Gina Femia

Gina Femia brings experience as a Brooklyn playwright and performer to fiction about queer lives, friendship, and communities built around performance. Alondra, her first novel, follows a bisexual Puerto Rican teenager in Coney Island who finds confidence through amateur professional wrestling. Alonda Rivera joins a group of aspiring wrestlers, creates the ring identity Alondra the Fearless One, and discovers that bravery inside the ring does not automatically settle her feelings for King and Lexi. FSG Books for Young Readers released the work in 2023, and the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators named it a Golden Kite Award finalist. The story grew from Femia's play ALOND(R)A, which received the Leah Ryan Prize and other playwriting recognition. Femia has written more than thirty plays produced around the United States. Across page and stage, she treats performance as both craft and a way for young characters to test identities they are still learning to claim.