Talking about the future of YA...

Yesterday I participated in a panel discussion on "What next for YA literature" with fabulous authors David Hill, Diana Menefy, Rachael King and Tessa Duder at the Storylines Family Day in Auckland (gotta love the Topp Twins). At the moment a wide range of genre are popular in YA including dystopian, fantasy and steampunk, romance, contemporary realism and historical fiction. I liked Rachael's suggestion that the future of YA might be a mash-up of genres. I think what we want to see as the future of YA as writers is at variance with what is actually likely to happen. I think commercial drivers are eyeing up the success of books like 50 Shades of Grey (currently being read by a lot of older teens) and age appropriate watered down versions of this will be encouraged. A number of Romance Publishers have already created YA lines following on from the success of the Twilight books. Movies based on popular books also influence the success of various genres and extend the life of these. David Hill pointed out that the lag time with publishing made trying to follow or anticipate trends difficult if not impossible. Tessa pointed out that despite the popularity of series such as Twilight, Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, some of the best YA are the smartly written stand alones like Kate de Goldi's The 10pm Question and Jenny Downham's Before I Die. Good writing is not disappearing under the weight of commercial imperatives.

There was some debate about what constituted a YA. Content reflecting teenage concerns, the age, voice and language of the main protagonists helped define YA. The lines are blurred however with YA being read by a much wider audience (from a large adult audience to much younger children such as 8 and 9 year olds). This is exacerbated by the fact that children develop and mature at different rates. Concern was raised about the fact that some YA literature is being read by much younger readers and content may not be suitable, although it was also noted that children often don't 'get' some of the more mature concepts and are therefore not necessarily affected by them. TV and movies were often felt to contain an equal if not greater amount of contentious material yet parents and other groups commented more on what their children read rather than what they watched. Those working in libraries tried to guide both young readers and their parents towards age appropriate books. Where YA is shelved in both libraries and shops should reflect the content and audience with some books needing to be shelved in both Adult and YA and others needing to be removed from children's shelves. An advanced or mature reading age did not necessarily mean a child was ready for YA content. It was felt to be important for YA books to reflect teenage issues and many acknowledged it was better to read about these issues and their impact in the safe environment of the pages of a book (I'm a firm believer that books covering more contentious issues show readers they are not alone if they are experiencing these things for themselves and help teens empathise with others going through such problems). Concern was expressed about teen books with difficult issues that ended on a hopeless note. Offering hope or a positive outcome in a YA novel seemed a responsible approach. Tessa reminded everyone what a brilliant YA writer Margaret Mahy was with books such as Memory, The Tricksters, The Catalogue of the Universe and The Changeover (some of my personal favourites).

I am bound to have left some bits out. I hadn't thought about summarising the discussion and was busy thinking of my opinions on the matters raised during the talk so didn't take any notes at the time. If any audience members want to add or amend anything just let me know in the comments section and I will update the post.

Still here ...

I am still head down, rear in the air, working on a few things, so sadly I am neglecting you all horribly. I feel bad. It has turned August and August is full of busyness as well so I am going to be even more distracted. The Storylines Festival is coming up and I am in Christchurch for the family day on the 19th and will be giving a workshop on 'Plotting' in Auckland on the 25th and will be at the Auckland Family Day on the 26th.  Come and say hello as that is the funnest part of the Family Day's. We really do have the most wonderful Children's Book Community and there is nothing quite like celebrating it. It will be a little strange without Margaret Mahy this year but the children's book community in New Zealand has been colluding and we are having a nationwide read of Margaret's work in libraries all round the country on the morning of August 11th. Check out if your local library is involved. Take a look at the link above if you want to take part. It is lovely to read tributes to Margaret such as these from the writing community around the world. Did we ever really truly know how lucky we were to have her?

In the meantime I am still trying to keep an eye on the book world and monitor changes and developments to pass these on to you. Things aren't changing so much as they are being chewed, digested and reformed. These two posts caught my eye. The first (thank you to Graham Beattie for the link), an article by Ewan Morrison in The Guardian, dishes on why social media doesn't extend your reach as far as you think it does when you are promoting yourself. The cynical bottom line is that all these social media tools have a bottom line and it invariably isn't about the users or the consumers, it is about the business owners. More on this topic soon I hope. The other post is from the notable Mr Nathan Bransford on how the sands are shifting under our feet.

Now I am going to hop into bed with my trusty laptop and knock off some more pages :) Oh and take a look at this - one of my books is an app

and this, a new book just out by my fabulous author friend Tania Hutley. It is VERY good!

"Infected with disturbing silver..."

After the initial sadness at her passing I have come to realise how lucky I am to have read (and own) so many of Margaret Mahy's books. They are dense with magic and ideas, and eternal truths lurk between the lines. Like the Higgs Boson particles, we know if we look hard enough we might be lucky enough to catch them there. I was lucky to meet Ms Mahy both in person and through her writing.

She has been likened to some of NZ's other great writers such as Janet Frame and Katherine Mansfield. She has been called our greatest children's writer. But I believe her to be NZ's greatest writer ever. The age of her audience is irrelevant. Her skill with words, the breadth of themes and topics she explored, the sheer volume of work she produced, her wit and fearlessness, her essays, her discussions, her generosity were all breathtaking. What she left behind is truly remarkable.

She is the benchmark, the giddy heights and the love of words all writers should aspire to, yet she never climbed over any other writer, or genre to elevate her own work. I wish I could be Margaret when I grow up. She has infected me and happily there is no cure...

One hot summer night Angela woke up and found she could not go back to sleep again for, beyond her closed lids, the room was infected with disturbing silver. (the first sentence from The Catalogue of the Universe by Margaret Mahy - one of my favourites).

The divine Ms M...

Margaret Mahy died yesterday, July 23rd. 76 years old, she had been diagnosed with cancer earlier this year. The world is a poorer place for her passing. There will be no new words with her special stamp of vigour and imagination like rumbustification and horrakapotchkin. Words behaved differently under her guiding hand and I will miss this, but she also explored the psychology and philosophy of story in stunning essays like this one. I idolised her more than I realised. If I wanted to be like any writer, she was at the top of my list. If you need any convincing of her genius go read The Lion in the Meadow or The Man Whose Mother Was a Pirate, Down the back of the Chair or Bubble Trouble. Check out The Changeover, The Other Side of Silence, The Tricksters or The Catalogue of the Universe. I only wish I'd started reading her books sooner, when I was younger and more impressionable and their vividness and daring could have inspired me more. She left us with an immense wealth of literature that will delight and inspire generations to come. She will also continue to inspire and motivate me for the rest of my days.