Intended for use by junior or senior high school English teachers, the articles and features in this theme issue focus on romantic fiction and poetry for young adults. The articles and their authors are as follows (1) "The Gift of Poetry" (L. B. Hopkins); (2) "Maybe the Gallows, But Not a Tin Ear" (A. K. Helbig); (3) "A Report from the 1986 ALAN Workshop: Celebrating Young Adult Literature;" (4) "Politics, Poetry and Teaching: A Personal Journey" (A. Adoff); (5) "Seven Myths about Teaching Poetry, or, How I Stopped Chasing Foul Balls" (P. B. Janeczko); (6) "Experiencing Poetry: An Expanded View" (H. Agee); (7) "Writing from Local History: Try Historical Poetry" (M. Angelotti); (8) "From Print to Person, or How to Get an Author for Your School" (M. Wagner); (9) "Love and Lust in the Secondary Schools: Do Formula Romances Have a Place in the Schools?" (S. G. Bennett and A. Kuhn); (10) "Double Date to Double Love: Female Sex Roles in Teen Romances" (J. Litton); (11) "Why I Write...Why I Write What I Write" (N. F. Mazer); (12) "Writing as a Young Adult" (T. Larimer); (13) "Disenchantment Overdose--A New Threat to Youth?" (P. A. Wood); (14) "An Excerpt from 'Buck': Tamela Larimer's Avon Flare Award Winning Novel"; (15) "Now That You Asked" (R. Cline and E. Poe); and (16) "Bifocal Eyes: The Middle-Aged Parent Looks at Adolescent Literature through New Lenses" (S. S. Geary). (NKA)