Welcome to the League of Extraordinary Writers!

Thank you for stopping by!
This blog was designed with you in mind. This blog is to develop a community of people who, like us, love the YA dystopian genre. We hope you enjoy the content we're going to be providing: interviews with fellow YA dystopian authors, book reviews, in-depth discussions on why and how dystopian books work, and fun content such as exploring dystopian themes on film and comparing the old with the new.

Who Are We?
We're a group of 2011 debut YA dystopian authors. Our works run the gamut from near-future psychological terror to interstellar science fiction, but there's one thing in common: these are books about what happens after the world changes for the worse.

Why dystopia? Why now?
Dystopia is one of the hottest topics for books in the YA market right now. There's lot of reasons behind it, as Publisher's Weekly pointed out.

...hundreds of thousands of today's teens are reading future-as-a-nightmare novels—and not just the 1984 and Brave New World classics required by their teachers. ...Why now? Newspaper headlines about swine flu, terrorism, global warming, and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are inspiring authors—and making kids feel uneasy.

 But there's more to it than that, of course. Dystopian literature gets at the heart of humanity. These books aren't about people living day-to-day--they're about people existing in extreme situations, and somehow maintaining their humanity...or not...
 
Giveaways!
We're also planning monthly giveaways for you, our readers. Our first giveaway is going to be announced May 17th, so be sure to drop by then to see what we have to offer. Here's a hint: zombies, steampunk,  aliens, and an author signature...

So, stick around! Explore! See what the world is...and what it could be.

Bio: League Member Jeff Hirsch

Title: The Eleventh Plague

Short Plot: The Eleventh Plague follows fifteen-year-old scavenger Stephen Quinn and his father twenty years after The Collapse, when America was wiped away by a nearly apocalyptic war with China.  When their decision to risk it all to save the lives of two strangers leaves his Dad dreadfully injured, Stephen must lead them to safety in a lost remnant of the Pre-Collapse world.There, Stephen falls in with Jenny Tan, the wild child town outcast, bringing him into violent conflict with a group that is determined to remake the world that was, no matter the cost.

Favorite Dystopian Works: How I Live Now - Meg Rossoff, The Stand - Stephen King, The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins, Feed - MT Anderson, The Road - Cormac McCarthy, Y the Last Man - Bryan K. Vaughn

Why write dystopian? I started writing The Long Walk Home because I thought a world that was poised to maybe, or maybe not, come back from an apocalypse could make a good metaphor for growing up. The war throws the world into a kind of second infancy and it has to decide if it will grow up out of that infancy and, if it does,  what sort of world it might become. That, and it seemed like a really cool backdrop for explosions and stuff.

Whimper or Bang? A sigh.

Online @

Website: jeff-hirsch.com

Facebook: facebook.com/jeffhirschauthor
Twitter: @jeff_hirsch

Bio: League Member Julia Karr

Title: XVI (Speak, 1/6/2011)

Short Plot: In the year 2150, being a girl isn’t necessarily a good thing, especially when your sixteenth (read sex-teenth) birthday is fast approaching. That in itself would be enough to make anyone more than a little nuts, what with the tattoo and all – but Nina Oberon’s life has taken a definite turn for the worse. Her mother is brutally stabbed and left for dead. Before dying, she entrusts a secret book to Nina, telling her to deliver it to Nina's father. But, first Nina has to find him; since for fifteen years he's been officially dead. Complications arise when she rescues Sal, a mysterious, and ultra hot guy. He seems to like Nina, but also seems to know more about her father than he’s letting on. Then there’s that murderous ex-government agent who’s stalking her, and just happens to be her little sister’s dad.

Favorite Dystopian Works: Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien, Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and, of course, 1984 by George Orwell.

Why write dystopian? Because I can't stop thinking, "How would this direction play out?" These are the cautionary tales that may help shape the future. What's not to love about that?

Whimper or Bang? Or not...?

Online @

Website: juliakarr.com

Blog: juliakarr.livejournal.com 

Twitter: @juliaakarr

Facebook: facebook.com/juliakarr 

Email: juliakarr@me.com

Bio: League Member Angie Smibert

Name: Angie Smibert

Title: Memento Nora (Marshall Cavendish, Spring 2011)

Short Plot: Memento Nora is about a teenage girl’s struggle to hold on to her memories—and her identity—in a world that finds it far more lucrative for everyone to forget—and keep on shopping.

Favorite YA/MG Dystopian Works: The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins, The Ember series by Jeanne DuPrau, Feed by MT Anderson, The Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld.

Why write dystopian? Why not? Seriously, though, I didn't start off writing Memento Nora (or any other story) because I wanted it to be dystopian. Nora's world was a logical extension of the what-if questions I asked myself as I wrote. For instance, in what kind of world would average people want to erase bad memories as often we have a grande skinny dolce latte? The answer, unfortunately, was a world not too far removed from our own.

Whimper or Bang? Whimper. Like the folks in On the Beach, we'll hold onto life as long as we possibly can--even longer.

Online @
Website: www.angiesmibert.com
Blog: www.angiesmibert.com/blog
Twitter: @amsmibert
Facebook: facebook.com/asmibert
Email: asmibert@gmail.com

Bio: League Member Beth Revis

Name: Beth Revis

Title: Across the Universe (Razorbill, Spring 2011)

Short Plot: Seventeen year-old Amy has been cryogenically frozen for a 300 year journey to a new planet, only to be mysteriously awoken fifty years early. The ship is nothing like what she expected: the people are different, strange...and one of them is a murderer.

Favorite Dystopian Works: The Giver by Lois Lowry, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and--of course--Firefly and Serenity by Joss Whedon

Why write dystopian? It's the ultimate "what if?"! Shan Yu said, if you really want to know a man, you must hold him over the volcano's edge. There's no bigger volcano than the end of the world.

Whimper or Bang? T.S. Elliot said: "This is the way the world ends / This is the way the world ends / This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper." So...which is it: does the world end with a whimper or a bang? I think the world is a bit like Jabba the Hut...an amorphous blob that constantly grows. The future may kill Earth--but we will grow and expand into new worlds. So, whimper or bang? I guess it's more like the groan of a fat man after a long day at the buffet.

Online @
Website: www.bethrevis.com
Blog: bethrevis.blogspot.com 
Twitter: @bethrevis
Facebook: facebook.com/bethrevis 
GoodReads: @bethrevis
Email: bethrevis@gmail.com