This weekend saw YALC (the Young Adult Literature Convention) return to London Film and Comic Convention, with a program jam-packed with the very best YA authors, fascinating panel discussions and creative writing workshops.
This weekend saw YALC (the Young Adult Literature Convention) return to London Film and Comic Convention, with a program jam-packed with the very best YA authors, fascinating panel discussions and creative writing workshops.
We were delighted that three of our brilliant authors could take part in this exciting event. Nicole Burstein, author of Othergirl and Wonderboy, represented Andersen Press at the ‘My Teen Diary’ event hosted by Juno Dawson and Lisa Williamson on Friday 29th July, in which she read an extract from the diary she kept as a fourteen-year-old.
Nicole dressed as a Lumberjane!
(Photo credit: @NicoleBurstein, via Twitter)
On the Saturday, Nicole returned to YALC in amazing Lumberjane cosplay to host a super writing workshop called ‘Secret Superheroes’. This was a masterclass in how to create your own superhero character. Nicole encouraged aspiring writers not to focus solely on the character’s power, but their wider lives – such as what they like to watch on TV and even eat for breakfast!
On Sunday, Julia Gray appeared on the ‘New Voices in YA’ panel to talk about her debut The Otherlife. Julia sat alongside new talents like Chris Vick, Claire Hennessy and Harriet Reuter Hapgood and compared their tips for writing success.
Following on from winning the Special Achievement Award at the YA Book Prize earlier this year, Melvin Burgess took to the YALC main stage for the ‘Morally Complicated YA’ discussion with Louise O’Neill, Emerald Fennell and Manuela Salvi. This was a brilliant discussion that touched on writing to shock and moral complexity in writing for young people.
Melvin speaks at the Morally Complicated YA panel
(Photo credit: @ChloeSackur, via Twitter)
Julia Gray, her agent Louise Lamont and editor Chloe Sackur closed the Agents’ Arena at the end of the convention with a talk about Julia’s road to being a published author and the development of The Otherlife.
Thank you to the YALC organisers for putting on a brilliant event – we can’t wait for next year’s YALC!
