S219. In Sickness and in Health: Writing about Illness and Loss for Young Adults

Room LL5, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level
Saturday, March 1, 2014
1:30 pm to 2:45 pm

Illness and death. We may try to hide or pretend, but everyone faces these issues, regardless of age, nationality, or religion. So how can we prepare teenagers to be ready for loss? Can literature teach and help young adults accept the saddest aspects of life? In this panel, award-winning authors, an experienced professor, and an international grad student discuss how YA novels approach these challenging topics, what role religion plays, and different techniques writers can adopt in their work.

Participants

Moderator:

Roberta Borger is pursuing her MFA at Chatham University. Her short stories have appeared in the Acentos Review, K magazine, and A Hebraica.

Megan Bostic, a novelist, blogger, and poet, is inspired by music and nature. Her novel Never Eighteen has been nominated for a 2014 New York City Reading Association Charlotte Award.

Selene Castrovilla is the award-winning author of teen novels The Girl Next Door and Saved by the Music. Both books deal with serious, life-altering (and life-threatening) situations. www.SeleneCastrovilla.com

Jolene Perry is an author of young adult fiction. A high school teacher in Alaska, she is represented by Jane Dystel, and she writes for Entangled Teen, Albert Whitman Teen, and Simon Pulse.

Katherine Ayres teaches fiction writing and writing for children to graduate students in the MFA program at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is the author of ten books for children (toddlers to teens), three poetry chapbooks, and Bear Season, a collection of essays about the black bear.

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S219. In Sickness and in Health: Writing about Illness and Loss for Young Adults

Participants