Young-adult fiction “is about growing up. It’s about finding your identity. And in some ways, I think that’s partly why these authors are so popular with readers across the board, not just teenagers, because we’re all always trying to figure life out.”

Anika Burgess, a photo editor for Past Tense, combed through hundreds of photographs in order to give each author between six and nine images to choose from. She naturally gravitates to older photographs, she said.

She also wanted to provide the authors with images that had a variety of moods. Some images related to the authors’ ethnic backgrounds, some were influenced by the authors’ signature writing styles or themes and some were wild cards (like the pig costumes, for instance), selected for their visual appeal.

David Yoon, the author of “Frankly in Love,” was immediately drawn to a photograph of Korean children playing at an arcade. His short story is titled “ Rabbit in the Arcade.”

“The arcade was my place as a kid,” Mr. Yoon said. Some of his favorite games were Galaga, Marble Madness and Major Havoc.

“If my parents hadn’t left the country and I had been born in Korea, I could have easily been one of those kids,” Mr. Yoon said. He was around the same age as the boys in the image, which was taken in Seoul, South Korea, in 1987.

One of the photographs given to Ms. Ahmed, who wrote the short story called “Election Day,” actually had a familial tie — which came as a surprise to all.