Writing YA Fiction
Monday 20/1/25 to Monday 17/3/25
Eight sessions (no session on Monday 10/3/25)
6.30-8 pm
Monday 20/1/25 to Monday 17/3/25
Eight sessions (no session on Monday 10/3/25)
6.30-8 pm
Monday 20/1/25 to Monday 17/3/25
Eight sessions (no session on Monday 10/3/25)
6.30-8 pm
Course description
Join bestselling YA author Melinda Salisbury for an eight-week course exploring the art and technique of writing YA novels. On Writing YA Fiction you'll study the various elements and facets of YA writing - from character development to tightly woven plotting and constructing satisfying endings - by responding to excerpts from three core YA texts chosen to help you understand how to develop your work for a young adult audience. Weekly writing exercises will inspire your creativity and help you develop your practice as writers. You will also submit your own work twice per term, receiving feedback from your fellow course members in the weekly sessions, and from the course tutor in the form of a written report.
Our Writing YA Fiction programme is suitable for both experienced writers and those at the very beginning of their YA writing journey, although we recommend participants are able to dedicate at least two hours a week – in addition to the weekly sessions and their usual writing practice – to reading the core texts and their fellow course members work, the writing exercises and other preparation.
Participants on Writing YA Fiction should obtain copies of the three core YA texts to be studied prior to the start of the course. These are:
Suzanne Collins: The Hunger Games
Patrice Lawrence: Eight Pieces of Silva
Patrick Ness: The Knife of Never Letting Go
All the titles can be bought from our friends and neighbours at The Hastings Bookshop at a 15% discount.
About the tutor
Melinda Salisbury is the four-time Carnegie nominated and bestselling author of multiple teen and young adult novels, including the Sin Eater's Daughter series, Hold Back the Tide, and Her Dark Wings, a Guardian Children's Book of the Year 2022 and a Reading Agency Book of the Year 2022 pick. Her debut teen novel, EchoStar, a tech thriller aimed at 12–14-year-olds, was published in March 2024 by Barrington Stoke, with AdelAIDE following in August 2024 and The Foundation publishing in January 2025.
Her first novel, The Sin Eater's Daughter, was the bestselling UK YA debut novel of 2015, and collectively her books have been nominated and shortlisted for numerous national and international awards and accolades, including the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, the YA Book Prize, the Branford Boase, the Edgar Awards, the 2016 and 2019, 2021 and 2023 Carnegie medals, YALSA Best YA 2022, Eason's YA Book of the Month, and more. Her books have been published in sixteen countries to date.
When not writing, Melinda works as a writing mentor and development editor, and volunteers at a local independent cinema in Hastings. Her agents are Claire Wilson at Rogers, Coleridge and White Literary Agency, London, and Pete Knapp at Park and Fine Literary and Media, New York.
