F226. What’s Your Problem: Adolescents in Danger and the Novels that Tell Their Stories

Room LL5, Western New England MFA Annex, Lower Level
Friday, February 28, 2014
1:30 pm to 2:45 pm

 

Growing up is hard enough, but in today’s world, many teens navigate this journey of self-discovery while coping with the trauma of abuse, drug addiction, and confusion about their sexual or gender identity. This panel, comprised of an agent, three writers, and a professor in the field, will explore the renaissance of YA literature that addresses with scathing honesty the real-world problems teens face today as they try to survive into adulthood.


Participants

Moderator:

Pamela L. Laskin teaches graduate Children's writing and directs the Poetry Outreach Center at the City College, CUNY. She has edited two books for teens, Life on the Moon and The Heroic Young Woman, original fairy tales. Visitation Rites, a YA novel, deals with mental illness.

Jacqueline Woodson is the author of Each Kindness, If You Come Softly, and Beneath A Meth Moon. Her awards include two National Book Award Honors, three Newbery Honors, an LA Times Book Prize, and a Coretta Scott King Award. She's the 2013 US Nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Medal.

Suzanne Weyn is the author of many novels for young adults including, Dr. Frankenstein's Daughters and The Bar Code Tattoo. Her novel Empty was named a Bank Street Best Book for Kids.

Matia Burnett received her MFA in Fiction Writing from Columbia University. She is the Assistant Editor in the Children's and Young Adult Department at Publishers Weekly in New York City.

Brendan Kiely teaches high school English and received an MFA in creative writing from CCNY. His writing has appeared in Fiction and Guernica, among other publications. His novel, The Gospel of Winter, examines one boy’s experience with the abuse scandal in the Catholic Church.

#AWP24

February 7–10, 2024
Kansas City, Missouri

Kansas City Convention Center