About

Who Are The Contemps?

We are readers and writers passionate about contemporary YA fiction.

Why Are We Here?

Our goal is to help teens, booksellers, and librarians connect with and celebrate books that feature true-to-life settings, characters, and situations, and to let publishers know about the ongoing demand for contemporary stories.

Diverse Authors, Diverse Books, Diverse Opinions

We're all about keeping it real, in our books and on the blog. And with a bunch of us, you can bet our experiences and ideas about life are all over the place!

As part of our promise to keep things real, and to spotlight all of the differences that make contemporary fiction special, we encourage everyone -- blog contributors and readers alike -- to join in on the discussion, to share opinions and ideas, and to speak freely for and about themselves.

That means that some of us will be a little more, um, self-disclosey than others. You might find a few naughty words thrown in (right next to some shiny clean ones). There may be stories about drugs and alcohol, church, making out, hanging out, writing and reading, parents, best friends, sex and sexuality, homework, high school bloopers, bullies, Pollyannas, parties, teachers, racism, hobbies, pop culture, or some odd and lively mashups, and we'll all have different things to say about them (especially when we break out the 80s hair and prom pics... hey, you've been warned)!

Yep. Pretty much anything goes at The Contemps, and we're so not down with censorship -- not of books, not of people, not of ideas, and not of our blog discussions. All we ask of our readers and commenters is exactly what we promise in return: no matter what the topic, we all speak for ourselves, and we're always respectful, honest, and above all...

...totally real.