NORTHERN HIGHLIGHT    Richard O'Neill Why did you become a children’s writer/illustrator?   I've always loved books as well as stories . W hen I started going into schools 15 years ago children and teachers would ask if the stories I told were in books , and it made sense to put some of the stories in books, so they could travel even further.   The Lost Homework published by Child's Play International, illustrated by Kirsti Beautyman Tell us about where you live. I live in a former mill town in Lancashire called Bury, which has been my base for a number of years, it's a great place, very much reminds me of the Northeast where I was born and brought up. Taken from Ossiri and the Bala Mengo by Richard O'Neill and Katharine Quarmby, illustrated by Hannah Tolson. Published by Child's Play International Where do you write?  Anywhere I can, on the sofa, on park benches , in the caravan, in cafe's, in schools with children. I've also been know...

The Great Northern Meet-up 2021 Saturday 15th May FOR CBN & YLG MEMBERS ONLY We are super excited to announce our next Children's Books North event, partnering with the Youth Libraries Group (YLG) f or a virtual conference for all our members; giving published authors, illustrators, publishing professionals and librarians a chance to network, share ideas and enjoy a few exclusives in a packed morning of events. We hope you can all join us for this special event including a keynote speech from Scottish Book Trust and an exclusive tour of the new Manchester Poetry Library. The virtual conference will take place on Zoom Webinar on Saturday 15th May and is open to all Children's Books North members, along with YLG North West, North East, Yorkshire and Humberside and Scotland members.  FOR CBN & YLG MEMBERS ONLY   Full Programme Welcome to the Conference: Jake Hope (YLG), Emma Layfield, Tilda Johnson and Liz Scott (CBN)   Keynote Speech: Scottish Book Trust Lear...

NORTHERN HIGHLIGHT GABRIELLE KENT 1. Why did you become a children’s writer?  As a child I spent whole weekends lost in the worlds of my favourite book. As an author, I love that I can create my own worlds to try and instill the same sense of joy and excitement in young readers. I want children to feel that magic exists and anything is possible.   2. Tell us about where you live. I live in Middlesbrough in the North East of England, gleefully referred to as the Worst Place to Live in the UK by Phil and Kirsty. As an industrial town, Middlesbrough can be an easy target for classist sneering, however, there are so many wonderful people with huge hearts doing amazing work here. I love that when people see others in need they step up and try to do something about it. Middlesbrough is also smack bang in the middle of wonderful countryside, with North Yorkshire on one side, County Durham on the other, and wonderful beach towns all down the coast. There’s no end of inspiration from t...

SPECIAL GUEST NORTHERN HIGHLIGHT Can you tell us about Z-arts? Z-arts is a Manchester-based arts and theatre venue for children and families. We celebrate the magic of brilliant children’s theatre with an inclusive programme of shows for different ages each season. This includes programming and commissioning high quality, imaginative theatre through our Big Imaginations network. We also run weekly participatory classes in all art forms for children aged 0 to 16, through our Bright Sparks programme. We consult with Bright Sparks members to evaluate the activities we offer, the shows we put on, and what we can do to help make Z-arts even better for them.   Our exciting Creative Learning programme also allows us to work with Nursery, Primary and Secondary schools to deliver workshops and projects in dance, drama, music, creative writing, digital and visual arts. Access is at the heart of everything we do, and our Z-access family fun days encourage safe, supported exploration and creat...

NORTHERN HIGHLIGHT Dom Conlon   Why did you become a children's writer? I've always been a writer, not just at school but in my career. I started out writing stories and instructions for video games and this sort of side-lined into advertising for a number of years. But as part of the advertising I helped develop apps (specifically designed to help children learn about space) which kind of brought me back to writing more creatively (in fiction and non-fiction). Because I'm a copywriter (I think) I tend to work in short-form more and poetry feels like my natural form of expression. The space interest found its outlet through poetry and I self-published a book just so I could get a better handle on the full feel of how my ideas would work (there's a whole load of process thoughts behind that statement but I won't bore you too much). The self-publishing and general sharing on social media led to me being noticed by poets such as Brian Moses and publishing houses (Bloom...

 Northern Highlight Liz  Scott When did you start working freelance ? I moved from in-house publishing to freelance PR in 2008 when I left London to move to Manchester.  My first job in the book industry  was as a graduate at home in West Yorkshire at Bradford Waterstones - the most beautiful Waterstones in the country, that always smelled of a heady mix of books, coffee and lilies! I moved from there to High Street Kensington Waterstones in London to try and start a career in publishing. My first publishing job was as a Sales Department Assistant at Phaidon Press and from there I moved to Usborne Publishing where I realised my heart belonged with children's books. I still work with Usborne as a freelancer on their fiction list, and with Oxford Children’s Books across their trade publishing list. I work with lots of small independent publishers such as Old Barn Books and b small publishing on specific campaigns for both fiction and non fiction, as well as w...