Nova Ren Suma will be celebrating the release of her second YA novel at this weekend’s free NYC Teen Author Festival
The free NYC Teen Author Festival kicks into full swing this weekend with numerous special events featuring many of the best YA authors in the business. On Friday at 2:00 at the New York Public Library’s second-floor Margaret Liebman Berger Forum, Ted Goeglein, Gordon Korman, Lucas Klauss, and Michael Northrop will take on Susane Colasanti, E. Lockhart, Carolyn Mackler, Sarah Mlynowski, and Leila Sales in a “He Said, She Said” battle moderated by David Levithan, part of an afternoon symposium that continues at 3:00 with “Taking a Turn: YA Characters Dealing with Bad and Unexpected Choices,” with Caela Carter, Eireann Corrigan, Alissa Grosso, Terra Elan McVoy, Jacquelyn Mitchard, Elizabeth Scott, and K. M. Walton, moderated by Aaron Hartzler; at 4:10 with “That’s So Nineteenth Century,” with Sharon Cameron, Leanna Renee Hieber, Stephanie Strohm, and Suzanne Weyn, moderated by Sarah Beth Durst; and concluding at 4:40 with “Alternate World vs. Imaginary World,” with Durst, Jeff Hirsch, Emmy Laybourne, Lauren Miller, E. C. Myers, Diana Peterfreund, and Mary Thompson, moderated by Chris Shoemaker. Following that, a bunch of authors will be signing books at the Union Square B&N, from 7:00 to 8:30, including Corrigan, Elizabeth Eulberg, Hirsch, Levithan, Rainbow Rowell, and Nova Ren Suma. Saturday’s symposium in the Berger Forum begins at 1:00 with “Defying Description: Tackling the Many Facets of Identity in YA,” with Marissa Calin, Emily Danforth, Hartzler, A. S. King, and Jacqueline Woodson, moderated by Levithan, followed at 2:10 by a New Voices Spotlight featuring J. J. Howard, Kimberly Sabatini, Tiffany Schmidt, and Greg Takoudes; at 2:40 by “Under Many Influences: Shaping Identity When You’re a Teen Girl,” with Jen Calonita, Deborah Heiligman, Hilary Weisman Graham, Kody Keplinger, Amy Spalding, Katie Sise, and Kathryn Williams, moderated by Terra Elan McVoy; at 3:40 by “Born This Way: Nature, Nurture, and Paranormalcy,” with Jessica Brody, Gina Damico, Maya Gold, Alexandra Monir, Lindsay Ribar, Jeri Smith-Ready, and Jessica Spotswood, moderated by Adrienne Maria Vrettos; and at 4:20 by “The Next Big Thing,” with Jocelyn Davies, Hieber, Barry Lyga, and Maryrose Wood. From 7:00 to 8:30, there will be a Mutual Admiration Society reading at McNally Jackson on Prince St. consisting of Cameron, King, Northrop, Peterfreund, Victoria Schwab, and Suma, hosted by Levithan. And on Sunday, the weeklong festival comes to a close with nearly fifty YA authors taking part in “Our No-Foolin’ Mega-Signing” at Books of Wonder from 1:00 to 4:00, a smorgasbord of talent divided into forty-five-minute groups at 1:00, 1:45, 2:30, and 3:15.