From Harry Potter to the Twilight series, the young adult
literature industry is booming.
In recent decades, the young adult (YA) market, which
targets 12- to 18-year-old readers, has become a multi-million dollar enterprise,
said panelists at a creative writing colloquium on YA literature, held at
Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus.
The Nov. 29 event, which drew dozens of undergraduate
and graduate writing students, featured several prominent names from the YA
field:
·
Sangeeta Mehta,
book project consultant and former acquiring editor at Simon Pulse, the teen
paperback division of Simon & Schuster, and Little, Brown Books for Young
Readers;
·
Ted Malawer,
also known by his pennames Ted Michael and Theo Laurence, author of several YA
books, including The Diamonds (Delacorte
Press, 2009) and Crash Test Love
(Delacorte Press, 2010); and
·
Sharon Dennis Wyeth,
associate professor of children’s literature at Hollins University and adjunct
professor in Fordham’s creative program, and author of several YA books, including
My America: Freedom’s Wings: Corey’s
Underground Railroad Diary (Scholastic, Inc., 2002), and A Piece of Heaven (Turtleback Books,
2002).
Although youth-oriented books have existed for
centuries, the YA category has only been formally recognized since the mid-20th
century, Mehta said. J. D. Salinger’s 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye marked an important transition into this
burgeoning category, followed by S. E. Hinton’s The Outsiders (1966) and Paul Zindel’s The Pigman (1968).
These coming-of-age books were written for and about
adolescents, dealing with taboo topics such as drinking, drugs, gangs, and
suicide.
In 1997, YA literature took another turn with the
publication of the first Harry Potter novel, Mehta said. Stories of the
supernatural caught on quickly for young readers, sparking legions of books
dealing with vampires, werewolves, fallen angels, and other magical creatures.
Dystopian books, such as Lois Lowry’s The Giver (1993) and Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games (2008), also became
popular among adolescents.
“For the first time, these books weren’t just selling
as well as adult books—they were selling more,” Mehta said.
YA authors Malawer and Wyeth agreed that writing for
young adults requires a particular set of literary skills and strategies.
“They are voracious readers. They know what they like,
they know what they hate, and they’ll blog about it,” said Malawer, whose
latest novel Mystic City takes a
futuristic twist on Romeo and Juliet. “This is an industry where people get
really excited to read.”
Because of the ages of the YA audience, Wyeth said, it
is important to retain certain elements in the literature, such as writing in a
tone that appeals to adolescents and including a villain. In addition, YA books
must be authentic.
“You can’t fool a young audience,” she said.
“I would say there also must be hope,” she added.
“There are books out there that deal with very heavy topics… These must be
something that provide growth.”
— Joanna Klimaski
