What about young adult non-fiction? : profiling the young adult memoir

Despite significant scholarly interest in the genre of memoir, the young adult memoir – as a subset of both young adult writing and the memoir more generally – has attracted far less attention. This introductory study understands the young adult memoir as a form of both life writing and creative writing. As a frame to the discussion, it outlines the history of scholarship and interest in young adult non- fiction, and then surveys a number of examples of the contemporary young adult memoir in order to provide a preliminary narrative profile of the form. This includes texts written for young adults by both adult and younger authors, as well as crossover texts. In identifying some common and more unusual subjects and narrative styles and forms, as well as remarking on the voice utilised in these texts, this article posits that the young adult memoir can be described as a distinct subset of both young adult and life writing texts and is, therefore, worthy of further detailed investigation in terms of these categories, providing a attempt at a preliminary classification of the form.