Read Your Escape: Building Worlds in YA Literature
In this exciting YA author panel, successful authors explain the secrets to building unique and captivating worlds in YA literature. From contemporary worlds with dragons and mind erasing, to dystopian worlds of clans and tyranny, to fantasy realms of the Fae and historical mysteries, our authors will share their knowledge of everything you want to know about engaging world building and making your setting a successful and integral part of your story. The panel discussion will be moderated by Emma Nelson, publisher at Owl Hollow Press, and audience questions will be welcomed.
Our panel discussion will include:
NICOLE CONWAY is an author and graduate of Auburn University with a lifelong passion for writing teen and children’s literature. With over 100,000 books sold in her Dragonrider Chronicles series, Nicole has been ranked one of Amazon’s Top 100 Teen Authors.
A coffee and Netflix addict, she also enjoys spending time with her family, practicing photography, and traveling.
LOUISE CYPRESS is the pen name of Jennifer Bardsley, who writes the column “I Brake for Moms” for The Everett Daily Herald and is the author of the young adult novels Genesis Girl, Damaged Goods, the Puritan Cover series, and Narcosis Room. On Facebook, Jennifer is known as The YA Gal. She hosts the weekly instant book club called #TakeaLookTuesday where readers geek out, share pictures of what they are reading, and chat about books.
An alumna of Stanford University, Jennifer puts her psychology degree to good use writing fiction. She has a lifelong fascination with mind control and lives in a book-filled house near Seattle with her family, and poodle, Merlin.
E.M. FITCH is an author who seeks to explore the deliciously dark secrets found in the hidden alcoves of the forests, beyond the veil of reality, and within the darkest corners of our hearts. Her Of the Trees series and Break Free series are YA Dark Fantasy novels inspired by haunted cemeteries, urban legends, and the darker musings of W.B. Yeats.
Her short stories “Release” and “The Creep” were featured respectively in Lurking in the Shadows and Lurking in the Mind anthologies.
JENNIFER JENKINS has a degree in History and Secondary Education and had every intention of teaching teens to love George Washington, the Napoleonic Wars, and Ancient Sparta…until the writing began. She is the author of the Nameless trilogy and the forthcoming Teen Writer’s Guide: A Road Map to Writing. Jennifer is the co-founder of Teen Author Boot Camp, a federal non-profit organization dedicated to promoting teen literacy and authorship.
She divides her free time between reading, writing music, taking spontaneous trips, researching random events from the past, and fostering her adrenaline junkie addictions.
JO SCHAFFER was born and raised in the California Bay Area. She is a YA novelist, speaker, writes for TV and film and is a Taekwondo black belt. Jo is a founding member of the nonprofit, Teen Author Boot Camp, one of the nation’s biggest writing conferences for teens. She lives in the mountains with her three amazing sons and a cat named Hero.
Jo is the author of Against Her Will and the Stanley and Hazel series.
LEIGH STATHAM was raised in the wilds of rural Idaho but found her heart in New York City. She now resides in North Carolina and has an MFA in Young Adult literature from Converse College where she serves as the Managing Fiction Editor at South 85 Journal. She is the winner of several prizes for her poetry and nonfiction and is the author of four YA novels, including the Perilous Journey of the Not-So-Innocuous Girl and Daughter 4254 series.
Her essays, poetry, and short stories can be found in the Remington Review, Southeast Review, North Carolina Literary Review, and several anthologies.
We hope to see you there!
