The Annual Event is a month long celebration of all things UKYA, highlighting books by British and Irish authors (resident and national) and asking their views on topic affecting the community. All views are the author’s own.
About the Authors:
Alwyn Hamilton is a Canadian Born, French Raised, London Living YA author. She is the New York Times Bestselling author of the REBEL OF THE SANDS trilogy. Her newest book, THE NOTORIOUS VIRTUES released in May 2025.
Alexia Casale writes contemporary YA, adult crime, and historical Middle Grade fiction with Faber, Viking/Penguin Random House, and Bloomsbury. She’s also a Reader in Writing for Young People at Bath Spa University, and Programme Leader of the renowned MA in Writing for Young People @ BSU. Current research includes Literature across Borders, co-founded with internationally acclaimed Indian children’s author Meghaa Gupta: a project to help children’s books and conversations about them travel across borders to enhance empathy, positive social values around multiculturalism, and engagement with human rights conversations.
Kathryn Clark is a graduate of the Bath Spa MA Writing for Young People. Her work has been long/shortlisted in awards including Times/Chicken House, Mslexia Children’s Novel, Bath Children’s Novel and Searchlight Novel Opening. She was runner-up in the Book Pipeline Novel Contest and winner of the Arvon Novel Opening Competition. Things I Learned While I Was Dead was a winner of Faber’s inaugural Imagined Futures Prize for eco YA sci-fi. Kathryn works as a mentor, editor and reader for all types of writers. She lives in Gloucestershire with her family and two dogs.
About their books:
Title: THE NOTORIOUS VIRTUES
Author: Alwyn Hamilton
Pitch: 1920’s New York Heiresses meets Grim Fairytales. A family who inherits money and magic through a deadly trial of virtues launches into this generations competition after the unexpected murder of the previous heiress.
Find on Goodreads. Find on Bookshop.org (affiliate link).
Title: NOT THAT KIND OF HERO
Author: Alexia Casale
Pitch: When a born sidekick finds herself in the spotlight for the right time on a prestigious theatrical intensive over the Christmas holidays, drama is bound to ensure. Orla spends her life focused on her large, blended family rather than herself. Now, for the first time, she’s got time and space to think about her own dreams and perhaps even to fall in love.
Find on Goodreads. Find on Bookshop.org (affiliate link).
Title: THINGS I LEARNED WHILE I WAS DEAD
Author: Kathryn Clark
Pitch: Asha is dead. Years of medical treatments couldn’t heal her. The only way Calico can save her sister now is by joining her in death – at least until modern medicine can bring them back to healthy life. Cryogenics is the answer. Scientific. Legal. Safe. Or so the doctor would have her believe. But Calico wakes in a post climate-catastrophe future. Technology is limited. She’s trapped in a decaying facility. And worst of all, Asha is missing.
Find on Goodreads. Find on Bookshop.org (affiliate link).
In your opinion, how has social media helped foster the UKYA community?
Alwyn Hamilton: Readers being able to connect with each and authors, as well as authors being able to connect with other authors, has been a huge part of my 10 years in publishing! First on twitter, and then seeing it explode on instagram and now tiktok, I have loved seeing how the book community is always growing and evolving.
Alexia Casale: In so many ways! Things are fractious and difficult now sometimes, but I’ve met so many wonderful people I’d probably not have known otherwise. And, given my current health challenges, it keeps my world bigger and wider and much mor fun that it would otherwise be! It helps readers, authors, teachers and other parts of the ‘book community’ come together to share their passion for reading and everything it can do for people, communities, societies and even humanity at large!
Kathryn Clark: I’d say it’s been key to the development of the community which is a warm and welcoming place to be, full of open-minded people who love reading and writing for young people and are really supportive. I’ve ‘met’ authors, booksellers, librarians, teachers and reviewers through social media that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to meet in real life.
In which ways do you think we can responsibly use social media to introduce YA titles to teenagers? How can we go beyond social media to reach them, given conversations in several countries around re-thinking current legislation on such platforms for minors?
Alwyn Hamilton: As authors, I think the best we can do is talk about our books, and champion other books we love. After that, I’d say parent/guardian responsibility takes a huge part in what they chose to allow their kids to see on social media, and what they chose to buy for their children in bookshops.
Alexia Casale: A ethical stance on what it means to have both freedom of speech and a responsibility to use it wisely is my starting point. I try to be measured, accurate and fair. Where there’s disagreement, I often actively flag it and don’t pretend that I know everything or that my views are necessarily right, though I always do my best to have an informed and nuanced opinion on everything from disability representation to discussing human rights issues. Bringing ethics explicitly into how we talk to teenagers about books and reading would level the whole field up. Most people are good with this, but until we all have a shared sense of responsibility to consider not just the benefits to us of social media but the responsibilities and duties that attach, there will be issues that sour the experience.
Beyond social media, email and newsletters still have real traction if the content is well-designed and of legitimate interest to the recipient. Short video content is, of course, still booming. Engaging directly with teachers and schools offers a way to share valuable content where it can be most useful with budgets so squeezed. I don’t have any answers, but these are some of my current thoughts!
Kathryn Clark: On social media I tend to connect with adults who work with and support teenagers, rather than teenage readers themselves – so other authors, secondary school teachers, librarians, school librarians, bloggers, reviewers, festival organisers and booksellers. We’re all aware of the problems with social media, but by being passionate about writing and reading, being genuine, and encouraging creativity and empathy through our social media content we can hopefully provide some balance.
In terms of reach beyond social media, it would be great if there was more funding for schools and the arts so that author visits could become something realistically available to all students.
How do you think the YA market is going to change thanks to emerging technologies like AI?
Alwyn Hamilton: I sincerely hope we continue to push back against AI books and AI covers, but I think we might soon be in the position of seeing AI marketing, trailers, etc. I also hope we continue to use real artists and people to make those as long as we can though.
Alexia Casale: I really hope people will reject AI books. AI should help us do the things that are boring, frustrating and sap time from really valuable areas of effort. As per the meme going round, I want AI to do the laundry and sort the house, not write my book! Sci-fi has long been due a moment and I think AI will precipitate this, so that bit will be good. I think AI will help with some marketing tasks, and perhaps with finding the readers who’d really love specific books.
Kathryn Clark: There will probably be more dystopian stories about AI and its implications, but hopefully written by genuine humans!
What steps would you like publishing needs to take in response to the rise of AI?
Alwyn Hamilton: I think authors need to champion their cover artists, their designers, all the talented hard working people whose work AI would do a sloppy job of.
Alexia Casale: Pressure the government so that fiction cannot be fed into LLMs without the author’s explicit consent to each project AND payment. Where this has been stolen, AI should find a way to delete that work from its learning unless consent it obtained and payment given. I do not consent even with payment and want the contribution of my works removed – or the LLMs created with stolen content deleted and re-started with only legal content. Recognising the existential threat not just to the industry but to empathy and what is best in humanity is a good first step.
Kathryn Clark: To continue protecting the rights of authors and illustrators, to support creatives whose work as been used without consent in gaining compensation, and to avoid using AI generated work.
Thank you all! For more interviews, check here and don’t forget to check instagram (here) for book recommendations from these authors and more!
#UKYASpotlight 
Leave a comment