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It's Not Easier Than Adult Fiction: A Panel on YA Fiction

Featuring Livia Blackburne, Abdi Nazemian, & Jen Wang

Anyone who's tried it knows -- writing for young people is not "easier" than writing for adults! Our best-selling and award-winning panel explores the highs and lows of writing for kids and teens.

Livia Blackburne, Abdi Nazemian, and Jen Wang know a thing or two about writing for teens. They'll share their experiences with writing for a notoriously picky audience while navigating adult perspectives and expectations. 

This panel will take place in the Doheny Room at the West Hollywood Aquatic Center. 

Book signing will follow at 2:50 pm in West Hollywood Park.

New York Times bestselling author Livia Blackburne wrote her first novel while researching the neuroscience of reading at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  Since then, she’s switched to full-time writing, which also involves getting into people’s heads but without the help of a three tesla MRI scanner.  Her YA books include Midnight Thief (An Indies Introduce New Voices Selection), Rosemarked (A YALSA Teens Top Ten Nominee), Disney’s Feather and Flame, and Clementine and Danny Save the World (And Each Other) (A Junior Library Guild selection) as well as the picture books Dreams to Ashes (A Junior Library Guild Selection) and I Dream of Popo, which received three starred reviews and was on numerous Best of Year lists. She is Chinese American and lives in southern California with her husband and daughter.

Abdi Nazemian spent his childhood in a series of exciting locations (Tehran, Paris, Toronto, New York), but could usually be found in his bedroom watching old movies and reading. Abdi’s first novel, The Walk-In Closet, was awarded Best Debut at the Lambda Literary Awards. He has written several young adult novels, all published by Balzer + Bray / HarperCollins: The Authentics (2017), Like A Love Story (2019), The Chandler Legacies (2022), Only This Beautiful Moment (2023), Desert Echoes (2024), and Exquisite Things (2025). Like A Love Story and Only This Beautiful Moment both won a Stonewall Honor, and Like A Love Story was chosen by Time Magazine as one of the 100 best young adult books of all time. 

Jen Wang is the award-winning NYT Bestselling author and illustrator of several graphic novels for young readers including Ash’s Cabin, Stargazing, The Prince and The Dressmaker, In Real Life (co-written with Cory Doctorow), and Koko Be Good. She is also a co-founder and organizer for Comic Arts LA. She lives in Los Angeles.

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