Jay Asher
Jay Asher is an American novelist and children's writer born on September 30, 1975, in Arcadia, who works primarily in the genre of young adult literature.
Asher attended San Luis Obispo High School before continuing his education at Cuesta College and then California Polytechnic State University. These formative years in California preceded his career as a writer working in the English language, producing fiction aimed at younger and adolescent readers.
Asher published his novel Thirteen Reasons Why in 2007. The book is a work of young adult fiction, and it later became the basis for a popular Netflix series. Alongside Thirteen Reasons Why, The Future of Us stands as another notable work in his catalog, further establishing his output within the young adult literary genre.
Young adult literature and fiction written for younger audiences form the consistent thematic and generic territory across Asher's career as a novelist and children's writer.
Quotes by Jay Asher
Jay Asher's insights on:
When somebody's face-to-face with you saying, 'I may not have been here had I not read your book,' how do you respond to that? The first several times I traveled, it was almost too much. I was totally grateful, but emotionally, it was really hard.
I thought I was going to be known for my humor. But then I had an idea for a story, which was absolutely not humorous. But, of course, that's the one that sells and becomes big.
What you hear mostly people gripe about adaptations is, 'They took out this scene,' or, 'They had to condense these characters.' I understand why they have to do that. But if you had a favorite character, and now they've been melded together with another one, it's disappointing.
There's no way to know exactly what someone's dealing with, no matter how open you are. You're just never going to know everything.
I think there's always room for humor, especially when you're talking about really serious issues.
Fiction is an easy way to talk about issues: I think it feels less preachy. You can have the students discuss characters in the book as opposed to hypothetical situations, or as opposed to opening up about themselves, unless they really want to.
When I decided I wanted to become an author, I never thought something I wrote would be used as a way to start conversations that are otherwise difficult to begin.
With traditional school visits, I also get to speak with people who haven't read my books and talk about my writing process as well as the serious aspects I write about.
My favorite aspect of being an author has always been visiting different communities and meeting my readers face to face.