Literature for the yoof, or for everyone?

I love an awards ceremony. The Text Publishing Young Adult Prize, now in its second year, was announced by Text publisher Michael Heyward at Taking Over the Grown-ups Table. Inaugural prizewinner Richard Newsome’s The Billionnaire’s Curse took ten years from go to whoa, and has now found an audience in half a dozen countries. Congratulations to 2009 prize recipient Leanne Hall, who came up trumps in a field of over 300 applicants!

I love YA books even more than I love awards ceremonies. The Taking Over the Grown-ups Table audience easily had the youngest average age of any session I’ve seen so far at MWF, and the audience members were well armed with questions and intimate knowledge of the guests’ books. It was fantastic to see lots of fellow book fiends lined up to see Isobelle Carmody, Justine Larbalestier and Scott Westerfeld.

Isobelle Carmody

It’s no secret that I’ve been a fan of Isobelle’s for years. I started reading her books when I was 13. In fact, I’m pretty sure I got a B- for a book report once in Year 8 because I chose to write about her book The Farseekers instead of a ‘real novel’. This sidelining of YA books, despite their strong and increasing sales, is a common occurrence. Westerfeld noted that at one stage, all seven Harry Potter books were in the New York Review of Books bestseller list, which caused the NYRB to create a separate list for other, more literary works. I have yet to read anything by Larbalestier and Westerfeld, though I have recently been following their blogs after the controversy about the American cover of Larbalestier’s new book Liar. Westerfeld, who used to write books for adults, now writes steampunk books that would be classified as YA.

Chair Agnes Nieuwanhuizen asked the authors whether they knew who was reading their books. Larbalestier and Westerfeld commented that readers are more connected to authors than ever. Facebook, Twitter, blogs and email make authors visible, and marketing gadgets like countdown widgets make sure that readers are tuned into the processes and presences of a book in a way they have never been before. People still write fan letters, too. I know some people will tut at this, but I can’t remember the last time I wrote a letter, unless you count that time I had to get a statutory declaration for…nevermind.

The authors discussed the disconnect between the ‘YA’ marketing and bookshop placement of their books, and their actual

Justine Larbalestier

reading audiences, who sometimes span whole ‘dynasties’ of families. Everyone agreed that YA literature generally has strong narrative drive and good old fashioned storytelling, which appeal to a wide audience, not just young readers. I agreed with Carmody when she insisted that people don’t buy books according to marketing-enforced age brackets, although the oddity of the ‘adult’ Harry Potter covers has always baffled and pained me. She suggested that books like hers are categorised as YA because the protagonists are fledgling adults.

Did any of the authors write differently for different audiences? Carmody thought that when she wrote stories that were ‘more still’, she considered them more adult; ‘they’re probably more boring’. Larbalestier’s new book hasn’t been censored at all, by her or her publishers: it’s a murder mystery with lots of swearing in it. In terms of subject matter, Carmody still thinks and writes about the things she wrote about when she was 14, something she likens to ‘stuffing myself with chocolates in a back room and then being praised for it.’

Another thing I wanted to mention was how awesome the ‘Victorian manga style’ illustrations in Westerfeld’s book sounded. Here’s an example of one. How beautiful and evocative is it? Apparently he wanted his books to look like they were from the early 20th century, when all books were illustrated.

Estelle Tang, 3000 BOOKS
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