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The Reckoning: The death of YA fiction

The Reckoning: The death of YA fiction

“The death of YA – it’s a thing believe me. Google it.” It was a fleeting comment at a writer’s festival as we moved between venues and it filled me with dread. It was nothing I didn’t already know from my own experiences as a YA writer. Publishers are reluctant to look at YA, with some completely closing their doors to the genre and others reducing titles on what were already lists that barely covered the calendar year. In past years the industry blame game has put writers f

#nzreadaloud: One Book to Connect Kiwi Kids

#nzreadaloud: One Book to Connect Kiwi Kids

In 2014, New Zealand teacher Kerri Thompson participated in a Global Read Aloud. This programme was founded by US educator Pernille Ripp. Ella West was one of the first authors to be invited to participate in the NZ version of this, which began with Thompson in 2015. Ella explains what is special about #nzreadaloud. Kerri Thompson and her class, 2017 When, in 2015, I found out Night Vision had been chosen as a Read Aloud book in New Zealand I had no idea what it meant. So I g

2018 End-of-Year Shopping List: YA Fiction

2018 End-of-Year Shopping List: YA Fiction

Do you want to be sure you're getting top-shelf books for your favourite people this Christmas – or on any gift-giving occasion? We are making it easy for you! Here is our selection of 2018's very best New Zealand books for young adults. Ash Arising, by Mandy Hager Hager’s writing is masterful. She keeps the tension taut throughout, controlling the chaos of explosions, gunshots, kidnappings and more. She makes her moral points and she kicks the world’s arse for letting things

The Only Children's Writing Fellowship in NZ

The Only Children's Writing Fellowship in NZ

It’s the writing fellowship with the really long name – the University of Otago College of Education Creative New Zealand Children’s Writer in Residence. But more importantly, it’s the only children’s fellowship in the country and applications for 2019 close on Friday, 1 June. The Robert Lord Cottage on Titan Street where children’s fellows can stay Ruth Corrin was the first fellow in 1992 when it was run by the Dunedin College of Education and since then the list reads like

THE SAMPLING: Rain Fall, by Ella West (Allen & Unwin)

THE SAMPLING: Rain Fall, by Ella West (Allen & Unwin)

I'm not running late like I usually am. Maybe that's why I look in the river, maybe that's why I stop when I see it. A dark-coloured raincoat, the arms spread wide, floating, hood-first down the river. And then it starts to rain. Fifteen-year-old Annie needs to get to her basketball match, but the police have cordoned off her road. Is her neighbour, who she grew up with, still alive? What has he done to have the police after him? A murder investigation brings new people to An

Taking our Children's Books to Bologna

Taking our Children's Books to Bologna

UNESCO City of Literature Dunedin were offered an opportunity they couldn't ignore: to bid to have a stand at the Bologna Children's Book Fair earlier this month. Ella West reports. Hall 26, stand B/76 bis – that was Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature at this year’s Bologna Children’s Book Fair. We were there amongst the 1,200 stands which covered 20,000m² of floor space, with 98 countries represented and 35,000 people looking, from 3–6 April in a city in Northern Italy at th