YA in SA: YA Lit as Protest, Self-Study and Civil Participation

Last month, I contributed to a blog called Teen Librarian. The idea behind the YAinSA interviews on his blog is to help spread the word about South African authors (whoop whoop!). Matt, the Teen Librarian, feels that SA YA gets overlooked in the wider world which is probably true and bonus points he's trying to do something about it.

I wrote mostly about FunDza in my YAinSA guest post: YA Lit as Protest, Self-Study and Civil Participation

Of course, the concept of mobile novels is nothing new – especially if you follow the literary scene in Japan and China. The difference is that in South Africa, reading YA is not just a fun pastime. In the proud tradition of all of our literature, it is also social activism, civil participation, education and, for many, it could be a ticket out of the vicious cycle of poverty. It is just as Dr Seuss said: “The more you read; the more things you will know. The more you learn; the more places you’ll go.”

South Africa is a big, messy, cultural hotpot; youthful and full of big dreams. Couple that with technological innovation and the immense talent and generosity of our local authors and you get a body of work capable of drawing in young readers from all over Africa and the world.

Read more at Teen Librarian