What is #UKYASpotlight?

UKYASpotlight seeks to raise awareness of the incredible stories written by the amazing authors who make up the UKYA community. Due to the disparity in market and population size (and thus social media reach), these stories often get lost amongst the huge volume of promotion for USYA.

This means that UK teens can struggle to find stories that reflect their experience of living in the UK and Ireland. We want UK and Irish Young Adults to be able to find stories that they can see themselves in.

What is UKYA?

UKYA refers to books written for teens and young adults by authors who identify as British or Irish, resident or national. It represents a wide range of experiences, genres, and publishers. 

To find out how to get involved, click here.

History of #UKYASpotlight

UKYASpotlight started in 2020 when English teacher Beth had a tantrum. Fed up of seeing her secondary students pull out the same few US titles that they said they struggled to see themselves in, she resolved to highlight the incredible range of UK and Irish YA books available. She took to instagram and in the first year used her own collection of UKYA to shout about incredible stories and authors that might otherwise go ignored.

Sifa then came on board, bringing with her a love of spreadsheets, to help organise subsequent events. Together, they have expanded the event to an annual month-long celebration, involving authors from across the British Isles and Ireland. The 2024 event saw more than 80 authors taking part..

In 2025, the project will expand to be year round. Though the month-long celebration remains the focus, mini-spotlights throughout the year will highlight the amazing talent and stories told by British and Irish authors.

About the organisers

Beth Knight is a chronically ADHD Cat mama, who can’t stop buying books, and needs to finish many writing projects. She lives and teaches English and Modern Foreign Languages in a boarding school in deepest darkest Yorkshire with her feline overlord void, Artemis.

Sifa Poulton is an autistic nuclear physicist and book lover. By day, she studies for a PhD with the University of Surrey and the National Physical Laboratory and by night, she is a book blogger. In her spare time, she can be found tramping around ruined castles. She lives in London.

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