e.g. Tales of Two Cities, VCE literature guide, membership...
YA Book Stack is an in-conversation series highlighting new and diverse voices and texts for students in the middle years. In conversation with VATE’s Education Officer, Emma Jenkins, each author will discuss the application of their text in the middle years' classroom and the ways their text is reflective of the experiences of young adult readers and the world they engage with. Through a focus on the text in the classroom, YA Book Stack aims to encourage educators to embrace the flexibility of the middle years and explore a broader range of texts in their curriculum.
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VATE members have exclusive access to interview notes and the video footage of Emma's conversations after logging into their VATE account. YA Book Stack is available to listen to on this page, or you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Deezer.
2023 YA Book Stack Interviews |
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Robyn Dennison on her text Blind Spot |
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Will Kostakis on his text We Could Be Something Will Kostakis is an award-winning author for young adults, best known for his contemporary novels The First Third and The Sidekicks. An advocate for young readers and writers, Will was awarded the 2020 Maurice Saxby Award by the School Library Association of New South Wales for his service to children’s and young adult literature. We Could Be Something is his latest novel. |
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Previous YA Book Stack Interviews |
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Holden Sheppard on his text The Brink |
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Malla Nunn on her text Sugar Town Queens |
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Poppy Nwosu on her edited collection Hometown Haunts Poppy Nwosu is an author of young adult fiction. She has published three romantic contemporary novels called Making Friends with Alice Dyson (2019), Taking Down Evelyn Tait (2020), and Road Tripping with Pearl Nash (2021), and is the creator of the 2021 YA anthology Hometown Haunts: #LoveOzYA Horror Tales. Her work has been shortlisted for the SPN Book of the Year award, Adelaide festival Unpublished Manuscript Award and the Readings Young Adult Book Prize, and has been awarded the SA Writers Fellowship residency at Varuna Writers House, as well as an Arts SA grant. She has appeared at Adelaide Writers Week and Salisbury Writers Festival among others. Growing up surrounded by cane fields and rainforest, Poppy studied music at university before living overseas in Ireland. She is now based in Adelaide, Australia. |
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Leanne Hall on her text The Gaps Leanne Hall is an author of young adult and children’s fiction. Her debut novel, This Is Shyness, won the Text Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Writing, and was followed by a sequel, Queen of the Night. Her novel for younger readers, Iris and the Tiger, won the Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children’s Literature at the 2017 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. Her latest novel, The Gaps, was published in 2021. Leanne works as a children’s and YA specialist at an independent bookshop. |
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Leanne Hall - The Gaps |
Rawah Arja on her text The F Team Rawah Arja is a writer and teacher from Western Sydney. Her first novel The F Team has been shortlisted for numerous literary awards including the Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature and the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Writing for Young Adults. Her writing has featured in Second City: Essays From Western Sydney (2021), Arab, Australian, Other (2019), SBS Voices and at the Sydney Writer’s Festival. She has received a fellowship from WestWords Varuna Emerging Writers’ Residential Program, is a member of the Finishing School collective of women writers, and teaches creative writing at schools and workshops. |
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Rawah Arja - The F Team |
Gary Lonesborough on his text The Boy from the Mish Gary Lonesborough is a Yuin man, who grew up on the Far South Coast of NSW as part of a large and proud Aboriginal family. Growing up a massive Kylie Minogue and North Queensland Cowboys fan, Gary was always writing as a child, and continued his creative journey when he moved to Sydney to study at film school. Gary has experience working in Aboriginal health, the disability sector (including experience working in the Youth Justice System), and the film industry. He was Bega Valley Shire Council Young Citizen of the Year, won the Patrick White Young Indigenous Writers' Award, and has received a Copyright Agency First Nations Fellowship. The Boy from the Mish is Gary's debut YA novel. |
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Gary Lonesborough - The Boy from the Mish |
Anna Whateley on her text Peta Lyre’s Rating Normal Anna Whateley’s debut #ownvoices novel Peta Lyre’s Rating Normal, Allen & Unwin, is shortlisted for the CBCA book awards. She also has an essay titled ‘Noisy Silence’ in Growing Up Disabled in Australia, Black Inc Books, edited by Carly Findlay. Her next novel, Tearing Myself Together will be released early 2022 with Allen & Unwin. When coronavirus spread, Anna founded the bookish chat show #AusChat just to keep the community together, and the YouTube channel is now funded in part by the Australian Arts Council. She uses her YouTube and Twitch presence to collaborate and connect with the writing community and more broadly with composers, gamers, and interesting folk all around the world. Anna has a PhD in young adult fiction (literary criticism) and has taught sociology and YA/children’s literature to preservice teachers. She loves to attend writer events, conferences, twitter storms, and book launches, and is also a strong advocate for the neurodivergent community. |
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Thank you to the supporters of YA Book Stack, The Little Bookroom, Giramondo Publishing, Text Publishing and Allen & Unwin.