Young adult fiction has achieved a new respectability in recent years with the rise of the "cross-over" novel and a willingness of adults to be seen reading Harry Potter in public. Yet alongside this new respect for the genre comes a loss of respect for the audience. Novels for teenagers are routinely described as too nuanced, too sophisticated, too complex and just plain too hard for teenagers. The panellists - all of whom write nuanced, sophisticated and complex novels for young adults - discuss whether or not today’s teenagers are as up for a literary challenge as their Salinger and Cormier-loving forebears.
YA literature expert Judith Ridge speaks with authors Mal Peet, MT Anderson and Margo Lanagan.
*Title is a riff on Alison Lurie’s Don’t Tell the Grownups: Subversive Children’s Literature.
MT ANDERSON (INTERNATIONAL) MT ANDERSON writes picture books, junior fiction and young adult fiction. MT studied English literature at Harvard and Cambridge universities and received an MFA in Creative Writing from Syracuse University. Currently on the faculty of Vermont College’s MFA in Writing for Children Program, he lives in Boston, Massachusetts. He has won a number of awards including The Michael L. Printz Honor Book, The National Book Award for Young People and The Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards for The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 1: The Pox Party. His latest book is The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 2: The Kingdom on the Waves.
MT Anderson’s participation in SWF is supported by Walker Books.
MARGO LANAGAN (LOCAL) MARGO LANAGAN is an acclaimed writer of novels and short stories. Her three collections of short stories have been rapturously reviewed around the world and have garnered many awards, nominations and shortlistings. Her second collection, Black Juice, was a Michael L. Printz Honor Book, and won two World Fantasy Awards, as well as the 2004 Victorian Premier's Award for Young Adult Fiction. Red Spikes was a Publisher's Weekly Best Book of the Year and a Horn Book Fanfare title, and was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writer's Prize. Her latest novel is Tender Morsels.
MAL PEET is a writer of exceptional talent who has established himself as a strong and distinctive voice in young adult fiction, winning the 2005 Carnegie Medal for his second novel, Tamar. His first novel for young adults, Keeper, won the 2004 Branford Boase Award and the Bronze Nestlé Smarties Book Award. An author and illustrator, Mal has produced over 80 books for young children, most of them in collaboration with his wife, Elspeth Graham. His third Paul Faustino novel, Exposure, has just been released.
Mal Peet’s participation in SWF is supported by Walker Books.
JUDITH RIDGE (LOCAL) Judith Ridge is the Western Sydney young people’s literature officer. She is also a writer, editor, teacher and blogger.
westword.wordpress.com
Events
Print This Page
Venue and Transport Info
Add to My Schedule
