NORTHERN HIGHLIGHTS Jenny Bloomfield    Where do you live, and how would you sum up the place in three words?   Leeds - Urban, Dales, Evolving   What is special to you about creating children's books, and what is your favourite part of the process?  Children's books are mini-works of art and a favourite book will be looked at hundreds and hundreds of times - not many books get this much attention from their audience! I am always drawing (I've drawn every day since 1st September 2014 - you can see every single day on my instagram @Jennybloomfield ) so I love being able to transfer my sketchbook observations and ideas to a living breathing story. For instance,  The Worry Jar , has some scenes at a swimming pool and I was able to go back to all the drawing I did sitting on the side of the pool while my kids were having lessons.   Jenny's sketches by the pool The Worry Jar, Oxford University Press, 2022.       Tell us about your upcomin...

 Celebrating two years of CBN - Summer Social, Leeds On Thursday 30th June, Children's Books North finally managed only our second ever in-person social event (due to Covid) since our launch in February 2020.  Since that first launch our membership has grown from 60 to over 350, with more than 50,000 blog views and nearly 6,000 followers across our social media. It was a genuine joy to be able to celebrate more than two years of supporting and promoting our members' work, and championing regional diversity in children's publishing with everyone. In those two years we have been joined by the CBN Committee - Tom Ashton-Booth, Maria Rifiuti and Shaniah Shields - who contribute a huge amount to the day-to-day running of the network and were able to meet many of our members for the first time. Maria, Emma, Tilda, Tom, Shaniah We are now into our second year of the CBN mentor scheme for aspiring publishing professionals which aims to support mentees from the North of England an...

  GUEST NORTHERN HIGHLIGHTS The Little Ripon Bookshop Can you start by telling us about The Little Ripon Bookshop - where you are and what you do?  The Little Ripon Bookshop has been open for 13 years. We started small (hence the name) but have since expanded and are now The Quite Big Ripon Bookshop. Ripon is a cathedral city north of Harrogate, on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, surrounded by glorious countryside. Our shop is a general bookshop with a strong children’s section. We run bookclubs, storytimes and author events - we aim to be a local hub for all things literary. Congratulations on being a finalist in the British Book Awards this year for Independent Bookshop of the Year. Can you tell us what that means for a small indie bookshop?  For the past 3 years we have been a finalist for Children’s Bookseller of the Year which has been a tremendous boost. Recognition for what we do shouldn’t be important but it always feels good to get a pat on the back. We tr...

  NORTHERN HIGHLIGHT  Maisie Chan  Where do you live, and how would you sum up the place in three words? I live in the West End of Glasgow. Three words to describe the area that I live in: vibrant,  creative, friendly What is special to you about creating children’s book, and what is your favourite part of the process? Creating stories for children is really a brilliant job to have. I get to use my imagination,  play with ideas, and come up with characters and scenarios that I think might be of  interest or can help some children; that is quite special!  I hope that readers find the  stories I write accessible, engaging and fun. Being a children’s author is a dream job for  me. Two days are never the same. My favourite part is the relief of having readers enjoy  and engage with a story I’ve written. I do like creating new stories and often it is  enjoyable, but sometimes it’s hard too! Some stories come fully formed, others need to...

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-...