From Frybread to Aliens: 2025 YA Anthologies for Your TBR
YA anthologies are some of the coolest books out there, and they still remain some of the least read and appreciated. But there is literally something for every single kind of reader when it comes to the YA anthology—especially if you’re looking at anthologies that bring together an array of writers. Some of these collections have interweaving and overlapping stories, while others are all unique stories taking on a particular theme or concept.
What makes anthologies so great is that you rarely need to read them cover to cover—even interconnected stories don’t necessarily require that you read the book cover to cover—and it’s an opportunity to dip into and out of a world on your own schedule. Read the whole thing at once? Cool. Read a story here or there between other novels? Also cool. You get the opportunity to taste test a wide array of authors, too. This has led me to pick up books by authors who I may otherwise not have picked up because I got a sense of their style I may not have gotten from a book description alone.
You can read a bit about the art and craft of YA anthologies here and here. Both pieces will help you understand what goes into creating these books, and both will also fill up your TBR with outstanding backlist YA anthologies.
So what of 2025?
There are several YA anthologies on the docket for this year. Thematically, they span a little bit of everything from a collection of intertribal Native stories tied to a frybread drive-in to what happens when aliens are accidentally let loose on Earth. There’s a collection about queer activism, a look at the world of book banning from the perspective of those who’ve had their works banned, and more.
All The Love Under the Vast Sky edited by Kip Wilson (January 14)
The entire premise and execution of this forthcoming anthology is brilliant and makes me so, so excited to read it. As the title suggests, this is an anthology exploring the meaning of love. What IS love anyway? This dives into the highs, lows, and everything in between when it comes to love in all of its forms. You’ll have stories here about romantic love, as well as platonic love, self-love to familial love.
The anthology is cross-genre, so whatever your jam is in terms of genre, you’ll find something here. Oh, and it’s all written in verse—yes, that’s 12 short stories about love all in verse. Among the stories are one about two princes who fall in love despite being from enemy Mesoamerican nations in the 15th century; a story about losing a beloved pet in the 1800s; and a myth about a sea-bound siren falling in love with a winged forest spirit. There are characters of all shapes, sizes, backgrounds, and abilities throughout.
It should come as little surprise the lineup of authors is also excellent. Among the contributors are Melanie Crowder, Margarita Engle, David Bowles, Eric Gansworth, Jasmine Warga, Laura Ruby, and more.
Banned Together: Our Fight for Readers’ Rights edited by Ashley Hope Pérez, illustrated by Debbie Fong (March 4)
I’ve got an essay in this collection, so it shouldn’t be surprising I’m excited about this book coming out—but not just because of that, of course. This collection is going to inspire and empower so many young people who know what’s going on in their own schools and public libraries when it comes to book challenges and bans.
Banned Together features a wide array of stories, told through fiction, comic, nonfiction, essays, and more. Each focuses on what’s happening when books get banned, and in addition to the stories, there are practical ways young people can get involved in preserving the right to read. Debbie Fong illustrated the collection, so in addition to being informative, it’s a visual treat. Among the contributors are Kyle Lukoff, Nikki Grimes, Padma Venkatraman, Maia Kobabe, and so many more. This book has tons of resources included for readers who want even more when they’ve finished. And for teens who like seeing people like them making a difference in the world, they’ll discover teen activists working to end book bans.
Generation Queer: Stories of Youth Organizers, Artists, and Educators edited by Kimm Topping, with illustrations by Anshika Khullar (May 27)
Speaking of teen activists, this anthology is entirely focused on highlighting the voices, work, and projects of LGBTQ+ youth activists. It is a collection meant to spotlight their achievements, as well as a collection intended to inspire other young people to stand up for themselves or their queer peers.
Generation Queer spotlights 30 young activists and the projects that they’ve undertaken in order to bring about social justice. Among them are leaders who helped ensure equitable access to bathrooms for trans teens, transgender athletes in Division 1 college sports, and artists, musicians, writers, and performers advocating for inclusivity and intersectionality in the world around them.
Not only does this book include young activists who’ve been at the frontlines of change through protest, it also includes an array of people whose work has been quieter—but just as potent. Not everyone can or wants to be at a protest, but people who want to make a difference will see that their skills might be in policy writing or telling stories featuring an array of people across identities and belief systems.
You could nicely pair this book with any of the anthologies in this roundup, but especially Banned Together.
Home Has No Borders edited by Samira Ahmed and Sona Charaipotra (May 13)
This collection is straight to the point: it’s a treasure trove of stories from South Asian writers that explore everything from first love to what it means to be in community. Among the contributors are the two editors, Jasmin Kaur, Tanya Boteju, Veera Hiranandani, Navdeep Singh Dhillon, and more.
Legendary Frybread Drive-In edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith (August 26)
I love Cynthia Leitich Smith’s books, but I especially loved her middle grade anthology Ancestor Approved, a collection of interconnected, intertribal stories centered around a pow-wow.
Now she’s bringing a similar idea to a YA anthology—one of the only, if not the only, Native American anthologies for teen readers.
Sandy June’s Legendary Frybread Drive-In visits every reservation and urban Native community it can, bringing with it a menu of incredible Native food, as well as live music, movie nights, and everything that helps bring a community together for fun, meaning, and connection. Whenever teens see the neon sign for Sandy June’s pop-up, they know they’re in for something powerful and memorable.
Each writer tells part of the story and offers a perspective from a different Native American tribal affiliation. Some of the contributors include Kate Hart, Angeline Boulley, Byron Graves, K.A. Cobell, and more—there are more than 15 who’ve lent their storytelling to the collection.
Why on Earth: An Alien Invasion Anthology edited by Vania Stoyanova and Rosiee Thor (February 4)
Here’s an anthology for readers who, like me, can never get enough alien fiction. I love alien fiction because it is actually fiction about the human condition; aliens are a way to slightly distance ourselves from our deepest desires and feelings while holding up a mirror with flashing lights to remind us that it is OKAY to lean into those things and accept them as what makes us, well, human.
The premise of this anthology is so fantastic: Captain Iona plans to help rescue her alien brother who has arrived on Earth and disguised himself as a movie star to go undetected. But then there’s a malfunction and Captain Iona accidentally begins an alien invasion, full of teen aliens who find themselves in the weirdest, scariest, and best scenarios they could have ever imagined. Each of the stories links back to The Event, the night the rescue mission went south.
Among the contributors to this alien collection are MK England, Eric Smith, Beth Revis, Julian Winter, Alex Brown, and more. If you’re looking for drama or comedy or love or something else, you’re surely going to find something in this anthology.
Another upcoming YA anthology for your TBR hits shelves in September. It’s Madeline Dyer’s These Bodies Ain’t Broken and it centers disabled and chronically ill characters being the heroes of myths, legends, adventures, and more. All of the writers in the collection are themselves disabled or chronically ill.
