An interview with Aidan Chambers about his 2020 Fincham Press book The Age Between can now be watched in full online
On 4 November 2020, Aidan Chambers’ most recent critical work The Age Between: Personal Reflections on Youth Fiction (Fincham Press, 2020) was launched online at the inaugural YA Studies Association (YASA) conference. At the event – which was co-organised by Fincham Press, YASA, and the National Centre for Research in Children’s Literature (NCRCL) at the University of Roehampton – Chambers was in conversation with his editor, Dr Alison Waller (Reader, NCRCL). This discussion, which covered everything from the theory of ‘youth fiction’ that Chambers elaborates in The Age Between to his long, illustrious career as a widely acclaimed novelist and theorist, can now be watched in full below, or on Vimeo.
In the thoughtful set of essays that comprise The Age Between, acclaimed author and critic Aidan Chambers presents his manifesto for youth fiction, weaving together insights from literary history, stylistics, narrative theory, and other fields. Chambers brings a freshness to the analysis of classic texts such as J D Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Anne Frank’s Diary, and Robert Cormier’s The Chocolate War, and thinks aloud about the shape, purpose, and future of youth fiction in a lively interview with Deborah Cogan Thacker.
Copies of The Age Between are available for purchase directly from Fincham Press or on Amazon UK.