It took Emily X.R.
Pan nearly a decade to write her debut novelThe Astonishing Color of After.
It was adult literary.
Aaron Richter
I tried middle-grade, I tried YA, I tried adult again, she recalls.
Compounding the difficulty of categorizing the book was the way her own life was seeping into the material.
I worried that the religious culture would alienate people.
Aaron Richter
A fellow debut YA author this spring, Mary H.K.
Choi (Emergency Contact), meanwhile knew exactly the demo she wanted to target.
Shed worked on the magazineMissbehavein her mid-20s and, through it, discovered the excitement of reaching younger readers.
She cites the recent, post-Parkland activism as evidence for the power of speaking to them.
Choi drew from her own experiences for the book.
Or that someone forgets all the time that Im not white.
instead of Yes and who cant embarrass her daughter enough.
If you think about how nuanced that is, its masterful.
Thats what I love: You have YA as these trojan horses, of really disruptive and brave thinking.
These authors know theres still work to be done.
