What is New Adult Literature?

In early November 2009, Publisher's Weekly reported that St. Martin's Press will develop content targeted toward a specific group of young people: New Adults. Dan Weiss, publisher-at-large of this new venture at St. Martin's, explains that New Adult literature will be geared toward "emerging adults who are navigating career, love and family in a 24/7 connected world."

But what subject matter will the New Adult genre include? Common sense assumes that "new" adults deal with the same issues as all adults, except that they may be dealing with these issues for the first time: first job, first home, first relationship. Therefore, New Adult fiction will most likely focus on young people, college age, late teens to early twenties, transitioning into the modern adult world.

New Adult literature emerges from the popularity of Young Adult literature. Young Adult literature (or YA literature) is a genre written for young people roughly ages 12-18. Though children's books have been popular with all ages for centuries, the term "young adult literature," according to Michael Cart of the Young Adult Library Services Association, came into common use in the 1960s. Since then, the population of teenagers has increased, and YA fiction has risen in popularity to the point that, in July of 2000, the Harry Potter series dominated the New York Times Bestsellers List, causing the publication to create a separate list of bestsellers exclusively for children's books and young adult books.

In November 2009, St. Martin's Press ran a contest for fiction writers in search of manuscripts appropriate for their New Adult category. "Since twenty-somethings are devouring YA, St. Martin's Press is seeking fiction similar to YA that can be published and marketed as adult-a sort of an 'older YA' or 'new adult,'" wrote Dan Weiss's editorial assistant, S. Jae-Jones, announcing the contest on her blog.

Jae-Jones assures that New Adult is not merely an attempt to revive the fading popularity of the genre of women's fiction known as "chick-lit."

"I won't deny that New Adult will absolutely encompass what is known as 'chick lit,' but to say that will only encompass chick lit is too narrow," she explains.

She goes on to mention Tracy Chevalier's Girl With a Pearl Earring as an example of New Adult fiction. "Although [the main character] is young (she is 16), this is the story of a young woman in her first job away from home. ...Remove the historical element, and you'll find a similar story in the works of many 'chick lit' novels. And yet it is so much more than that."

Sources

Cart, Michael. American Library Association. "The Value of Young Adult Literature" http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/profdev/whitepapers/yalit.cfm

Corliss, Richard. CNN.com. "Why 'Harry Potter' Did a Houdini" http://archives.cnn.com/2000/books/news/07/21/potter7_21.a.tm/

Andriani, Lynn. Publishers Weekly. "YA Publisher to Develop Content for Gen Y Readers" http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6705535.html?q=%22dan+weiss%22

Jae-Jones, S. "St. Martin's New Adult Contest" http://sjaejones.com/blog/2009/st-martins-new-adult-contest/comment-page-6/

Jae-Jones, S. "New Adult is Not Necessarily Chick Lit" http://sjaejones.com/blog/2009/new-adult-is-not-necessarily-chick-lit/