I noticed in the Whitney Awards that not only is there a Speculative Fiction category, but all of the Youth Fiction category nominees were fantasy. What’s with all the fantasy?
Uhmm, that’s what is popular right now.
The Whitney’s, being a reader nominated award, is going to reflect the general popularity. Right now, fantasy is hot in youth fiction. That’s what everyone is buying and reading. (And by “everyone,” I mean lots and lots of people.)
Which is a pain for people who don’t like fantasy.
But eventually, the pendulum will swing back. The masses will get tired of fantasy and you’ll see more realistic novels coming back. When that happens, other genre fiction will show up in the Youth Fiction category.
I certainly hope you’re right. My book is anything but fantasy. I would call it YA realism. I just hope I can find an agent or editor who will accept it.
Interesting. I wonder why fantasy is so big right now. It sure is popular in the movies, too!
– Chas
http://chas.willowrise.com
… And personally, fantasy bores me.
Just thank J.K. Rowling! 🙂
I doubt the pendulum is going to swing so far back as to make it statistically more likely for non-speculative fiction to start winning awards. As much as some folks dislike fantasy, it happens to be one of the largest selling genres out there, even in adult fiction, and continues to be so for a lot of good reasons. The fact that kids are gobbling these books up like candy is an absolutely wonderful thing, and I don’t think that’s going to stop any time soon, unless the quality goes down significantly in the coming years.