Book talk and Q+A
Jess X. Snow and Alán Pelaez Lopez
Possible Futures
New Haven
Jan. 17, 2026
High above the clouds, on a voyage to a countryside village in Southeastern China, Little Snow is nervous. Her mother tells her she has been on a plane before, but she doesn’t remember it.
This is how we meet the characters of We Always Had Wings, a new picture book written and illustrated by artist, poet, and filmmaker Jess X. Snow.
New Haveners might remember Snow (the elder Snow, as opposed to Little Snow) from painting with them back in 2023, when they were the lead artist for a mural of abolitionist Ruth Wilson Gilmore on Possible Futures’ exterior. Over 40 community members (including yours truly) had a hand in that process.
On Saturday afternoon, Snow returned to the site of the mural to celebrate their new book, with the help of — and at the urging of — a dear friend.
When We Always Had Wings was published last month on Dec. 23, it was after years of careful thought. Years that were witnessed closely by fellow poet Alán Pelaez Lopez, editor of When Language Broke Open: An Anthology of Queer and Trans Black Writers of Latin American Descent. At the talk Saturday, Pelaez Lopez sat across a small table from Snow, serving as fellow sharer of writing and conversation partner.
They told the room how they watched Snow struggle with the illustrations, remaking them over and over. “It just speaks to Jess’s heart, and also their commitment to children,” Pelaez Lopez said. Rather than an allegiance to the publishing industry, they noted, what Snow chooses is a commitment to telling a story and to telling kids that “they have a right to their imagination.”
After all that work, “I kind of forgot that maybe I should do some events,” Snow realized. Saturday’s New Haven stop at 318 Edgewood Ave. was the first.
Pelaez Lopez encouraged Snow to make it happen. “Alán is just insistent that I celebrate the book,” Snow said.
As both the author and illustrator of the book, Snow’s visual elements are not just depictions of the written story but carriers of overlapping layers of meaning. Snow read aloud to attendees, and the parts that took hold of my heart were their sweeping spreads of fantastical realities: a flying crane casting a shadow in the shape of a plane, Little Snow with outstretched arms casting a shadow of a crane.
The art served as a shimmering response to Little Snow’s winding worries: Was this new place home? Or was home the place she just left?
As this country descends further into fascism, Snow said, they want kids to “grow up understanding that they always have a home.”
Along with a reading from When Language Broke Open, Pelaez Lopez shared a sneak peek of their upcoming children’s book, which is set to release next year. “I guess this will be your special treat,” Snow teased.
Pelaez Lopez took the crowd through an immersive storyline, a world where grandmother and grandchild connect over CDs and small interior vignettes feel like they could last a lifetime. They spoke of their own abuelita and the wishes, emotions, and memories that blossomed into this story.
“It’s just absolutely beautiful,” said attendee Sheri Richards when Pelaez Lopez was done. “And coming from an abuelita, a grandma, thank you.”
Pelaez Lopez’s picture book process, like Snow’s, was one shaped heavily by friendship. First, Pelaez Lopez wrote a poem. They shared it with Snow, who told them it was something children would understand. Thus, the picture book format.
“Jess was like, ‘No, you literally have to do it,’” Pelaez Lopez remembers.
Though publication is part of the friends’ journey together, it is, as Pelaez Lopez put it, “never at the center.” Instead their friendship is about How do we survive together?
“We just gossip a lot,” Snow added.
In the Q+A following the readings, one attendee asked Snow if they have received pushback in the literary field for decisions like publicly supporting Palestine. Snow’s answer came back to their choices in what to commit to and what to leave behind.
As part of the Writers Against the War on Gaza, they participate in a boycott on The New York Times, meaning they have had to walk away from potential opportunities. Pelaez Lopez has noticed themself and their friends getting fewer academic gigs.
“We have to trust in our community,” Pelaez Lopez said, noting their years doing restaurant work and their detachment from being in a particular career field. “My passion is not the academy. My passion is building a political future.”
“We’ve developed a really special friendship,” Snow said about Pelaez Lopez. “Friendships feel like a life boat.”
What’s next for Snow in children’s literature?
“I think I want to do books with even less words,” they said.
