Author: Harper Glenn

Harper Glenn writes speculative fiction about inequality, unrest, and the cost of crossing boundaries. Monarch Rising, published by Scholastic Press in 2022, is their debut novel. It follows seventeen-year-old Jo Monarch, who lives in the impoverished Ashes beside New Georgia. Selection in the Lineup offers Jo a route out, yet requires her to impress powerful representatives and brings her into conflict with Cove Wells, a privileged young man trained to manipulate affection. Class difference, poverty, protest, policing, and obligations to community run through the story. Its dystopian 2070 bears the consequences of Revolt 2030, making Jo's individual opportunity part of a much larger political history. Through her divided loyalties, Monarch Rising asks whether escape is meaningful when advancement depends on accepting the rules of the unequal society one hoped to leave behind, and whether personal ambition can coexist with responsibility to those still excluded.