Every day this month, YALSA’s The Hub blog is talking about what the “next big thing” will be in a variety of different genres. It’s a way to tie into YALSA’s YA Lit Symposium theme.

Today, my post on the “next big thing” in contemporary YA fiction went up, and it’s a post I really care about.

Part of why we proposed a panel on the topic of contemporary YA fiction for the symposium last year was because there is not a trendiness to this arena of YA fiction. It’s always been around and it continues to delve into what it means to be a teenager. It explores the struggles, the triumphs, and the whole experience of adolescence.

There’s nothing particularly trendy about it, but that doesn’t make it matter any less.

And that’s exactly how and why I wrote the post at The Hub the way I did. Sure, there are some interesting similarities in topics being written about, but in no way do I think there is a “next big thing” in contemporary fiction. It is and will always be a thing.

Tomorrow I’ll have another post up at YALSA’s blog with October debut titles and wow — I think October might be winning the race for most debuts in a single month.