The B&n Ya Podcast

Thank you for subscribing to the B&N YA Podcast! This is a special message to let you know, soon we'll be merging our YA podcast with our main B&N Podcast. We've got so many YA writers joining us in the studio and we cant wait to share these conversations with all of our listeners! Here's more good news: If you've already subscribed to the B&N YA Podcast, you won't have to change a thing. You'll start seeing B&N Podcast episodes in your feed and those will include our episodes featuring YA and Adult writers. ☺️ We hope you'll enjoy hearing the full range of wonderful authors joining us on the B&N Podcast.  From all of us at Barnes & Noble, thanks for listening!

Our guest today is the novelist Abigail Hing Wen, who joins us to talk about her new YA novel Loveboat, Taipei, a coming-of-age story about taking risks, finding your voice, and discovering yourself in places you never would have predicted. Ever's Chinese-American parents have planned every aspect of her future: but one summer in Taiwan -- a trip they've sprung on their daughter as a not-very-welcome surprise might change everything. The result is an absolutely sparkling story that's based in part on the author's own young experience and a program that's still going on today, and it's B&N's latest YA Book Club selection. Abigail Hing Wen sat down with Bill Tipper in the B&N studio to talk about the real summer-in-Taiwan experience that was the genesis for the story of Loveboat, Taipei. A note to listeners:  After this episode we're integrating our YA guests into our main B&N Podcast.  Go to this page to get links to subscribe to the B&N Podcast on your favorite podcast platform, or search for

On today's episode we're joined by Ryan LaSala, for a conversation about his bewitching debut novel Reverie. It's a story that begins as a mystery -- a high school student named Kane Montgomery is recovering from a terrible auto accident that left him nearly dead, and has robbed him of a large part of his memory. When Kane tries to solve the puzzle of what happened that night -- and why people he barely knows seem to treat him as an old friend -- what he discovers will turn his world upside down and inside out. Ryan LaSala has written a gripping YA fantasy in which dreams and reality trade places, and discovering the truth about yourself can have world-shattering consequences. Reverie is our B&N YA Book Club pick for January 2020, and we were thrilled to have him join Bill Tipper in the podcast studio to talk about the unusual path to this uniquely spellbinding read.

Hi YA Podcast listeners. If you're a regular listener you know that one of our most exciting episodes ever was Melissa Albert's interview last December with the groundbreaking fantasy author Tomi Adeyemi, when the writer joined us for a deep dive into her critically acclaimed and hugely bestselling Children of Blood and Bone, the first volume in her West African–inspired series about an oppressed magical class and the girl who fights to reclaim their power. Huge world- building, electric storytelling and indelible characters combined to make that book an instant classic, and now Adeyemi has returned with the second volume in the series, Children of Virtue and Vengeance. To celebrate we're bring back Tomi Adeyemi's visit to our studio, and her conversation with Melissa Albert about the origin of the series, writing love letters to Harry Potter, and overcoming the reluctance to love your own work. 

On today's episode science fiction and fantasy titan Brandon Sanderson joins us to talk about his brand new YA novel Starsight, the sequel to 2018's New York Times bestseller Skyward. Sanderson has made his name with fans all over the world through epic fantasy like the Mistborn series and the Stormlight Archive, as well as the bestselling Reckoners trilogy for young adults. With Skyward, Sanderson says he set out to take a classic fantasy pairing -- think a girl and her dragon -- but gave it a sci-fi twist, matching the hotshot young pilot Sensa -- a girl with a mysterious past and some unique talents -- with an ancient spacecraft powered by a wisecracking artificial intelligence called M-Bot. Skyward was, simply put, a blast, and with its sequel Starsight, the author takes Sensa, M-Bot and her friends into a universe vastly larger -- and more dangerous --than the one she's known. Brandon Sanderson joined B&N's Bill Tipper just before Starsight hit bookshelves for a spoiler-free chat about his new novel

On today's episode we're thrilled to have bestselling author Marie Lu joining us to talk about creating one of the most powerful and popular YA series of the decade, the page-turning dystopian saga that began with 2011's Legend. Her latest novel, Rebel, returns readers to the world of the authoritarian future state known as the Republic, with her focus moving to Eden Wing -- the younger brother who the heroic Daniel Wing has tried so hard to protect. Our frequent YA Podcast host Melissa Albert -- author of The Hazel Wood -- chatted with Marie Lu by phone about writing complex characters, incorporating disturbing social trends into her imagined world, and her forthcoming work of fantasy The Kingdom of Back. Plus, the author reveals the the plucky video game character who was her first inspiration as a writer.

Our guest for today's episode is Akwaeke Emezi, the author of the new YA novel Pet, which is a finalist for this year's National Book Award for Young People's Literature.  Emezi burst onto the literary scene with their novel Freshwater, a powerful story of a young woman inhabited by multiple spirits, and her journey to understanding her many-sided self.  Now, writing for Christopher Myers's Make Me a World YA imprint, Akwaeke brings us the story of Jam, a teenager living in the city of Lucille, a community that prides itself on having been through a revolutionary change — one that eliminated what are known as monsters — those who abused, imprisoned, or did violence to others; where a black trans girl like Jam lives in a happy community with her loving parents Bitter and Aloe.  But when Jam accidentally invokes the magic that lies dormant in her mother's powerful artwork, a strange being emerges, one that calls itself Pet.  Pet is a hunter and it has come, it tells Jam, because there are still monsters in Luc

What would happen if the future were made perfect?  That was the question National Book Award-winning author Neal Shusterman posed in  2016's YA blockbuster Scythe, a story set in a world without hunger, poverty, disease or war, in which human life is only ended by specially trained figures known as Scythes.  But perfection turns out to have its own problems, and the Arc of the Scythe trilogy follows young characters caught up in the question of the price we might pay for having everything we want.  The stakes got higher in 2018's Thunderhead --and now the saga concludes with the breathtaking and ambitious final volume The Toll.  Scythe is B&N's YA Book Club selection for December, Neal Shusterman joined Melissa Albert to talk about this provocative epic, and the challenges of concluding the trilogy.

Maggie Stiefvater is the keeper of a host of odd obsessions, threading her bestselling fantasy novels with vicious water horses, sleeping Welsh royalty, ley lines, and liminal spaces. She’s the author of books including the Raven Cycle, which continues this fall with the first installment of the Dreamer trilogy, Call Down the Hawk. In it she’ll further explore the Lynch brothers and the dark gift of dreaming, taking objects from your unconscious life into your waking one. I talked to Stiefvater about her early ambitions, books that feel like a fever dream, and why Call Down the Hawk is THE book for her.

A  Halloween treat for readers -- we return to our wide ranging interview with the queen of shadowy fantasy, Holly Black! Black's books  straddle the real world and the realm of the fey, or reimagine reality to include magical mobsters, walled vampire cities, and haunted toys. In The Wicked King, sequel to last year’s The Cruel Prince, human girl Jude, raised in Faerie by her parents’ murderer, has seized control of the fey courts through puppet king Cardan. But, says Black, while book one was about what Jude would do to seize power, book two is about what she’ll do to keep it. We talked to the author about pleasure reads, how she writes, and why we’re more likely to forgive villainy if it’s on an epic scale.

On today's episode, we're joined by the writer Rick Riordan, known by thousands of readers around the globe for his blockbuster series including Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the Kane Chronicles and Magnus Chase. Riordan takes his fans on thrill rides through fantasy worlds that draw up on Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Norse mythos, mixing anachronistic humor and page-turning thrills to make figures from Poseidon to Loki come alive as friends or foes — and in the process he's left an enduring stamp on fantasy and adventure for young adults. In his latest series The Trials of Apollo, he's taken a fresh twist, following the travails of a god trapped in a human body. Riordan dropped by our studio to talk with Melissa Albert, bestselling author of The Hazel Wood and our regular YA podcast host. We were especially excited not only to talk about his new book The Tyrant's Tomb, but also to hear about his groundbreaking new imprint Rick Riordan presents, which has tapped up-and-coming writers from diverse background

Nic Stone entered the YA canon with her blistering debut, Dear Martin, in which a contemporary Black teen writes letters to Martin Luther King, Jr, following a galvanizing incident of racial profiling. Her next book was the cliche-cracking love triangle tale Odd One Out, and her latest, Jackpot, is a story of income inequality, teens growing up too soon, and the irresistible allure of a lottery win. I talked to Stone about destabilizing her characters, driving plot through dialogue, and writing the books that become a teen reader’s landscape.

Today special guest is the internationally bestselling author Ruta Sepetys. In novels like Between Shades of Gray and Salt to the Sea, Sepetys has given readers glimpses into turning points of 20th century history through the experiences of characters set right in the midst of these gripping real-world dramas. She's told the stories of Lithuanians sent to Siberian camps by the Soviet regime and refugees fleeing the devastation of the second world war — all via intricately constructed tales of individuals who have everything at stake. Her new novel The Fountains of Silence takes readers to 1950s Spain under the rule of Franco's authoritarian regime; when 18 year old American Daniel Matheson arrives in Madrid, his hope is to capture its beauty with his camera — but his growing connection to a young woman named Ana reveals the struggles that her family faces under the dictatorship, and forces Daniel to make some very hard choices. It's our B&N YA Book Club selection for November and so we were thrilled to g

Laura Ruby is the author of books including the fairy-tale inflected award-winner Bone Gap, the York trilogy, a steampunk series for younger readers, and her latest Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All, a ranging, layered historical tale told by a ghost who can't stop tangling with the living.  She watches over Frankie, a girl consigned to an orphanage in World War II era Chicago in a story of heartache and survival that mixes worlds both haunted and achingly real. We talked to Ruby about what shaped her as a writer and her new book — recently named as a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature.

On today's episode we've got a conversation we've been waiting for since... well, since we heard that author Rainbow Rowell was going to give readers a sequel to her captivating contemporary fantasy Carry On. In Carry On, we meet Simon Snow, the most unlikely Chosen One ever, in his last year at the Watford School of Magicks and having a distinctly un-magical time. But Rowell steers her creation through it via adventure, laugh out loud humor, a wonderfully inventive magical system, and an extremely appealing vampire named Baz. Her fans did everything short of their own magical rituals in the hope that Simon and Baz's story would continue, and now the award winning author of Eleanor and Park and Fangirl has brought this couple back in Wayward Son — and this time she's brought them to America. B&N YA Podcast host Melissa Albert called up Rainbow Rowell on the phone just before Wayward Son hit bookshelves, for a talk about fantasy and fandom, Baz's unique charms, and the special magic of a road trip.

Today on the YA Podcast, our special guest is the celebrated graphic novel writer Mariko Tamaki, in to talk about her razor-sharp and groundbreaking new take on a DC comics character who has crossed over from villainous sidekick to fan-favorite antihero. Mariko Tamaki is the Eisner Award and Caldecott Honor-winning author of celebrated graphic novels including Skim, This One Summer and Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me. With Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass, Tamaki offers a story of teen angst, fierce loyalty, and finding your voice. Bestselling author of The Hazel Wood and regular YA Podcast host Melissa Albert spoke with Tamaki on the phone to talk about the quest to give readers a Harley they've never seen before.

David Yoon is the debut author of Frankly in Love, a tale of fake dating, first love, and life as a first-generation Korean American that deepens as it goes, from a wickedly incisive comedy to a painfully beautiful exploration of how identity is determined by and in spite of our families. We talked to Yoon about his high school years; how fatherhood has changed his craft; collaborating with his wife, the novelist Nicola Yoon; and writing his first novel.

On today's episode we spoke with novelist Shelby Mahurin about her darkly enchanting debut Serpent and Dove. It's a story of deception, betrayal, love and magic set in a world divided between an authoritarian religious government and a mysterious society of powerful witches. Louise le Blanc is a witch hiding among townsfolk who would consider her a monster, and she finds herself in an uncomfortable alliance with righteous witch-hunter Reid Diggory. Mahurin sets their story in an atmospheric world drawn uniquely from French culture and folklore. A short while before Serpent and Dove hit bookshelves, Shelby Mahurin dropped in to out studios to talk about her inspirations and plans for the world of Serpent and Dove, which has also been chosen as a Barnes & Noble YA Book club selection. 

Our guest on today's episode of the B&N YA Podcast is the writer Katharine McGee talking about her new novel American Royals, which hits bookshelves this week. McGee first dazzled readers with her Thousandth Floor trilogy, a glamorously imagined story of wealth, power and intrigue set in the dizzying atmosphere of a future Manhattan in which the word "skyscraper" takes on a whole new meaning. With American Royals, the inventive author places a modern romantic comedy in an alternate reality in which the American Revolution ended with George Washington accepting the crown from a grateful nation — and 200 years later, his descendants still hold the throne. Katharine McGee joined Melissa Albert in the studio to talk about her fascination with history, her love of a great TV cliffhanger, and the sources of her unique, addictive stories.

We are resharing one of our favorite conversations that we originally posted earlier this year, in case you missed it! Leigh Bardugo is the keeper of the Grishaverse, a sprawling fantasy landscape that includes the Shadow and Bone trilogy, the Six of Crows duology, gorgeous fairy tale collection The Language of Thorns, and now King of Scars, the opening title of a duology about Nikolai, the charming, haunted Ravkan king. On the eve of its publication we talked to Bardugo about her path to publication, finding solace in books, what it means to write a zero draft, and the upcoming Netflix adaptation.