Book Award winner for Best Young Adult Fiction, a Barnes & Noble YA Book Club selection, a LatineLit Bestseller, a Finalist for the Texas Institute of Letters' Jean Flynn Award for Best Young Adult Book, an AudioFile Earphone Award Winner, and named a Best YA of 2023 selection by Bookshop.org and Audible; and Canto Contigo, the winner of the Stonewall Book Award for 2025, the winner of the Texas Institute of Letters' Jean Flynn Award for Best Young Adult Book for 2025, an AudioFile Earphone Award Winner, and named a Best Book for Teens by the New York Public Library and the Los Angeles Public Library; their new adult debut romance Futbolista, is expected spring 2025.
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When not writing, Jonny enjoys reading, playing Dungeons and Dragons (bard main) and Super Smash Bros. (Inkling main), cooking, listening to Selena, caring for their many cacti children, and rewatching their favorite seasons of Dimension20.
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Jonny is a Literary Death Match champion, a member of Las Musas—a collective of traditionally published Latina authors and Latine authors of marginalized genders writing children's and young adult literature—and has been a mentor with the Write Team Mentorship Program and SmoochPit. They have participated in numerous festivals including the Texas Book Festival, the Latinx KidLit Book Festival, the San Antonio Book Fest, Bronx Book Fest, the Bookmarks Festival of Books & Authors, the Columbus Book Festival, YALLwest and YALLfest.