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[james_davis_nicoll]

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I would estimate that I have, or once had, a couple of hundred SF books written by women (that I know of). None were ever categorized as YA ("And Chaos Died" - a Young Adult Adventure!). So if this is a problem it is a recent one.

I generally don't read YA or romance novels. But I've no problem with those who do, or those who write them - except to the extent that authors I like turn to books I don't (Imagine if P. D. James had switched to YA. Even if they were among the best YA ever written, I'd not have been happy).

William Hyde

[(Anonymous)]

I've got fewer fiction books (approaching 200) by women than I thought I would have, but I also discovered that the number is boosted by whodunnits, where the majority of my books are written by women.

As far as I recall, I've only one YA work in my collection, and it was written by a male author (Poul Anderson), or two if you count the one Xanth book I bought when I was young and rather indiscriminate in buying second hand books. (Unless you count the Dragonsinger books, which I don't.)

I can't imagine anyone thinking that C.J. Cherryh or L.M. Bujold or Connie Willis are young adult authors.

There are plenty of women writing in the paranormal romance and urban fantasy subgenres and while I expect that there are YA works in these subgenres the more prominent books are not. Laurell K. Hamilton, for example, is hardly a YA author.

[martianmooncrab]

but what of the YA stuff written by say, David Weber, Jasper Fforde, or Rick Riordon? or is that then touted as Good YA?

[klgaffney]

My impression is that YA is the genre that's selling right now, so that might have something to do with the labeling. Personally, I think it's great that there's a significant number of best-selling women writers in that category.

If people are going out of their way to shit on it/not take it seriously, is it due to the perception of certain unresolved issues (they're typically about younger folks, some people think it's only about the special chosen one in a dystopia), is it due to popularity among the masses/popularity among women, or is it due to a significant number of women writers?

[dragoness_e]

- Methinks "Coming of Age" stories get classified as YA. That's the main explanation I can find for Ursula LeGuin's Earthsea trilogy ending up in the YA section of my public library. Personally, I think that A Wizard of Earthsea is more than a little adult--I couldn't even begin to get the issues it dealt with as a teenager. As an older adult, it has a lot to say to me.

- Romance gets shit on because it's for and about women, and largely written by women. Just remember kids, escapism for men is fine literature, escapism for women is badly-written fantasy that will twist their little minds and make them have unrealistic expectations about their marriage and thus should be discouraged.

- YA only started getting shit on recently, when some of it became runaway best-sellers, and the usual suspects--elitist pseudo-intellectuals--started dumping on it because it is just too hoi polloi... obviously, it must be genre hack work, and if one of those elitist pseudo-intellectuals writes a best-selling YA novel, well his work obviously isn't just YA, it's literary.

[timgueugen]

Music popular with women often gets treated the same way. People will talk disparagingly of boy bands and female artists popular with teen girls and women just out of their teens. Yet somehow the music popular with teen boys and young men just out of their teens is seen as more cool and creative.

[londonkds]

Oh, in Britain in the eighties when I was growing up, the first Earthsea trilogy was marketed as an outright children's series. I read them as a pre-teen, and still enjoyed them, even if a lot of the philosophical/psychoanalytic stuff went over my head.

[ba_munronoe]

YA certainly seems popular nowadays - books with the "YA" tag are usually prominently placed in the new books section of my library.

[(Anonymous)]

Someone might be able to evaluate the gender representation on this list

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/the-20-best-paranormal-fantasy-novels-of-the-last-decade/

[commodorified]

One could also ask, "why are so many male SFF authors unable or unwilling to write novels one would willingly market or give to the YA market?"