a onblur=”try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}” href=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eZdkQLGnLf4/TYK9CF2Zi5I/AAAAAAAABsE/dzZ751Y8kiU/s1600/YACafe-LOGO-orange.png”img id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5585234331520568210″ style=”FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 175px” alt=”" src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-eZdkQLGnLf4/TYK9CF2Zi5I/AAAAAAAABsE/dzZ751Y8kiU/s200/YACafe-LOGO-orange.png” border=”0″ //a div style=”TEXT-ALIGN: left”emWelcome back to YA Cafe, where book lovers can gather and chat about teen literature. I’m your barista, along with Gabriela from /ema href=”http://iggiandgabi.blogspot.com/”emiggiamp;gabi/em/aem./em/divdiv style=”TEXT-ALIGN: left”embr //em/divdiv style=”TEXT-ALIGN: left”emEach Friday we pick from a menu of topics and share our thoughts on our respective blogs. We’ve also got plans brewing for interviews, events and even some exciting giveaways, so stay tuned! Join the discussion by responding in the comments, on your own blogs or on twitter using the hash tag #yacafe./em/divdiv style=”TEXT-ALIGN: left”i/i/divibr //idivdiv style=”TEXT-ALIGN: left”bspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”color:#ff9900;”Today’s Special:/span /bShort Stories for Teens/div/divdiv style=”TEXT-ALIGN: left”br //divdiv style=”TEXT-ALIGN: left”Have you ever wondered why there aren’t a lot of short stories published for teens? I have. Is it because they don’t like them as much as novels? When I was in high school, I enjoyed reading short stories but I mostly read ones written for adults. I loved the ones published in iSeventeen/i iMagazine/i, which I could better relate to, and I even entered their short story contests./divdiv style=”TEXT-ALIGN: left”br //divdiv style=”TEXT-ALIGN: left”div style=”TEXT-ALIGN: left”There are a ton of short stories published for adults, in book anthologies and magazines. Not so much for teens. A few YA anthologies exist but the market isn’t huge./div/divdiv style=”TEXT-ALIGN: left”br //divdiv style=”TEXT-ALIGN: left”A few friends of mine (who were in my same MFA program) wondered about this too and decided to start their own online literary magazine for teens called a href=”http://www.verbalpyrotechnics.com/”ibVerbal Pyrotechnics/b/i/a. It’s a *free* e-zine filled not only with short stories for teens, but also poetry and non-fiction. Each issue also features an interview with a young adult author. Their first issue just released this week so a href=”http://verbalpyrotechnics.com/vp_issue1.pdf”click here to read it/a. It’s really wonderful and I wish it had existed when I was a teen!/divdiv style=”TEXT-ALIGN: left”br //divdiv style=”TEXT-ALIGN: left”img id=”BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5585231482080280306″ style=”DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 158px; TEXT-ALIGN: center” alt=”" src=”http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_V3YRYNSmNo/TYK6cO25PvI/AAAAAAAABr8/5-0_67H3X_E/s400/Screen%2Bshot%2B2011-03-17%2Bat%2B9.48.50%2BPM.png” border=”0″ //divdiv style=”TEXT-ALIGN: left”spanspanFrom their a href=”http://blog.verbalpyrotechnics.com/”blog/a:br /br /emstrongVerbal Pyrotechnics/strong prides itself on finding the sort of original, creative, clever and thought-provoking short teen literature you’re unlikely to find anywhere else. From the quirky, introspective mystery central to Emma Komlos-Hrobsky’s “The Secrets of a Professional Mentalist” to the quiet dignity of Bernard Lumpkin’s “The Cops” to the gritty, contemporary love story of Alex Millard’s “When I Laugh” to the brutal honesty of Molly Gallentine’s “Clyde” to the frenetic internal monologue in Seth Graves’ poem “Sayings in Byhalia” to the thoughtful reminiscence of Ann Malaspina’s “Gone”—no matter who you are or what you’re into, we have something for you.br //embr /Sounds great, right? To learn more about Verbal Pyrotechnics, check out their a href=”http://verbalpyrotechnics.com/”website/a, a href=”http://www.facebook.com/Verbalpyrotechnics”facebook /aand a href=”http://twitter.com/verbalpyro”twitter/a page.br /br /Also, if you write young adult fiction, non-fiction, poetry or even comics, you can submit your work to be considered for their second issue. a href=”http://blog.verbalpyrotechnics.com/submission-policy”Click here for their submission policy/a.br /br /They are having a reading to celebrate the launch of their first issue so if you live in or near New York City, you should come by!br /strongLocation:/strong Postmark Cafe- 326 6th St Brooklyn, New Yorkbr /strongTime:/strong 7:00-8:30br /spanstrongDate:/strong March 18th, 2011br /strongAfter Party:/strong Park Slope Ale House- 356 6th Ave Brooklyn, New Yorkbr /br /strongWhat you think about short stories for teens? Do you think there should be more of them? Have any recommendations to share?/strongbr /br /emFellow barista, Gabriela at a href=”http://iggiandgabi.blogspot.com/”iggiamp;gabi /ashares her thoughts on her blog so check it out!/em /span/span/spanspan style=”font-size:+0;”span style=”font-size:+0;”ispan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”COLOR: rgb(17,17,17); LINE-HEIGHT: 22px; FONT-STYLE: normalfont-size:15;” /div/span/i/span/span