Print

An Introduction to Young Adults and Their Literature 3 AUTHORS IN ACTION: ON WRITING YA BY KATE HART Why do writers choose YA? There are some standard answers, whose frequency doesn’t make them any less accurate: Because my characters ap- peared to me as teens because I love the immediacy because everything is new at that age just because, okay? But my own answer has never really been clear to me, which allows those ~*~other~*~ suggested motives to worm their way in. Why do I feel most comfortable writing about teens? Is it because I’m stuck in high school? Be- cause I’m scared to write as a grown up? Because I lack ambition? Funny thing: Sometimes people ask my father-in-law or my grandmother why they spent 30 years teaching middle/high school. But no one insinuates it’s because they’re immature, or tried to relive the glory days. No one claims they “wasted” their master’s degrees by using them for the benefi t of young people. But use your degree to write books for young people? Tsk tsk. What a waste! What people are insinuating is that teachers are crazy to willingly spend time with teens. And I’ll be the fi rst to admit: young people can be annoying. But having spent time in the teachers’ lounge, I can also say: adults are an- noying too. Case in point: “You’ll understand when you’re older.” It was an infuriating thing to hear—not because I thought I was so smart and knew everything, but because I did know my perspective would change, and the only way I could get there was by going through what I was stuck in now, whether I wanted to or not. (Spoiler alert: This is also an issue in adulthood. “Just wait until it’s your [publishing pregnancy progeny property]!”) I hated knowing that I didn’t know things. I wanted to know ALL THE THINGS, ALL THE TIME (and still do). Worse, not only was I a teen, I was a teen girl—trivial, laughable, ridiculous. Unimportant. Immature and an- noying. I understood, on some level, that this was BS but insisting that it wasn’t made me more immature and annoying so I directed it elsewhere. And inward. Especially inward. I hated being that girl. I hated being a girl at all. DEFINING YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE Flux is a major trait of young adult literature. It changes and grows as quickly as the life of a teenaged boy or girl. In the past several years, new types of literature have become established, extending the range of young adult fiction and informational books by format and genre. Format-wise, verse novels and graphic novels may be fiction or informational. Popular fantasy and science fiction includes stories about dystopias, teen paranormal ro- mances, witches, zombies, and many other kinds of speculative fiction. Realistic fiction reflects societal issues of the day and includes survival stories, urban stories, contempo- rary romances, sports stories, and both light and dark realism. Before examining current young adult literature, itÊs worthwhile to view the beginnings of this literature to better understand its development into the vital literary field it is today.