The YAY YA Festival took place on 12 March and was a day of events dedicated to the “Teen Reads Scene of Scotland”.

Held in the iconic Cumbernauld Theatre, pupils were treated to talks and readings by many Scottish authors and were delighted to be able to meet them ‘up close’ and ask them questions about their writing.

The authors included:

Kirkland Ciccone has written many excellent young adult books and gave an extremely funny opening talk. Kirkland was also largely responsible for organising the Festival so deserves special thanks!

 

Ross Sayers writes the sort of ‘effortless cool fiction that teens should be reading’. He has published a novel for young adults called ‘Mary’s The Name’ and his new book will be coming out in May.

 

 

Alex Nye has written some wonderful ghost stories steeped in Scottish history. She has just published a book about Mary Queen of Scots which will no doubt apperaing in the Library soon!

 

Danny Weston/ Philip Caveney,  revealed his dual identity to the group and gave us all shivers with his scary books, ‘The Slithers’ and ‘The Scarecrow’. His books are always popular with our readers in the Library!

 

LJ MacWhirter is the author of ‘Black Snow Falling’ which has been longlisted for CILIP Carnegie Award.  ‘Black Snow Falling’ is set in the past (over 500 years ago) and sounds like a fantastic read!

 

Moira McPartlin is the author of the fantastic Sun Song Trilogy, including her new novel ‘Star of Hope’, which we can’t wait to read! Paul Murdoch‘s new book ‘Sunny’ tackles racial discrimination and we had a fascinating talk with him about his new book and a diverse range of subjects including Bali, the belt and sectarianism!

Pupils also got a chance to get their books signed by the authors and to take some selfies (as you can see!). We had a great day out and as well as encouraging eveyone to read more, I think we’ll have a few more aspiring writers!