National Poetry Week

Next week is National Poetry Day (Thursday 7 Oct), but the celebrations are lasting for over a week.

I've been invited to both Jubilee Library in Brighton and Hove Library to perform some poems at the Study Support sessions "We Love Mondays" and "We Love Thursdays". I'll also inspire Young People (9-19 year-olds) to write their own poems and enter a competition on the theme "Home".

MORE INFO HERE

The week after, Wed 13 Oct, I'm co-hosting (with Brian Marley) a FREE POETRY OPEN MIC night, "Every Day is Poetry Day" at Hove Library. Everybody welcome! Doors 6.30pm for 7pm start. Sign up early at the door if you want to read. Special guests: Yvo Luna, Rosy Carrick and Ben Graham.

YOUNG OR OLD ADULTS?

When do Young Adults become Old?

I'm 27 and still feel like a teenager from time to time.
Sadly I'm too old for Youth Advice Centres that welcome 14-25 year-olds.
The Young Adult section in the library is aimed at 13-19 year-olds.

My first novel, Punkindustriell hårdrockare med attityd,
was published and marketed in Sweden as a crossover between
teenage and adult fiction.
Yet, most people seemed to place me in the Young Adult box.

It has never been my intention to write for teenagers.
Even if my stories are about Young Adults
it doesn't mean that Older Adults can't read them.
I've had positive responses from People between 11 and 60.

The novel I'm working on now, Replacing Angel,
has a Young Adult as a main character,
but I still don't know what genre it is.
It is contemporary fiction for sure,
but is it for Young Adults or Older Adults?
Who decides?
I don't want Older Adults to miss out on what I'm writing
just because I've been put in a certain box.

As an example I'm very pleased that Melvin Burgess books
Junk and Doing it can be found both in the Adult Fiction
and Young Adult Fiction sections in Brighton&Hove libraries.

On Sunday I'm performing at the Peace Festival on Hove Lawns.
In the Teenage Tent. (3pm, officially called the Future Tent)
But please feel free to come and see me even if you are an Older Adult.