This Week in YA — Issue #65
Welcome to the Voyage newsletter!
It’s another new week and another installment of this newsletter for you this week, my fellow YA enthusiasts. This week, we’ve got an interview with another fabulous YA author, along with plenty of great reading and writing tips below. I personally found one of the resources below extremely interesting—more from me about that one below! To access News and Resources plus Weekly Inspiration from Kip, we invite you to subscribe using the button below. Thank you for your continued support!
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 YA and MG author Sarvenaz Tash, whose latest YA novel, A Whole Song and Dance, releases today! You might already know Sarvenaz from The Geek’s Guide to Unrequited Love, Three Day Summer, or several other novels and anthologies. I was hooked on this one by the cover, and the blurb drew me in even more—who wouldn’t want to read about a Broadway-bound triple threat? I can’t wait!
5 Questions Interview with Sarvenaz Tash, YA and MG author
ABOUT A WHOLE SONG AND DANCE
Nasrin Mahdavi is a Broadway triple threat—but she’s living a double life.
A freshman in NYU’s prestigious musical theater program, Nasrin spends her days prepping for auditions, sweating through dance classes, and belting her heart out for the viral streaming show she’s been cast in. But on calls with her maman and baba, she’s their jigar talah, the golden child who put her theater dreams aside to follow in their entrepreneurial footsteps as a business major.
At least her whole life isn’t a lie—she is taking a single business course. Except she’s kind of failing it. Cue jazz hands?
Nasrin needs to bring her grade up fast if she’s going to keep her parents in the dark, so she grudgingly signs up for tutoring with the infuriatingly smug and annoyingly attractive Max. And yet...as the semester rushes by, the sparks of anger that first flew between them start to turn into a very different kind of spark. The kind she definitely does not have time for.
Except when Nasrin’s charming though devious cousin takes an interest in Max too, Nasrin has to figure out exactly what has been an act—and what’s for real. Can Nasrin decide what—and who—is truly worth fighting for, and find a way to step into the spotlight as her full self?
ABOUT SARVENAZ TASH
Sarvenaz Tash is the author of The Geek's Guide to Unrequited Love (an Amazon Best Book of the Year, YALSA Top Ten Quick Pick for Reluctant YA Readers), A Whole Song and Dance, Virtually Yours, Three Day Summer, The Mapmaker and the Ghost and the co-author of Ghosting: A Love Story and Hollywood Ending (as Tash Skilton). She was born in Tehran, Iran and grew up on Long Island, NY. She received her BFA in Film and Television from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, which means she got to spend most of college running around and making movies (it was a lot of fun). She has dabbled in all sorts of writing including screenwriting, copywriting, and professional tweeting for the likes of Bravo and MTV. Sarvenaz currently lives in Brooklyn with her family.
1. Who: Who are your instabuy, go-to YA authors? And which new talent have you discovered recently?
Some instabuy authors for me are Rainbow Rowell, Eric Smith, Dahlia Adler, and Amy Spalding. I love a good love story, especially funny ones, and these are four authors who know how to create indelible, three-dimensional characters who face romance, heartache, and hope in equal measures—while also creating laugh-out-loud moments and dialogue. A new talent whose book I’m really looking forward to is Sher Lee. Her upcoming Fake Dates and Mooncakes is so swoony and adorable; I was lucky enough to read an early copy and I can’t wait for everyone else to get their hands on it.
2. What: What was the most joyful moment in preparing to bring A Whole Song and Dance into the world?
I’m a musical theater nerd who—as I always like to say—has all of the passion and none of the talent for performing in musicals. Writing this book gave me a chance to walk in the shoes of a character who does have the chops to make it in that world. And I got to fill the book to the brim with theater references galore. It was so. Much. Fun.
3. Where: Where is the state of YA right now, from where you sit? Where do you hope to see it go next?
I love how much more diverse YA has gotten in the past few years and, because it’s one of my favorite genres and the genre I write in the most, I’m so happy to see the explosion of romantic comedies. I hope the diversity continues to expand, while also hoping some of the censorship issues that have come up in the past couple of years get addressed. Books are one of the best ways for kids to access experiences that both reflect their own and are varied from their own and that access is so imperative to the future of our society.
4. When: Looking ahead to next year (or beyond), what exciting things are next on the horizon for you?
Nothing that’s confirmed though I have a lot of projects in the works including, I hope, a return to middle grade, and possibly some forays into the film and TV world (where I actually got my start).
5. Why: Why YA? What draws you to writing for this age group?
I always have and always will love coming-of-age stories. Everything a character is going through at that age is heightened and feels more visceral and more exciting because a lot of it is stuff that they’re going through for the very first time. There’s also something incredibly universal about that. Everyone has gone through a version of those things just by virtue of growing up.