Writing the Unreal

High fantasy, urban fantasy, paranormal, steampunk, dystopian …

The unreal genres are hot right now, but will that trend continue?  Where did the interest in everything from magic to zombies start, and what's behind their current popularity? Why are teens so keen to read about the fantastic?

Two rising literary stars  talk about the great popularity of the fantasy/paranormal/sci-fi genres and how they broke into an already crowded market.

Lena Coakley’s first novel, the YA fantasy Witchlanders, debuted in August and has already received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews.  It is an ABC New Voices and a Junior Library Guild selection.

Megan Crewe’s debut novel, the YA paranormal, Give Up the Ghost, was shortlisted for the Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic in 2010.  The first book in her YA dystopian trilogy, The Way We Fall, will be published this January.