Date/Time
Date(s) - 25/04/2020
2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Location
York Central Library
Library Square - York, YO1 7DS
WE WILL ENDEAVOUR TO REBOOK THIS EVENT FOR LATER ON THIS YEAR OR EARLY NEXT YEAR.
From Harry Potter to Lyra Belacqua, from Tracy Beaker to Katniss Everdeen, memorable characters are at the heart of good storytelling in children’s literature. In this practical workshop aimed at authors of young adult and middle-grade fiction, Martyn Bedford – award-winning novelist and experienced creative-writing tutor – will use short-burst exercises to explore what makes a character and help you to create some of your own.
Martyn Bedford is the internationally renowned, award-winning author of three novels for young adults: Flip (2011) – shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards – Never Ending (2014) and Twenty Questions for Gloria (2016), all published by Walker Books. He has also written five novels for adults, including Acts of Revision (Bantam Press 1996), The Houdini Girl (Penguin 1999) and The Island of Lost Souls (Bloomsbury 2006), and a solo collection of short stories, Letters Home (Comma Press 2017). Between them, his books have been translated into 15 languages and have won six prizes, including the YA categories of the Sheffield Children’s Book Awards, the Calderdale Book of the Year and the Coventry Inspiration Book Awards. All three of his YA novels have been nominated for the Carnegie Medal. Martyn’s new teenage novel, The House that Jacaranda Built, will be published by Yaffle Press in spring 2020.
A graduate of the University of East Anglia’s MA in Creative Writing, Martyn has nearly 20 years’ experience as a creative writing tutor in Higher Education, as well as for the Arvon Foundation and community groups. He is currently a senior lecturer at Leeds Trinity University on the English undergraduate and Creative Writing MA programmes and is a mentor for new writers at the Ruppin literary agency’s Writers’ Studio. To find out more, visit his website: www.martynbedford.com .