The Muse & The Marketplace 2024

Is there a child in your novel-in-progress? Does a teenager feature in your young adult novel? For some, children are idealized to contrast with a corrupted adult world; others seek to capture an “authentic” child’s voice and experience—but what level of authenticity is truly possible when adult writers have left childhood behind? This session examines the range of child characters in both adult and young adult fiction. We will consider how authors such as Anthony Doerr, Anita Desai, Malinda Lo, and Elizabeth Acevedo write children in different ways to support the respective intentions of their creative projects. Participants will then be invited to engage in a pressure-free guided writing exercise, bringing a child character to life on the page in a genre of their choosing.