NEW NAMES ADDED TO “ILLUSTRIOUS” LINE-UP FOR YALC 2016 AT LONDON FILM & COMIC CON
Patrick Ness, Juno Dawson and Sally Green amongst high-profile authors added to “most ambitious programme to date.” Ness will be joined by actor Lewis MacDougall to discuss the upcoming film adaptation of his award-winning A Monster Calls. Other sessions announced today include the inaugural YALC Poetry Slam and an all-day Harry Potter celebration for the boy wizard’s birthday.
Double Carnegie Medal winner, Patrick Ness, has been added to the line-up for the Young Adult Literature Convention (YALC) 2016, where he will discuss the incredible transformation from page to screen of his award-winning A Monster Calls. Published in 2011, A Monster Calls is the only book whose author and illustrator have won both the Carnegie Medal and the Greenaway Medal. At the event on Friday afternoon, Ness will be joined by actor Lewis MacDougall, who plays the lead role of Conor, to give attendees a look behind the scenes before the film’s forthcoming release.
The inaugural YALC Poetry Slam will be taking place on Saturday afternoon, inspired by You Know Me Well by American authors David Levithan and Nina LaCour, with other special guests performing. Audience members will also be given the opportunity to get up on stage and try their hand at performance poetry.
Sunday will be given over to all things Harry Potter to mark what would be the 36th birthday of the wizarding hero and the publication date of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Fans will be invited to compete for the Hogwarts House Cup with a whole host of Potter-themed activities, organised in partnership with MuggleNet.
YALC organiser, Katherine Woodfine, said: “We’ve put together our most ambitious programme to date for 2016 – packed full of illustrious authors covering topics as diverse as the importance of music in literature to the moral and ethical responsibilities of YA authors. YALC has quickly become an unmissable event for YA fans and we’re going to make sure it’s better than ever this year with slam poetry, plenty of opportunities for audience participation and THE Harry Potter party of the year.”
Other sessions to be announced today include Saturday's #SquadGoals, where authors Holly Bourne, Sara Barnard, Sarra Manning and Sarah Pinborough will talk everything from ‘BFFs’ to ‘frenemies’, and Friday's Fantasy London, during which Samantha Shannon, Ben Aaronovitch and V E Schwab will discuss their alternative visions of London.
Winner of the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2015 teen category, Sally Green, and World Book Day 2016 author and transgender role model, Juno Dawson, have both confirmed that they will appear at the four-day convention.
YALC will be welcoming back veterans LA Weatherly, Alice Oseman, Taran Matharu and James Smythe, as well as Lisa Heathfield whose Seed was shortlisted for this year’s Waterstones Children’s Book Prize.
Debut authors to be appearing this year include Martin Stewart, author of Riverkeep, whose second novel has just been acquired by Penguin Random House. Harriet Reuter Hapgood and Manuela Salvi are amongst the other exciting new talent signed up to take part.
The line-up is completed with an assembly of YA Book Prize and Carnegie nominees, including Keren David, Non Pratt, Lucy Ivison, Tom Ellen and Will Sutcliffe.
YALC first took place in July 2014, launched by Malorie Blackman as Waterstones Children’s Laureate 2013-2015. Following the huge success of the first two years of the event, described as ‘a hit’ by The Telegraph, ‘a +1 for publishing’ by the book trade's digital platform, FutureBook, and ‘a little corner of utopia’ by The New Statesman, YALC is now a permanent fixture of London Film and Comic Con. Managed by Showmasters, with the support of the UK’s YA publishers, Waterstones and charity partner Book Trust, YALC continues to position YA books at the heart of today’s popular entertainment culture, placing reading alongside TV, films, comics and gaming in the vibrant environment of London Film and Comic Con.
This year the Young Adult Literature Convention runs from Friday 28 – Sunday 31 July and a full schedule of events will be made available online in advance. Tickets are on sale now at www.londonfilmandcomiccon.com
