Thursday, September 1, 2011

Why New Adult Lit is the Next Cool Thing

Awesome bloggers Nic from Irresistible Reads and Linds from Bibliophile Brouhaha have teamed together to host Kirsty Eagar Week, in which a bunch of bloggers, of which I am one, are posting to promote this lovely Australian author. Check out Nic's introductory post here! I had the fortune of reading Raw Blue a while ago and it was stunning, so I'm honored to be a part of this week. My post is on older YA--or, as it has been referred to, New Adult Literature.

"Why New Adult Lit is the Next Cool Thing"

Recently I reread Anne of the Island, the third book in L. M. Montgomery's eternally lovely series. This is the book in which WONDERFULLY ROMANTIC THINGS happen because hey, guess what? Anne is old enough to go through those emotions. She finally realizes that she's actually in love with her best friend, Gilbert Blythe, and things that we were desperately waiting for three books to happen finally happen. Life is well in Anne's (and my) romantic dreams.

Anne of the Island spans Anne's college years, where she blossoms from a poised but still emotionally young 18-year-old to a 22-year-old woman with a much better understanding of her emotions. The entire Anne series is generally considered children's literature, but, age-wise, Anne in this installment fits neatly into the infant literary sub-genre some are calling "New Adult Literature."

It’s not quite an officially recognized genre just yet, always faltering in shelf placement between the YA or adult sections, but I think it’s only a matter of time before New Adult Lit takes off. Just like teens benefit emotionally, mentally, and intellectually from having their own literary genre, so can real-life young adults benefit from books that feature people their own age, who are going through what they are going through. I am a recent college graduate and distinctly feel that my reading tastes have shifted from primarily YA to…what? Thus far, there is no “other” where I feel like I belong. I want stories of growth and discovery in the college years. I want adventures of recent college graduates, stressing out over the instability of the job market or being overwhelmed by the newness of their first fulltime job. Much like how, 40 years ago, teens demanded literature that represented what life was really like for them, I want the same for my newly minted “young adult” status!

Pragmatically, new adult lit is a definite potential market. Many of the age groups we now take for granted, such as toddlers, were actually coined by companies to launch a new line of products for their new age groups as recently as 50 years ago. Why couldn’t, or shouldn’t, the same apply to book publishing? Ten years ago you would be hard-pressed to find a YA section in a bookstore. Now, a bookstore without a YA section feels almost out-of-date. As the generation of teenagers who coincided with this most recent explosion of YA literature graduate high school and enter college, what will there be for them to read? A separate bookstore section for New Adult Lit might be difficult to imagine now, but I predict that by 2020 there will be more than a handful of stores featuring a distinct shelf for a burgeoning genre nestled between YA and adult fiction.

Hopefully, within the next few years, authors will not be asked to lower the ages of their protagonists to better fit the established YA lit parameters. Publishers will take the leap and tap into the overdue potential of stories featuring college-age characters and the unique arena of freedom and fear that coexist during these years. Readers are already clamoring for stories set in college—and, as we know, the customer is always (okay: mostly, usually) right.

So why shouldn't there be a New Adult genre?



Be sure to check out the Kirsty Eagar Week schedule on Nic's blog to hear what other bloggers have to say about Kirsty, Kirsty's books, older YA lit, and more. There are also giveaways, so go go go! :)

(Oh, and also, pick up Kirsty's books if you have the opportunity. You won't be sorry.)

17 comments:

  1. I love this! What a great idea. As a recent college graduate (already back in school, *sigh*) I really wish there was more literature for my age group.

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  2. "Hopefully, within the next few years, authors will not be asked to lower the ages of their protagonists to better fit the established YA lit parameters. Publishers will take the leap and tap into the overdue potential of stories featuring college-age characters and the unique arena of freedom and fear that coexist during these years."

    Um, WOW, you nailed it right there in two sentences. EXCELLENT post, Steph, and I couldn't agree more!

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  3. Preach it! Love these type of books. Lovely post, Steph!

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  4. Preach. I've been searching lately for books in the New Adult genre {though I think 18-mid twenties is still a young adult}. I'm going to college this time next year and it's hard to find books in YA with protags. older than 17. Everything about this post is spot on. Thanks for writing it! :)

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  5. YES! I completely agree, love YA and love protags that are college-aged/early twenties that aren't considered YA.

    We need this revolution!

    I just read Anne of the Island the other week *swoons all over the place for Anne and Gilbert*

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  6. Totally agree! While I enjoy YA and adult lit, it would be so cool to read more stuff about people dealing with quarterlife crises (as I am right now). Plus, I find myself writing "new adults" more than teenagers because it's the struggle of new adulthood that resonates more with me right now.

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  7. This is really cool that you brought this up because in my psychology class last semester we talked about "emerging adulthood" which is now a new area of research for psychologists studying human development. It's that awkward stage where you're technically an adult but feel like a kid because you live at home during breaks and still go to school (or at least I do!) and there definitely should be books that address this.

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  8. It's great that you've featured Diana Peterfreund's Secret Society Girl series - I love those books.

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  9. Love this post because I too have been searching for more good 'new adult' books to read. I still love YA, but I find I enjoy the older YA protagonists a lot more. They're closer to my own reality.

    But I agree, I'd love some final years of college books (like the Secret Society Girl books, which are AWESOME!) or just out of college looking for a job. There's definitely a huge market gap, and I hate that authors aren't getting deals because they won't make their characters younger.

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  10. Love this post, Steph! Like you, I could relate more to older YA or New Adult characters nowadays. I would love to read more books that feature characters like those. LOL I even made a New Adult list on Goodreads.

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  11. I really like the idea of New Adult Literature, and I certainly think it fills a reading need out there for those in that in between time (or those of us looking back fondly on it). I recently re-read Anne of the Island too and it was lovely. Then I picked up Anne of Windy Poplars and realized why I haven't re-read it often in the past twenty years - it really was boring compared to the other Anne books, and that made me sad. I'm looking forward to listening to book five later this weekend; it's one of my favorites in the series.

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  12. I can't wait for New Adult to fully take off. I just hope it does it before I'm not a New Adult anymore!

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  13. I LOVE this. I too wish there were more New Adult books as I am pretty much totally lost with what I'm doing with my life, almost three years after graduating from college. I'm sick of trying to find books with main characters my age, only to find girls with great jobs in the city but major boy troubles. The twenty-something chick lit genre is fun, but I want books I can relate to. My early twenties have been the weirdest stage of my life thus far and it would be awesome to read a book with a main character going through some of the same things.

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  14. Amazing post Steph! There definitely needs to be New Adult Lit. It is my favourite age group to read about and is the hardest to find.

    Thanks for participating this week :)

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  15. Here's a Goodread's list of older YA books!

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  16. This would be a neat idea. Though what I'd really love is more YA with a male lead. (much as I like YA, after a while I just want a male lead I can connect with)

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