YA Day 2020

December 22, 2019December 22, 2019 The YA Room3 Comments

YA Day is back!

We’re thrilled to announce that our third annual YA Day will be on Saturday 14 March from 10am – 4pm at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne. Presented in partnership with Writers Victoria, YA Day 2020 will feature 10 incredible #LoveOzYA authors, merch stalls, and signing opportunities.

We’ll start off the day with discussions and signings, giving you close encounters with your favourite writers. Get your book signed, get your questions answered, get to know new-to-you authors with great new books!

Then, in the afternoon, we will split into two streams.

Want to write your own YA? We’ll have two 90-minute workshops: Will Kostakis on How to Build A Story and former publisher Kate Cuthbert on How to Get Your Story Out There.

Looking to interact with other readers? We’ll have four panel discussions, featuring your favourite authors talking about topics like ‘My Favourite (Fictional) Murder’, ‘Trash or Treasure?’, and a spirited discussion about which tropes are readable – and which are not.

The Writing Stream has limited spaces, so if you are interested, we encourage you to book early.

Get your tickets here!

Q&A with Michael Pryor

July 1, 2019July 1, 2019 The YA RoomLeave a comment

It’s finally here! Today is the official release day of the highly anticipated sequel to Gap Year in Ghost Town, which is Graveyard Shift in Ghost Town! We had the pleasure of hearing the first couple of chapters read aloud by Michael Pryor himself at Introverts’ Night Out, and we also did a little Q&A with him for all of you to check out as well.

Seriously, we couldn’t be more excited to see what happens next in the spooky and funny adventures of our two favourite Melbourne ghost hunters, Anton and Rani! And how cool is that cover?! LOVE. IT.

Anton Marin and Rani Cross team up again to fight the ghosts that are plaguing the city. And now there’s a vicious ghost-hunting faction in town as well. A highly entertaining sequel to the smart, snappy and funny Gap Year in Ghost Town.

So, how’s my gap year going? Is it giving me a taste of the ghost-hunting business or is it just dumping me into situations where I could end up dead, or worse?

Lingerers. Moaners. Thugs. Weepers. So many ghosts. Not enough graveyard shifts in a night.

When an extreme ghost plague descends on the city, Anton and Rani must work overtime to keep the city safe and to find the source of the new aggressive ghost outbreak. And it amps up to another level after ghost hunters become the hunted.

Anton and Rani will need all their wits and wiles about them if they are to manage the ghost influx, get to the truth about the Elsewhere and navigate the night with all their limbs intact.

Graveyard Shift in Ghost Town is thoroughly entertaining and full of nail-biting ghostly action and adventure.Read More »

Top 5 Clunes Booktown Festival Moments

May 4, 2019 The YA RoomLeave a comment

Clunes Booktown Festival is an annual celebration of Australian literature, authors, and industry professionals. Overnight, the town is transformed into an outdoor library, with bookstores, nicknacks, and homemade sweets lining the streets. We’re so excited to be back here for the second year in a row. We’ve already had a spectacular start to the weekend.

Although there have been many highlights so far, here is our top five from today!

1. Clunes Booktown Atmosphere

Nestled in the Victorian countryside, Clunes is a gorgeous little historical town situated in the Central Goldfield region — only about two hours out of Melbourne. As we descended down from the hills, it was like entering another world cast in the golden and bronze hues of autumn. Streets are lined with oak trees, brick buildings and the busy hum of morning chatter. The chilly air was scented with freshly baked goods, old books and strong coffee. There was a sense of wonder rippling through the crowd. What more could you ask for?

2. Panel One: Reading to Escape, Or Face, Reality

One of our absolute highlights was visiting the Free Lending Library, where we got to listen to Gabrielle Wang, Jack Henseleit, Nicole Hayes and Danielle Binks. All of these amazing industry professionals had so much knowledge to share about whether we read to escape, or face, reality. They also talked about the need for better representation, authenticity, and the moral obligation authors hold.Read More »

Throwback Month

December 1, 2018 The YA RoomLeave a comment

It’s finally here! Say hello to Throwback Month – AKA the month we get to reread all our trashy faves and gush about them! It’s okay, we know you love them, even though you’re still pretending you’re over your The Fault in Our Stars phase. We’ve all been there.

Join us this month to read some of the best (and worst) YA novels published before 2013 and relive a simpler time. A time before the trashfire of a movie Allegiant came out (well, half of it, at least). A time before Instagram’s algorithm wrecked havoc on our bookstagram likes. A time where our biggest memes were Nyan Cat and Grumpy Cat. I wonder how those cats are doing.

Anyway! We hope you’ll be participating by reading some older YA novels and attempting to complete a line of the #ThrowbackBingo board! Don’t forget to check out this post to find out the rules and to hear about all the prizes up for grabs. Exciting!

Today we’ll be sharing the books we’re planning on reading this month in case you need a little bit more inspiration. But it’s pretty simple. If the book you want to read is generally counted as YA (and yes, we’re counting all the Harry Potter books as YA) and it was published before 2013, you can read it for this challenge!Read More »

5 YA Books with Asexual Representation

October 27, 2018October 27, 2018 The YA Room4 Comments

If you’re an avid reader of YA, chances are you’ve read a book with a queer protagonist. Take Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda for example, or The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice & Virtue. While there’s still an overwhelming amount of YA books published with allocishet main characters, we’ve definitely come a long way in terms of representation in the past five years.

But when thinking about books with queer characters, most of the time I’ve found that people are likely to recommend novels with gay, lesbian, or bisexual protagonists – not ones who are of different identities from what people perceive as ‘more common’. I want to read more books about aromantic characters, or people who are nonbinary, or those who are pansexual. I just want more representation in general – and I do believe we’re getting closer to that.

But today, I’m going to share my top five recommendations for YA novels featuring asexual characters! While not all of these books feature asexual protagonists, all the characters I mention play a major role in the novel and are explicitly on the asexual spectrum.

Meet our Teen Representative: Rosie

October 21, 2018 The YA Room1 Comment

Just when you thought you’d met your new YA Room facilitators, we have another surprise for you!

Here at The YA Room, we’re passionate about bringing readers together and making a space for likeminded young people. We aim to be an accessible space for teens in particular, so we’ve decided to bring on board our very first Teen Representative!

Rosie, our Teen Rep, will be assisting The YA Room in countless different ways – from event organisation, to social media campaign strategies, to sharing her recent favourite reads with us. We’re so excited to be working with such a passionate YA aficionado, and we hope you’ll help us in welcoming her to the team.

Without further ado, here’s a little piece from Rosie!

Hello, I am Rosie, a fourteen-year-old book nerd, aspiring physicist, philosopher and novelist. When I am not found utterly engrossed in a book, you can find me watching a period drama, eating an abundant amount of chocolate or daydreaming about fantastical lands and alternate time periods.

I am so grateful to be a part of The YA Room team and am incredibly excited to be a part of the running of such a wondrous book club. Through my position at The YA Room I hope to advocate for the importance of reading amongst young people, and further the accessibility of The YA Room amongst teenager readers.

I am very passionate about young-adult literature and am so excited to be apart of a community also ardent about the genre.

Let’s get reading!

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AFTER THE LIGHTS GO OUT Launch

August 3, 2018 The YA RoomLeave a comment

Last night, we were lucky enough to attend the launch of Lili Wilkinson’s latest #LoveOzYA novel, After the Lights Go Out! After our Blogger Brunch with Lili last Sunday, we were excited to officially congratulate her on her new release and eat some delicious cake with all of our favourite people. Kudos to Jess from @cakeandmadness for another incredible creation that tasted as good as it looked!

It’s not difficult to realise that Lili Wilkinson is such a key part of the #LoveOzYA community, with the packed house and a signing line that was almost out of the Readings Kids’ door. We’re so thrilled that After the Lights Go Out is now out in the wild, and we urge everyone to go and grab a copy of this phenomenal novel!

As always, we had a lot of fun filming a vlog of the night. You can check out everything that happened (including all our cake reactions) right here! Thanks to Lili Wilkinson, Amie Kaufman, and Readings Kids for the incredible night we had.

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To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before with The YA Room

August 1, 2018 The YA Room1 Comment

What’s better than finally getting to see one of your most anticipated YA adaptations of the year? Seeing it with a group of people who are just as excited as you are! And that’s what we’re here for. The YA Room: providing shoulders to cry on over fictional crushes since ’17.

We’ve been dying to watch everyone’s much-awaited adaptation of Jenny Han’s To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, so we thought we’d celebrate its release by doing something extraordinary. Skip the whole “small screen” business of watching it all alone at home and come along to The YA Room’s YA Movie Night bonanza! Mark Saturday 18th August in your calendars, because this is an event you won’t want to miss.

Blogger Brunch + Mercy Point Book Meet

July 31, 2018 The YA RoomLeave a comment

July has come and gone in the blink of an eye! We caught up with three lovely authors, Steph Bowe, Lili Wilkinson, and Anna Snoekstra, and we collectively read 18 books. We still can’t believe we’re over halfway through the year now! We’ve had an incredible first half of the year and can’t wait for what the rest of 2018 will hold.

Check out our Biannual Book Club Wrap Up on our YouTube channel!

Blogger Brunch

On Sunday 29th July, we were joined by Lili Wilkinson and a bunch of awesome Melbourne bloggers to celebrate the release of Lili’s latest YA novel – After the Lights Go Out! It was so much fun to chat about Lili’s writing process and whether she’d prefer to live through the zombie apocalypse or a deadly plague over coffee and smashed avo. Thanks to everyone who came along! We’ll definitely be doing another event like this one soon.

Ask… about YA Publishing

July 10, 2018 The YA RoomLeave a comment

We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve partnered with Writers Victoria to bring to you a very exciting event about YA publishing with #LoveOzYA author Shivaun Plozza and publisher Michelle Madden!

If you write YA, are an aspiring author, or just want to learn more about the publishing industry, this event is for you. Come along to hear all about Shivaun’s road to publication, learn about the current state of YA publishing in Australia, and gain behind-the-scenes insight into what publishers look for in a manuscript.

Book your tickets now to come along to this 1.5 hour session on Thursday 15 November from 6 – 7.30pm!

About Shivaun Plozza

Shivaun Plozza is the author of ‘Frankie’ (2016) and ‘Tin Heart’ (2018). She’s also been published in anthologies and journals, and works as a freelance editor and manuscript assessor.

About Michelle Madden

Michelle Madden has been a Commissioning Editor at Penguin Random House since 2002. Penguin Random House is an international home to nearly 250 editorially and creatively independent publishing imprints. Michelle’s list covers fiction and non-fiction, including YA and adult cross-over, speculative fiction, middle-reader fiction (in particular series fiction), picture books, verse novels and illustrated fiction and non-fiction for children.

The YA Room

Melbourne

Tag: YA