Penguin House of YA Panel event at Waterstones Leeds

Step into the dark with Penguin House of YA!

Join us for an evening of dark academia decadence with plaid-clad YA icons, Jennifer Niven (When We Were Monsters), Cynthia Murphy (Keep Your Friends Close) and Kika Hatzopoulou (Moth Dark) to launch their latest YA novels out this Autumn.Destined to be your new bookish obsession, from edge of your seat thrillers to swoon-worthy romantasy, all with the dark academia twist you know and love.

Don your finest blazers and join these masters of the craft as they discuss their favourite tropes, their writing processes and what inspires their dark and twisty tales.Plus, attendees will have the chance to win an exclusive early proof copy of Penguin’s exciting YA launches of 2026!

Jennifer Niven is the internationally bestselling author of All the Bright Places, Holding Up the Universe and Breathless. Her books have been translated into over 75 languages and won literary awards around the world. She divides her time between coastal Georgia and Paris, with her husband and literary cats.

Cynthia Murphy is the bestselling author of a number of YA thrillers, including the BookTok sensation Win Lose K*ll Die. She has a long-standing love affair with all things scary, reading Point Horrors before graduating to Stephen King in her misguided teens. Studying for a degree in Art History and Archaeology meant that she developed a thirst for anything old, beautiful and very often dead. She tries to combine this with contemporary settings in her writing to make unique and chilling modern stories. Cynthia lives in her hometown of Manchester with her husband and their rescue dog, Loli.
Kika Hatzopoulou is the bestselling and award-winning author of Threads That Bind and Hearts That Cut. She is a native Greek and current Londoner and holds an MFA in writing for children from the New School. In her free time, she enjoys urban quests and gastronomical adventures while narrating entire book and movie plots with her partner.

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Host or Publisher Waterstones