YA Book Stack
YA Book Stack is an in-conversation podcast with Australian authors who discuss the application of their text in the middle years English classroom and the ways their text is reflective of the experiences of young adult readers and the world they engage with. Through a focus on the text in the classroom, YA Book Stack aims to encourage educators to embrace the flexibility of the middle years and explore a broader range of texts in their curriculum.
YA Book Stack
Kay Kerr's authentic writing on neurodiversity
Kay Kerr is an autistic journalist and author who writes fiction and non-fiction that explores the oftentimes surreal life experiences of neurodivergent young people. She has published two Young Adult novels, and a narrative non-fiction book. Kay has a new novel coming out this year (2025) with Pan Macmillan called Might Cry Later, as well as an essay in the UQP anthology of autistic writers: Someone Like Me.
This episode includes a discussion of Love & Autism, Social Queue and Please Don't Hug Me, all by Kay Kerr, as well as reading recommendations including:
Peta Lyre's Rating Normal by Anna Whateley
Nina Kenwood novels
The Skin I'm In by Steph Tisdell
Also discussed are:
- Non-linear career paths
- Using romance texts in the classroom
- Writing diverse autistic characters, and using fiction to fight against outdated and monolithic understandings of what autism is
- The potential of 'communication' as a narrative theme to unpack in a text study