YalFest Vlaanderen | 20th of April 2018 | FOMU Antwerpen
Signings with (popular) international (young adult) authors don’t happen very often here in Belgium so when I discovered YalFest NL was organising this “spin-off” event in Flanders I knew I just had to go.The author line-up included Tomi Adeyemi (Children of Blood and Bone), Taran Matharu (The Novice), Laura Steven (The Exact Opposite of Okay), Kass Morgan (The 100) and Sara Holland (Everless). For a book lover like me, this was the opportunity of a lifetime.
Most of these authors are debut authors and I found it most inspiring to listen to their writing journeys. The fact that they’re about my age definitely provided me with some extra motivation to keep working on my own novel. One day I’ll get there, you’ll see! It was a very small venue which gave us the opportunity to chat with all of the authors and ask for a picture. They were all incredibly kind and so down to earth which reminded me that they’re actually just people like you and me with the same fears/hopes/etc.
Some quick fun anecdotes: Tomi Adeyemi liked the spelling of my name, Taran Matharu was one of the counsellors for Camp NaNoWriMo April which I participated in and he asked me if I was keeping up with my goal (proud to say I actually was on track at that moment), and Kass Morgan loved my totebag that said: I must resist, I must resist, I bought it...
It was the first year that they organised this event in Belgium so there’s probably still some room for improvement but I really hope there will be a YalFest Vlaanderen again next year. I had a great time and is the perfect way to get into contact with people who love books as much as you do.
My friend and I made a video about our experience, if you’re interested you can find it by clicking this link. We also show you what we got in our marvelous goodiebags!
