Chattanooga State Community College’s Writers@Work program, in partnership with the Southern Lit Alliance, is excited to present the fourth annual YA-hoo Fest, Chattanooga’s only young adult book festival, on September 16-17, 2021. This year’s festival will feature nineteen new and established authors of Young Adult literature, including five authors returning to the festival for a second (or fourth!) time. These authors will share their insights and expertise during the festival’s virtual panel sessions hosted on Zoom. All events are free, but registration is required through the registration link at http://www.yahoofest.org.

This year’s festival will kick off at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 16, with a panel session featuring Renee Ahdieh (The Damned, 2021; Flame in the Mist series; The Wrath and the Dawn series), Cassandra Hartt (The Sea is Salt and So Am I, 2021), and Jeff Zentner (In the Wild Light, 2021; Rayne & Delilah’s Midnight Matinee; The Serpent King; Goodbye Days), who has been a key part of the festival since its inception, and is returning to the festival for the fourth year in a row.

The virtual festival will continue Friday, September 17, from 10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m., with five more panels throughout the day. This year’s panel sessions will highlight intimate interviews and discussions with YA authors as they give in-depth insight into their lives, their creative processes, and their goals as writers. Each panel will offer a unique lineup of three to four YA authors, such as Vanderbilt University’s Writer-in-Residence, Sheba Karim (The Marvelous Mirza Girls, 2021; Mariam Sharma Hits the Road; That Thing We Call a Heart; Skunk Girl); Mackenzie Lee, known for her work in the worlds of both YA (The Nobleman’s Guide to Scandals and Shipwrecks, 2021; The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue; The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats) and Marvel (Gamora & Nebula: Sisters in Arms, 2021; Loki: Where Mischief Lies); and Temi Oh (Do You Dream of Terra-Two?, 2019), who will be joining the festival all the way from London, England.

Since the first YA-hoo Fest in 2018, all festival events have remained free of charge in celebration of young adult and middle grades literature, the authors who write it, and the readers who love it. To register for this year’s festival, please visit yahoofest.org.

A complete schedule of all panel sessions, including full festival lineup and information about the authors, can be found at yahoofest.org. YA-hoo Fest can also be found on Instagram as yahoo.fest, on Facebook as YAhooFestChatt, and on Twitter as @YAhooFestival.

For more information about YA-hoo Fest, contact Joel Henderson at (423) 697-4403 or yahoofest@chattanoogastate.edu. To become a sponsor of the festival, contact Lynda LeVan at (423) 267-6718.