Q&A Patrice Lawrence The YA Book Prize 2018
The One Memory of Flora Banks
Emily Barr (Penguin)
S.T.A.G.S. M A Bennett
(Hot Key Books)
It Only Happens in the Movies
Holly Bourne (Usborne)
Moonrise
Sarah Crossan (Bloomsbury)
After the Fire Will Hill (Usborne)
Indigo Donut
Patrice Lawrence (Hodder Children’s Books)
Release Patrick Ness (Walker Books)
Things A Bright Girl
Can Do Sally Nicholls (Andersen Press)
La Belle Sauvage
Philip Pullman (Penguin/ David Fickling Books)
Straight Outta Crongton Alex Wheatle (Atom)
Crossan and Pullman join reigning champion Lawrence on YA Book Prize 2018 shortlist
Philip Pullman is in the running for the YA Book Prize 2018, alongside previous winners Sarah Crossan and Patrice Lawrence, and début author M A Bennett. Pullman is shortlisted for
La Belle Sauvage, the first volume in his long-awaited The Book of Dust series, which is set in the same world as the His Dark Materi- als trilogy. The fantasy novel was named Waterstones
Book of the Year 2017 and has sold more than 300,000 copies since its publication in October 2017. Crossan, who won the
YA Book Prize in 2016, makes the list for her Costa Children’s Book of the Year-shortlisted novel in verse, Moonrise, about a boy whose brother is on death row. Lawrence is recognised for her second novel Indigo Donut, a love story between
two teenagers grappling with their demons. First- time novelist Bennett is shortlisted for her boarding school thriller S.T.A.G.S. Previous YA Book Prize
shortlistees Alex Wheatle, Patrick Ness and Holly Bourne are also included in this year’s list. The third title in Wheatle’s sequence of books set on the fictional South Crong council estate, Straight Outta Crongton, is up against Ness’ story with a supernatural twist about a teenage boy coming out to his conservative family, Release, and Bourne’s It
Only Happens in the Movies, a realistic take on romantic comedies. Will Hill also made the shortlist for his book about a girl who has grown up in a cult, After the Fire. Rounding out the 2018
shortlist is Sally Nich- olls’ story inspired by the women’s suffrage movement, Things a Bright Girl Can Do, and Emily Barr’s first YA book, The One Memory of Flora Banks (Penguin), a psycho- logical thriller about a girl with anterograde amnesia. The winner will be
revealed on 31st May at the Hay Festival.
inspired and encouraged me. I also hope that I can support new writers coming through in the way that established writers have supported me.
How does it feel to be shortlisted for the YA Book Prize again? It’s wonderful. I had a litle bit of second- book blues. Indigo Donut was harder to write, not least because of the slight romantic element. I am very unromantic. It is quite a personal book. Some of the issues tackled, such as homelessness and addiction, have affected my family. I wanted to do justice to the real people
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who have experienced some of the issues at the heart of the book. I also think that the world can never have too much Blondie [the music group and its output has a key role to play in the novel].
How would you describe the scene for YA publishing in the UK and Ireland at the moment? It’s a tough world for YA and YA writers. The majorit of writers cannot live on writing alone and, as school budgets contract, paid visits are at a premium. I think the fact that fewer than 10 UK YA books writen entirely by writers of colour are being published (not
for the first time) in 2018 shows that while diversit is being talked about, it still feels unatainable. However, as with adult publishing, smaller indies such as Hope Road, Jacaranda, Ownit!, Knights Of and Cassava Republic Press are publishing and promot- ing new, fresh voices. Young people are also finding their own routes into publishing— check out Gal-Dem online and in print, and micropublishers such as 3 Of Cups Press, which commissions work for anthologies on issues such as anxiet, bodies and rela- tionships. I think mainstream publishing also needs to find a way to engage with the energy and beautiful lyricism of the spoken- word scene.
10th April 2018
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