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Interviews
Liz Lawson and Kathleen Glasgow on their addictive new YA thriller, The Agathas
With explorations of parental neglect and domestic abuse superbly balanced alongside teen angst, high school politics and A+ detective work, Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson's new YA thriller, The Agathas, is a gripping and highly addictive…
Sue Divin talks the courage to build peace in Guard Your Heart
"Novels teach us through empathy – through our heart. I’m hoping that readers will connect with issues around identity and human rights as well as building peace and respect – those concepts can apply much wider than just Northern Ireland."
Phil Earle talks writing for underdogs in When the Sky Falls
"What I’m interested in people’s ability to do good, regardless of the difficult starts to their lives."
Katya Balen chats playing with language in October, October
"I also find not thinking about what I’m writing often helps new expressions to flow."
Julian Sedgwick talks honouring Japanese culture and philosophy in Tsunami Girl
"Amidst the trauma and sadness there was humour, and a determination to build new, possibly even better, communities."
Finbar Hawkins chats his writing journey before penning his debut, Witch
"Novel writing is about you sitting a desk until that draft is done, so it’s a solitary, immersed process. And then you rewrite it. And again..."
Alex Wheatle talks writing Jamaican dialect and teenager’s perspective in Cane Warriors
"One of the things a conquered people lose first is their language, so keeping a hint of that language in the narrative is very important to me."
Naomi Gibson talks AI programming in her debut YA novel, Every Line of You
Every Line of You is a thriller about a girl who uses AI to cope with her grief, except the project becomes bigger than she ever anticipated...
Finn Longman talks compassion, hope and dealing with pain in their debut YA novel, The Butterfly…
"Compassion, because Isabel is human and deserves second chances and deserves safety, and hope, because there is too much despair in the world already."
Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock chats small towns and linking short stories in Everyone Dies Famous in a Small…
"Short stories, like radio, need to be succinct and every word must be essential."
Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam talk hope and poetry in their novel in verse, Punching the Air
"Hope is knowing that there is always another day, another minute, another second to make things right."
“I like books which grab you on page one and don’t let you go – and that those are the kind of…
The Queen of YA fiction is back.
David Valdes on his queer time travelling YA debut, Spin Me Right Round
This post is sponsored by Bloomsbury.
Following modern day gay teen, Luis Gonzalez, after he finds himself having travelled back in time to his parents' era to save a closeted classmates life, David Valdes' debut YA novel, Spin Me Right…
Kat Cho talks K-Pop, dream casts and her gorgeous new YA contemporary, Once Upon a K-Prom
To all K-Pop, K-Drama and childhood-friends-to-lovers fans out there, consider this your warning that author, Kat Cho, is about to become your new best friend thanks to her swoon-worthy new YA contemporary novel, Once Upon a K-Prom.…
Sara Barnard talks travelling solo and welcoming the unknown in her YA novel, Destination Anywhere
"Be realistic about what travelling solo means – are you prepared to feel lonely sometimes?"