Well, this year’s Young Adult Literary Convention (YALC) is shaping up to be a very exciting books festi indeed.
We’ve already heard Cassandra Clare, Derek Landy and Carrie Hope Fletcher will be joining YALC founder Malorie Blackman at the convention, which will take place at in a dedicated Book Zone at the London Film and Comic Con from from 17-19 July 2015 at Olympia, London.
Now we can reveal these authors will be taking part – and even more names are promised later this month! So joining Malorie and friends will be:
Darren Shan – an Irish novelist who writes horror and fantasy. His work includes 12-part book series, The Saga of Darren Shan, the first book of which went on to be made into a film in 2009.
Dawn Kurtagich - Dawn’s debut novel, The Dead House is a psychological thriller and will be released in August this year.
James Dawson - the award-winning author of dark novels including Cruel Summer, Hollow Pike and Say Her Name as well as non fiction This Book Is Gay. James was dubbed 2014 Queen of Teen last year – and was the first male winner of the title.
Helena Coggan - teenager who started her debut novel The Catalyst when she was just 13 and is one of the youngest published writers in the UK. She is recommended to fans of the Divergent series.
Holly Bourne - a journalist and a relationships adviser as well as a writer. Her first novel, Soulmates, was voted as one of the best iBooks of 2013 in the teen category and is, unsurprisingly, a love story as well as a thriller. Last year Holly published The Manifesto on How to Be Interesting and her third novel is out in August, so she’s been rather busy!
Kevin Brooks - Kevin’s 2013 novel, The Bunker Diary, was a very controversial winner of the Carnegie Medal 2014. Here’s our book group Millennium RIOT’s defence of the author when the media (not us) rounded on him last year Why we’re glad The Bunker Diary won the Carnegie.
Laura Dockrill - writer and illustrator of the Darcy Burdock books and contributor to the teen anthology Love Hurts. Laura counts singers Kate Nash and Adele amongst her friends thanks to her time at The Brit School of Performing Arts.
Moria Young - originally from Canada, is most famous for her dystopian series, The Dustlands Trilogy, the first novel of which won her the Costa Children’s Book Award in 2011.
Amy Alward - another Canadian, who fits in writing around her role as editorial director at Puffin. Amy has also written using her maiden name Amy McCulloch, which she used for her debut novel The Oathbreaker’s Shadow. Amy Alward’s The Potion Diaries is published this summer.
Melinda Salisbury – a fantasy writer, whose first novel, The Sin Eater’s Daughter (which features in this guide to UKYA), was published in February this year.
Sally Green - former accountant turned author Sally Green has just won the teen category of the Waterstones prize with her 2013 supernatural thriller, Half Bad, about witches living among us in modern-day Britain. In March 2014 it set the Guinness World Record as the |Most translated book by a debut author, pre-publication. Its sequel, Half Wild, was released this year and you can read the first chapter here.
Claire Furniss - whose first novel, The Year of the Rat, was longlisted for the Carnegie prize 2014.
Samantha Shannon – dystopian and paranormal fiction author whose debut novel, The Bone Season, was the first in a seven-book series and the film rights for it have been bought by Andy Serkis’s film company. Her highly anticipated second book in series The Mime Order is out now.
