Description
Just YA: Short Poems, Essays, & Fiction is a powerful collection of literature celebrating the diverse and dynamic experiences of contemporary youth. This open-access anthology features short texts that can be read in a single class period and are designed to spark deep conversations. Organized around themes of identity, love, place, justice, and the future, these works offer inclusive and affirming perspectives. With contributions from acclaimed young adult authors, flash fiction writers, and teacher-poets, Just YA provides educators with contemporary texts that resonate with and inspire today’s students. All content is freely available online, encouraging widespread access and use.
Bonus feature: This book includes 50 pages of instructional materials for teachers.
As an Open Education Resource, please see Open OkState: https://open.library.okstate.edu/justya/
A Google Doc version is here for easy copy and pasting and sharing.
A paperback version is available wherever books are sold.
Sarah J. Donovan, PhD (s/her) (verified owner) –
Praise for JUST YA
This rich anthology of poetry, essays, and fiction showcases a range of energetic contemporary voices writing from varied and shifting perspectives, with an emphasis on currency and relevance missing from commercial textbooks. Perhaps best of all, each entry is pithy enough for discussion during even the most abbreviated class period, and the creative commons licensing allows for generous re-use for classroom teachers. An incredible resource with immediate curricular application and more than fifty pages of ideas for instructional support.
~Wendy Stephens, Ph.D., Associate Professor & School Library Media Program Chair, Jacksonville, Alabama
Just YA is a great step forward in the movement to teach living authors. The voices in this collection speak with an authenticity that appeals to a YA audience and does not overly simplify the complexities of life, its beauty, hardships and triumphs. Overall, a thoughtful collection of works.
~ Kate Currie, EdD
JUST YA invites educators to integrate BIPOC and LGBTQ+ authors into curricula without added cost or pressure. It includes inspiring poetry, powerful short fiction, and model worthy essays, offering insights into Dr. Bishop’s mirror theory and provides foundational texts for students to emulate in their writing.
~ Carrie Mattern, educator in Coachella Valley Desert; author of Wakanda: Opening the High School Classroom to Afrofuturism, Coachella Valley Desert
This open-access collection contains a multitude of age-relevant texts that will greatly appeal to the current generation of students. From essays to fiction and poetry, this collection will be useful both for secondary students as well as professors teaching English method courses.
~Amy Montz, Professor of English, University of Southern Indian, co-editor on Adaptation on Young Adult Novels: Critically Engaging Past and Present (Bloomsbury 2020)
Just YA offers adolescent students relevant and relatable perspectives on the struggle and joy of coming of age. The wide range of voices will engage students and teachers in discussions about identity and belonging to support students as they discover who they are and who they want to be.
~Kerri Flynn, Education Director, The Genocide Education Project
Just YA offers educators and young readers a multiplicity of ways to define and understand adolescent experiences and the impact of finding your own place in the world. Educators specifically will find this collection as a practical resource to have conversations with their students about family issues, trauma, and healing.
~Edcel Javier Cintron-Gonzalez, Children’s and YA Literature scholar & Social Media Specialist, Author of Irma, Maria, Fiona & Me (2023), Normal, IL
This beautiful multigenre text is a wonderful addition to any English methods or secondary English course as the voices and writing found within are perfect examples of how creative writing of short fiction with young adults can inspire the writer in all of us.
~T. Hunter Strickland, co-editor on How Young Adult Literature Gets Taught: Perspectives, Ideologies, and Pedagogical Approaches for Instruction and Assessment