Youth Truth: Shifts, Trends, and Possibilities Young Adult Nonfiction

Abstract This chapter calls for reconceptualizing young adult (YA) nonfiction literature to mean story-based nonfiction written for, about, and by adolescents. Historically and today, the genre label of YA nonfiction has been conflated with nonfiction written for younger children and expository forms of nonfiction, rendering the label amorphous to fit many ages of readers for many purposes. These ambiguities are amplified by how nonfiction has been used in schooling and curricula. However, recent publishing in YA nonfiction is innovative within the field of young adult literature and reflective of popular trends in the field of creative nonfiction, as exemplified by four key subgenres: YA nonfiction written specifically for youth, young readers’ editions of adult nonfiction, graphic nonfiction, and youth-authored nonfiction. Notable YA nonfiction titles published in these categories underscore the value of story-based nonfiction for, about, and by youth, and the necessity of differentiating and clarifying the definition of YA nonfiction.