We Yearn for Yearning
We Yearn for Yearning
May 16, 2026 12:30 PM 1:30 PM Coral Ballroom A
Readers keep saying yearning is disappearing from romance. But is it actually gone, or just shifting? This panel digs into the role of longing in the genre and why that ache is so central to what makes romance work. Panelists will get into everything from the craft of building tension to whether the market’s faster pace is changing how writers handle the emotional arc. We’ll also get into the bigger question underneath all of it: why readers want to ache in the first place, and what the hunger for longing says about us.