Book Friends Forever Podcast

Updated: 16 Oct 2025 • 303 episodes
soundcloud.com/bookfriendsforever

Children's book publishing’s secrets are revealed as we listen in on fascinating, unguarded, insider discussion from two uniquely qualified best friends: award-winning author/illustrator Grace Lin, and one of NYC’s top editors, Alvina Ling. Go behind the scenes of kid lit and catch a glimpse of the lives of the best-selling author and editor, and the relationship between them.

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Grace Lin and Alvina Ling welcome special guest Debbi Michiko Florence--Grace and Debbi are recording together while on their Very Asian Book Trip! They talk about building community, including the Asian American Voices retreat at Highlights. They talk about the impact the pandemic had on their respective communities.

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Grace and Alvina welcome special guest Adelia Kalyvas to talk about her job working in Special Sales, specifically the gift side. You'll learn all about how she got into publishing and what "specialty sales" and "gift sales" entails. They talk about the type of products that work well in the gift market, including mini

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Grace and Alvina discuss some recent events surrounding the Freedom of Speech, including late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel being pulled from the air temporarily. They talk about censorship and cancel culture. For the Fortune Cookie segment, they talk about Slate.com's recent "25 Greatest Picture Books of the Last

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25 Sep 2025 • EN

Episode 318: Gossip!

Grace and Alvina are together in Brooklyn and gossip with each other! They talk about their relationship with gossip, when it can be positive or harmful, and Alvina shares a piece of funny gossip from her office. They also share some legendary author gossip! For the Fortune Cookie segment the talk about a group that ha

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Grace and Alvina welcome special guest Michele McGonigle DeYoung! Michele was the first producer/editor of the Book Friends Forever podcast, and they discuss how she pivoted from her career in Audio Publishing to family coaching! Michele talks about how she broke into publishing, and then how she pivoted away! She also

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Grace and Alvina continue their Publishing Curriculum series and welcome special guest Jenny Mandel to talk about her job working in Special Sales. You'll learn all about how she got into publishing and what "special sales" entails. And Jenny also shares the "meet cute" way she met her husband! For the Fortune Cookie s

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