local chatter: Celebrating Stories and Fostering Literacy

On an otherwise quiet Friday afternoon, an electric current of energy builds in the heart of historic Charleston, South Carolina. Readers of all ages gather, anticipation growing, for the chance to meet their favorite authors at local bookstores, cafes, boutiques, and ice cream shops all over the Holy City. Lifelong friends who originally met in line embrace in the crisp November air. This is YALLFest, a celebration of young adult literature in a joyful weekend festival.

 Running from November 13-14, YALLFest is one of the largest kidlit festivals in the country. Sixteen years strong, it draws thousands of readers, hosting 70+ authors of every genre and style under the YA umbrella.

 Jonathan Sanchez, owner of Blue Bicycle Books, along with authors Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia, got the idea for YALLFest in 2011, as the social pull of the YA community became undeniable. “It was pretty clear that kids were reading a lot more YA titles, and not just that; they would discuss them, they would have critical comments, what they liked, what they didn't. It didn't take a weatherman to see which way the wind was blowing,” he says.

 Steering away from a traditional convention-center style, the City of Charleston is front-and-center for the whole weekend, adding an atmospheric experience that is difficult to find anywhere else. “Being able to bump into Stephanie Garber at a coffee shop between her panels— it's the whole fun of having a festival in a walkable city,” Sanchez adds.

 Core to the festival’s mission is championing teen literacy through accessibility and programs such as Friday school visits. “We help bring authors to Charleston-area schools for a free visit. So even without stepping foot on the festival grounds, the Fest has a direct impact on kids and teens,” says Rachel Stolle, YALLFest’s communications director.

 YALLFest is designed to reach the most fans possible, with no general admission ticket required. Any tickets for keynotes and book signings are either free or low-cost, and all 25+ panels are completely free. There is even a section of the festival dedicated to giving away exclusive Advanced Reader Copies (ARCS) of upcoming releases.

 One of the most cherished YALLFest traditions is the Smackdown, a chaotically fun, author-led game show hosted this year by Ryan La Sala and Kat Cho. We had the opportunity to speak with La Sala about his second YALLFest, and the intentionality behind his genre-defying, queer, horror books.

 Whether you’re looking for community, great books, or simply a unique experience in a richly literary city, YALLFest has something for everyone.  

Learn more at: yallfest.org.

In Conversation with author Ryan La Sala

What’s exciting you about YA lately?

YA is the bleeding edge of books that are beautifully written, incredibly diverse, profound, and expansive all at once. We're in some kind of renaissance where there is great quality out there for identities that have traditionally not been allowed into the industry. Events like YALLFest prove the point that there is so much energy and enthusiasm around sharing these stories with each other. You can’t put that lightning back in a bottle.

Why is Charleston a good festival spot?

There’s always something really beautiful and heartening about a place that has a tradition of celebrating stories. Charleston has been a hub for history for hundreds of years, so it’s not too surprising that in its modern manifestation there’s a whole festival around storytelling and writing.

What’s so special about YALLFest?

Being an author at YALLFest is kind of like watching two TVs at once because in one sense, you’re brushing shoulders with some of the people that inspired you to write in the first place. Your heroes are up there on stage. At the same time, you’re someone else’s hero—possibly even the first really important person they have ever met.

Is there a particular fan interaction at YALLFest that resonated with you?

I’ve had a bunch of really cool experiences. I remember realizing that my life had changed when a reader recognized me at Kudu Coffee. They had not only built up the courage to say hi, but also had a bracelet they had made in the hopes of handing me something important. Getting to have an interaction like that was so special.

You’re hosting the Smackdown again?

Yes! It’s hard to find anything that has the same energy as the Smackdown, with this auditorium full of people watching their favorite authors play silly games onstage. I’m also excited about passing the torch from one author to another, and also thanking the readers for loving us all year round.

Why did you want to become an author?

I started out wanting to write about queer kids with cool, magical powers. While that really hasn’t changed, now I write about kids whose queerness is sort of a power unto itself. My mission as a writer is to create a new mythology around queerness that picks up our cultural legends and puts them into modern settings. I read a lot of horror too, so a big part of my work often centers around confronting the everyday monsters that my community faces.

Tell us more about the horror genre?

Horror is not as niche as people believe. Humans have been scaring each other with stories since the dawn of storytelling, and the fears that we have are almost as personal to us as our fingerprints. When we talk about horror, we’re talking about our ability to metabolize fears into things that are confrontable. 

Now decode why you write queer horror?

Part of the reason I write queer horror specifically is because our monsters look different. The things that are allowed to hurt, harm, or hunt us often take place in broad daylight because it’s so normalized.   Getting a chance to reorient the camera lens behind a pair of queer eyes reintroduces a lot of familiar scares to an audience that may not have conceptualized them in the same way.

What is your writing process like?

It’s like Dorothy in her cabin. I get an idea, and suddenly I feel some sort of pressure gathering in my world, and before I know it, my house and my whole life have been swept up in this maelstrom where I’m thinking nonstop about this one particular thing, brainstorming, and researching, and writing things down in my notebook. There are a lot of witches cackling. Then one day, it all sort of falls down, and I open my door and walk into the world that I want to write next.

Tell us about your upcoming release, “Bodies of Water?”

It is the second book in a horror series (the first is “The Dead of Summer”). I’m excited because my readers will have to do a lot of guesswork about where the story is going or what happens next, and they will all be wrong, which is so fun for me as the author. Things get so much worse! I’m excited to hear people scream.

Read more about Ryan La Sala and his books at ryanlasala.com.