Search
-
September 20, 2024Farzana Doctor's New YA Novel is About Surviving Hardship, the Power of Friendship, and Growing Up
Acclaimed author and psychotherapist Farzana Doctor has explored the human condition in-depth through her adult fiction and non-fiction, and now her latest novel is a richly woven work for young adult ...
-
July 07, 2023"Reality is Messier...It’s Vital that Books Reflect That" Kate Blair on Crafting Honest Young Adult Literature
It's often been said that every good story opens in the same way: when something changes. And one of the most enduring and universal story structures is that of "a stranger arrived".Kate Blair puts her ...
-
July 27, 2022"This Incredible Period of Chaos and Change" Alexandra Mae Jones on Why She Loves Writing Young Adult Literature
In Alexandra Mae Jones' debut young adult novel, The Queen of Junk Island (Annick Press), 16-year old Dell is dealing with adult-sized challenges, both internal and external.In shock from the trauma ...
-
July 05, 2022Liana Cusmano on Welcoming Readers to See Themselves in Catch and Release, Their Debut Novel
There is a quote attributed to Aristotle which says that "knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom". This idea—that self-knowledge opens us up to discover and understand more—is elegantly illustrated ...
-
April 20, 2023"Conflict is the Engine that Drives Fiction" Leanne Lieberman on the Magic of Writing for Teens
When her dad hits rock bottom—again—Jess finds herself determined to change her stars and avoid going down the same dark path. She takes a job cleaning a beautiful country house, where part of her ...
-
February 21, 2023Sharon Frayne on Exploring the Power of Disconnecting in Her Marathon-Competition Winning YA Debut
The story of how Sharon Frayne's debut young adult novel The Sound of a Rainbow (Latitude 46 Publishing) came to be is almost as remarkable as the story within the pages. Frayne captured first place in ...
-
November 15, 2022Laurence Beaudoin-Masse's YA Debut Thoughtfully Explores the Toxic Pressures of the Influencer Lifestyle
Instagram influencers and thoughtful conversations don't necessarily sound like they'd go hand in hand. But debut young adult writer Laurence Beaudoin-Masse uses the strange, surreal backdrop of the ...
-
February 20, 2019Poetry School: Rilke’s advice against advice
My aversion to the poetry workshop grew quickly many years ago. Let me correct that: my aversion to the untutored, undisciplined poetry workshop.Although I’ve been writing poems off and on since I was ...
-
February 24, 2019Poetry School: Getting specific with Amiri Baraka
Writing is reading, teaching is learning. As I said in my invitation for readers to join me this month-long online Poetry School, I expected to benefit the most from these researches into the craft and ...
-
February 12, 2019Poetry School: The insincerity of Louise Glück
In my invitation for you to join me this month at Poetry School, I promised to offer up morsels of wisdom about writing poetry from an assortment of essays on the topic. Today I dig into an essay by American ...
