This Week in YA — Issue #57
Welcome to the Voyage newsletter!
It’s another new week and another installment of this newsletter for you this week, my fellow YA enthusiasts.
Some important news: Our TWIYA newsletter is officially switching over to a patreon on February 14th. To continue receiving the newsletter, please click the link in the invitation next week to sign up. 💜
In the meantime, we’ve got plenty of news and an interview with another amazing YA author in this week’s edition!
News and Resources
As a follow-up to last week’s American Library Association Youth Media Awards, Publishers Weekly covers When They Got the Call with the big award winners. Such joy in these interviews!
It’s suddenly February, and Jen at Pop! Goes the Reader shared this month’s Hot off the Press listing some great February YA releases.
Laura at Kirkus likewise shared 9 Teen Books to Read for Black History Month.
As a huge fan of translated books, I was thrilled to see this list of 2023 Children’s and YA Books in Translation on the WorldKidLit website.
If you’re looking for romance this month, Shavantay at SheReads has you covered with the Most Anticipated YA Romance in 2023.
Finally, The Enduring Appeal of the Teen Detective on Crime Reads covers some of the most popular characters on the page and on screen today.
The 5 Questions Interview Series
Each week, this newsletter will include interviews with industry professionals sharing insight about the who, what, where, when, why in YA today.
Today we’ve got an interview with Moses Ose Utomi, whose debut YA novel, Daughters of Oduma, publishes today! Isn’t the cover gorgeous? And as soon as I read the synopsis, I knew this was going to be a must-read for me. Hope you all get a chance to read it soon too, but for now, a little more about the book and the author.
5 Questions Interview with Moses Ose Utomi, debut YA author
ABOUT DAUGHTERS OF ODUMA
An elite female fighter must reenter the competition to protect her found family of younger sisters in this scintillating young adult fantasy inspired by West African culture, perfect for fans of The Gilded Ones and Creed.
Eat. Dance. Fight.
This is the life of the girls who compete in the Isle’s elite, all-female fighting sport of Bowing. But it isn’t really Dirt’s life anymore. At sixteen, she is old and has retired from competition. Instead, she spends her days coaching the younger sisters of the Mud Fam and dreading her fast-approaching birthday, when she’ll have to leave her sisters to fulfill whatever destiny the Gods choose for her.
Dirt’s young sisters are coming along nicely, and the Mud Fam is sure to win the upcoming South God Bow tournament, which is crucial: the tiny Fam needs the new recruits that come with victory. Then an attack from a powerful rival leaves the Mud without their top Bower, and Dirt is the only one who can compete in the tournament. But Dirt is old, out of shape, and afraid. She has never wanted to be a leader. Victory seems impossible—yet defeat would mean the end of her beloved Fam. And no way is Dirt going to let that happen.
ABOUT MOSES OSE UTOMI
Moses Ose Utomi is a Nigerian American fantasy writer, martial artist, and nomad currently based out of Honolulu, Hawaii. He has an MFA in fiction from Sarah Lawrence College and has had work published with Tor and Fantasy Magazine, among others. When he isn’t reading or writing, he’s indulging his restlessness by traveling about, making progress on his martial arts journey, or doing karaoke—with or without a backing track. Visit him on Instagram @ProfSeaquill and TikTok @MosesOseUtomi.
1. Who: Who are your instabuy, go-to YA authors? And which new talent have you discovered recently?
I read across genres and age groups, so unfortunately, I only have time to read a handful of YA books a year. I still love the old school authors of my youth—Beverly Cleary, RL Stine, etc—but I will read pretty much anything by Tracy Deonn, Nic Stone, Jason Reynolds, and a few others. I’m really looking forward to a few debuts that come out this year: That Self Same Metal by Brittany Williams, There Goes the Neighborhood by Jade Adia, and Chasing Pacquiao by Rod Pulido, to name a few.
2. What: What was the most joyful moment in preparing to bring Daughters of Oduma into the world?
There’s a scene later in the book where a character who has had to hold back her whole life finally gets to unleash her full power and emotion, and ever since I finished that scene, I’ve been waiting for readers to get their hands on it. I know that’s very early in the publication process, but it brought me a ton of joy to know readers would get to experience that someday.
3. Where: Where is the state of YA right now, from where you sit? Where do you hope to see it go next?
It’s hard to know, to be honest. YA is a big beast—I can’t imagine how many thousands of YA books come out each year, of which I read probably read less than one percent. But I’m very excited about the diversity of creators I’m seeing. The more perspectives, the better. Representation really does matter.
4. When: Looking ahead to next year (or beyond), what exciting things are next on the horizon for you?
I’ve come to learn that most of being a writer is having things you are excited to say, but that you are contractually obligated to shut up about. So I’m just gonna smile cryptically and say that there are many things I’m excited about, both within YA and outside of it.
5. Why: Why YA? What draws you to writing for this age group?
I don’t think I’ve ever fully forgotten what it’s like to be a young adult. As a reader, those were the best years of my life (adulthood leaves way less time for reading, and I read slower than I used to), and I remember how ravenous and open my mind was. That’s the impression I have of young people today—curious, enthusiastic, ready to geek out and fall in love. It makes them an extremely rewarding audience to write for.
Writing Inspiration from Kip
I’m sure I’ve mentioned before how much I enjoy the interviews we do for this newsletter, but there’s something extra-special about interviews with debut YA authors. Releasing your debut novel is just such a magical thing! So much hard work goes into it, so much effort, and so much heart, that it can almost be hard to believe when you’re finally holding that actual book-shaped thing in your hands!
Almost four years after my debut, I still remember many moments of the journey so vividly—first time seeing my book in a library, first time it appeared on a list with other books I loved, first time meeting readers. And it’s not like it becomes less exciting to hold a second or third published book, but that rush of experiencing those things for the first time is certainly something to treasure.
Also, because publishing seems to be in a really weird state these days, I think it’s especially important to do all we can to help make sure that debut authors are getting as much love and attention as some of our tried and true favorites. So please do give them your support this year, and please join me in wishing Moses a huge congratulations on publishing this beautiful book!
Thank you for joining me on this voyage!