The YA Book Prize celebrates 10 years with shortlist dominated by debut authors

In its 10th anniversary year, the YA Book Prize 2024 shortlist features six debut authors alongside established writers, including previously shortlisted Laura Steven.

Having previously written fiction for adults, Lex Croucher made the list with their YA debut Gwen & Art Are Not in Love (Bloomsbury YA), a queer romance set in Arthurian England. Shortlisted for the Nero Children’s Award earlier this year, Croucher’s witty and heart-warming novel follows the titular Gwen and Art, a princess and future duke, betrothed from an early age. Neither are impressed by the thought of their impending nuptials, but when Gwen sees Art kissing a boy, and Art realises Gwen has a crush on Bridget, a gallant female knight, the pair form a plan.

Penguin Children’s has two titles on the list. Bea Fitzgerald joins Croucher with her first novel Girl, Goddess, Queen, a compelling feminist reimagining of the Ancient Greek myth of Persephone and Hades. Fitzgerald’s goddess will do anything to escape marriage to a brash Olympian - including travelling to the Underworld and confronting Hades. The First Move, the debut novel by Jenny Ireland, joins Fitzgerald from Penguin Children’s with her romance following Juliet, a girl with arthritis, and Ronan, the new kid at school, who unknowingly meet on a chess website.

Steven returns to the shortlist this year with Every Exquisite Thing (Electric Monkey), a dark, Sapphic retelling of The Picture of Dorian Gray set at the elite Dorian Drama School. Steven made it onto the 2023 shortlist with her dark academia tale, The Society for Soulless Girls (Electric Monkey). Former comedian Kate Weston makes up the full complement of titles from Farshore’s YA imprint Electric Monkey with Murder on a School Night. Weston’s hilarious novel follows Kerry and her best friend Annie as they try to solve a series of murders being committed with menstruation products.

Three more debut authors fill out the shortlist. Anika Hussain’s This Is How You Fall in Love, published by Hot Key Books, is a charming fake dating rom-com in which Zara pretends to be in a relationship with her best friend Adnan to conceal the identity of his secret girlfriend. Rock the Boat, Oneworld’s children’s imprint, made the list with Josh Silver’s HappyHead, which imagines a radical, dystopian retreat where teens are taken to cure their unhappiness. Events quickly spiral, however, in Silver’s propulsive debut.

Ravena Guron’s British Book Award-shortlisted novel, This Book Kills (Usborne), completes the roster of new authors on this year’s shortlist. Guron’s fresh take on a YA mystery finds student Jess under suspicion when fellow pupil Hugh Henry Van Boren is murdered.

Set in Victorian England, Sally Nicholls’ beguiling epistolary novel Yours From the Tower (Andersen Press) charts the hopes and dreams of three friends - Tirzah, Sophia and Polly. All three try to find happiness in different circumstances: Tirzah is stuck as her grandmother’s companion, while Sophia seeks a rich husband in London and Polly begins teaching at an orphanage. How to Die Famous (Simon & Schuster) by Benjamin Dean completes this year’s shortlist. Inspired by the author’s past career as a celebrity journalist, this slick thriller follows undercover reporter Abel who infiltrates the entertainment industry to find out what happened to his brother.

This year the YA Book Prize is chaired by The Bookseller’s staff writer Katie Fraser, with Edinburgh International Book Festival’s children and schools programme director Rachel Fox joining the judging panel for a fourth year. Fraser said: “This year’s shortlist truly encapsulates the joy of Young Adult fiction and the astounding talent here in the UK and Ireland. It is a fitting shortlist for the prize as we celebrate its 10th anniversary, championing both debutantes and established authors and the astounding work they have produced.”

Fraser and Fox will be joined by fellow judges Alice Oseman, creator of the Heartstopper graphic novel series, whose novel Loveless won the YA Book Prize in 2021, as well as Anissa de Gomery, chief executive and co-founder of FairyLoot, and Gavin Hetherington, a book content creator. Oseman said: “I’ve been a part of the UK YA community and have felt their support and encouragement for almost a decade, and I can’t wait to return some of that love by shining a spotlight on some of the incredible stories being written right now in the UK and Ireland.”

De Gomery said she is “thrilled to dive into the enchanting worlds crafted by talented authors, discovering stories that ignite imagination and spark meaningful conversations”. Hetherington added: “Knowing how important Young Adult literature was to me when I was growing up, and being able to be a part of something that will recognise the YA books of today, means the world to me.”

The YA Book Prize was launched by The Bookseller in 2014 to celebrate books for teenagers and young adults and to encourage more young people to read books. For the third year, it is being organised in association with Edinburgh International Book Festival, with the shortlisted authors to appear on the festival programme and the winner to be announced during a ceremony on 22nd August.