GUEST NORTHERN HIGHLIGHTS Manchester Metropolitan University   You are the new kid on the block! How does your MA stand out from other publishing MAs? We think it’s quite special in that it was set up in collaboration with Comma Press and is taught with them. And within MMU the MA is also collaborative. It sits within the Department of English and the Manchester Writing School, which is home to the biggest creative writing MA/MFA in the country, but we have great staff from the Department of Languages, Information and Communications and the Department of Law and are also increasingly working with Art and Design. As you will know, publishing is a broad field, combining many areas of expertise, which is why this MA is so interdisciplinary. We cover all the key areas, from commissioning and editing to sales and marketing, book design, contracts and rights. And we also offer exciting options in contemporary magazine publishing, literature in translation and writing, illustrat...

 NORTHERN HIGHLIGHT  Katie Clapham  Where do you live, and how would you sum up the place in three words? I live in Lytham St. Annes. The St. Annes on Sea part of it. It’s a bit old-fashioned as a holiday resort now but for the people who live here it’s always been comfortable, convenient and most importantly, coastal! Our beaches are beautiful.   What is special to you about creating children's books, and what is your favourite part of the process?   I do really enjoy the actual writing part but only when I’ve got a starting point. I’m not one of those writers who has a million ideas at any one time, but when I do have a good idea, I like to experiment with different forms and styles, which can often take a story in an unexpected direction. I love those moments of surprising yourself when you’re writing. Creating children’s books is special because you’re creating readers, and a love of books is one of life’s greatest, purest joys – who wouldn’t want to be a pa...

GUEST NORTHERN HIGHLIGHTS Stories of Care  Can you start by telling us about the work that Stories of Care do?   At Stories Of Care, we empower new writers who are ethnically and socio-economically underrepresented in the Arts to tell their own stories and become creative leaders.   The personal background of our Lead Artist and additionally the backgrounds of our creative team inspire our projects, so we have a particular focus on supporting young people from care-experienced backgrounds and (more recently) young people from low-income, non-traditional family backgrounds. Our Children’s Writing & Professional Development Programme is targeted at new writers aged 18-25, who wish to level up the quality of their writing and develop their creative careers by working towards the publication of their first short story for children. Here, we work with our Co-Producer Manchester Metropolitan University to publish comforting and inspiring stories for children aged 7-...

  NORTHERN HIGHLIGHTS Lisette  Auton Where do you live, and how would you sum up the place in three words?   I live in Darlington. Three words: railway, rivers, home What is special to you about creating children’s books, and what is your favourite part of the process?  I love the magic of reading them, and hope I can write a bit of that for others to read too. For me it's making sure that the characters that were missing from my bookshelves are now there, and hoping to encourage others to write their missings. My favourite bit is the "making it up" bit at the beginning, when the idea is all new and not quite pinned down, chasing ideas to see what they become: lots of daydreaming and researching. The best way to stick it all together always occur on dog walks. Then I love the line edit stage - making it sing! First drafts are horrific *shudders*. Tell us about your upcoming/most recent book. "The Secret of Haven Point" was just published by Puffin in February 20...