Azura Tyabji & Jackson Neal

media release: Dear Azula, I Have a Crush on Danny Phantom is a crossover of our coming of age universes. Exploring the interplay of adolescence and media, Dear Azula is a masterclass on how Generation Z see themselves reflected on screen, how they find themselves in characters when the world does not grant them the possibility.

These poems pay homage to the cartoon characters who made us the wicked lovestruck people that we are. These ubiquitous stories of teen ghost boys and water bending women gave wonder to a generation raised by recession. In illustrious villains we learned our own glamour. In chiseled chins and 2D teeth we learned desire. In Dear Azula, I Have a Crush on Danny Phantom we bring the early 2000s renaissance of animation into our modern lives to unpack, celebrate, revel, and remember.

Jackson Neal is a poet from Houston, Texas. They are the 2019 Houston Youth Poet Laureate and a National Youth Poet Laureate Ambassador to the Southwest. Their work has been featured by the Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center, and the National YoungArts foundation. Neal is a First Wave Scholar at the University of Wisconsin- Madison where they are pursuing a dual BFA in English and Dance. 

Azura Tyabji served as the 2018- 2019 Seattle Youth Poet Laureate and National Youth Poet Laureate Ambassador for the West region. Her debut poetry collection, Stepwell, was released by Poetry Northwest in 2018. She is currently a First Wave scholar studying Sociology and English, Creative Writing at the University of Wisconsin- Madison

The Wisconsin Book Festival is presented by Madison Public Library in partnership with Madison Public Library Foundation. For program details and the full schedule, go to wisconsinbookfestival.org.

The festival is funded with generous support from Signature Sponsor Marvin J. Levy; Presenting Sponsor Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation; Festival Patron Cheryl Rosen Weston Estate; Festival Sponsors National Endowment forthe Arts and American Girl’s Fund for Children; Contributing Sponsors The Bass Family, Friends of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries, Great Dane Pub & Brewing Co., MG&E Foundation and University Research

Park; Media Sponsors The Capital Times & Wisconsin State Journal, Isthmus, Madison365 and Wisconsin Public Radio; In-Kind Sponsors KennedyC and the Park Hotel; and Event Supporter A Room of One’s Own. Learn more about funding and support for the festival at wisconsinbookfestival.org/give.