Léa Taranto
November 05th, 2025
A disabled Chinese Jewish Canadian writer and alumna of the University of British Columbia’s MFA program, Léa Taranto is an author whose work explores mental health and neurodivergence. Her debut YA novel, A Drop in the Ocean (Arsenal Pulp Press $19.95), is a finalist for the Governor General’s Young People’s Literature – Text Award and addresses the dehumanizing stigma around mental illness. The novel follows sixteen-year-old Mira Durand, who is checked into a treatment centre for obsessive compulsive and comorbid disorders after years of worsening OCD and anorexia. Mira’s brutal religious compulsions, which she believes keep her mother safe, lead to her only friend being her journal. Taranto writes the literature she yearned for during her adolescence, which she spent certified in various inpatient facilities for life-threatening OCD, creating stories where neurodivergent and Mad readers can see themselves reflected. 9781551529813
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