VIRTUAL EVENT: OH MG! A Weekend of Middle Grade

FACULTY A TO Z

OUR KEYNOTES

According to family stories, Jasbinder was born in a stable close to the foothills of the Himalaya. Until she was a year and a half, she lived on a farm inhabited by a grumpy camel and a monkey called Oma. In her writing she loves creating magical worlds inspired by her love of nature and wild places.  Jasbinder grew up in Nottingham and now has an MA in Creative Writing for Young People, from Bath Spa University. Her debut Asha And The Spirit Bird was shortlisted for the Waterstones Book Prize 2020 and won the Costa Children’s Book Award 2019. Her latest book Tamarind And The Star Of Ishta was long-listed for the Blue Peter Award 2020. Follow @jasinbath on Twitter.

Peter Bunzl

Peter grew up in South London in a rambling Victorian house with three cats, two dogs, one little sister, an antique dealer dad, and an artist mum. After art college and film school, Peter worked as an animator on commercials, pop videos, and two BAFTA-winning children’s TV shows, and wrote and directed several successful short films. Peter’s debut novel Cogheart was shortlisted for the Waterstones Book Prize and the Branford Boase. Moonlocket was shortlisted for the Books Are My Bag Readers award. Skycircus and Shadowsea were both nominated for the Carnegie Medal. Peter lives in North London with his partner, Michael, a fox who visits their garden, and a clutter of house spiders. Follow @peterbunzl on Twitter.

Cressida Cowell

Waterstones Children’s Laureate Cressida Cowell MBE is the number one bestselling author-illustrator of the How to Train Your Dragon and The Wizards of Once book series. She has sold over 11 million books worldwide in 38 languages. How to Train Your Dragon is also an Academy Award nominated billion dollar DreamWorks film and tv series. Cressida is a trustee of World Book Day, a patron of Read for Good, an ambassador for the National Literacy Trust and the Woodland Trust, and she is on the Council of the Society of Authors. She is an honorary fellow of Keble College, Oxford, and has an honorary doctorate from the University of Brighton. She has won numerous prizes, including the Blue Peter Book Award, the Ruth Rendell Award for Championing Literacy, Gold Award in the Nestle Children’s Book Prize, the Hay Festival Medal for Fiction, and Philosophy Now magazine’s Award for Contributions in the Fight Against Stupidity. She grew up in London and on a small, uninhabited island off the west coast of Scotland and she now lives in Hammersmith with her husband, three children and a dog called Pigeon.Follow @cressidacowell on Twitter

OUR SPEAKERS 

Valerie Bloom

Valerie is one of the UK’s best loved poets.She grew up in Jamaica, but now lives in England. She is the author of several volumes of poetry for adults and children, picture books, pre-teen and teenage novels and stories for children, and has edited a number of collections of poetry for children. Her latest poetry collection is Stars With Flaming Tails, illustrated by Ken Wilson Max, published by Otter Barry Books. Valerie was awarded an Honorary Masters Degree from the University of Kent, and an MBE for services to poetry. She performs her poetry, runs writing workshops, and conducts training courses for teachers worldwide.

Joseph Coelho

Joe grew up in the last village in London, Roehampton, in a tower block with his mum and little sister.  After university he was a gym instructor, a salesman, a film extra (see if you can spot him in Agent Cody Banks 2), a transport planner. In 2012 Janetta Otter-Barry published his poems after meeting her at the London Book Fair. His first poetry collection Werewolf Club Rules, illustrated by John O’Leary, was published in 2014 and he’s been steadily writing and performing ever since. His latest is The Girl Who Became a Tree, illustrated by Kate Milner, a story told in poems of a girl grieving for her father. Follow @josephacoelho on Twitter.

Dom Conlon

Dom Conlon is the double-Carnegie nominated author of This Rock That Rock (illustrated by Viviane Schwarz) and Leap, Hare, Leap! (illustrated by Anastasia Izlesou). His poetry has been published all over the blooming place, and Chris Riddell, Kate Clanchy and A F Harrold have said nice things about it. Dom was commissioned by the BBC in 2020 to write one of the poems for their national Make A Difference campaign. He’s fond of libraries, walking, and cake. Follow @dom_conlon on Twitter.

Gemma Cooper

Gemma is a director of the London office of the Bent Agency. She works with authors all over the world and sells directly topublishers in the UK, the US, Canada and Australia. Gemma has represented New York Times and Sunday Times bestsellers, Waterstones Children’s Book Prize winners and many more. Her list is typified by big-concept, commercial series fiction. If you can describe your book in one line, or in an ‘X meets Y’ elevator pitch, she wants to read it. Gemma is very keen to see writers from under-represented communities, particularly those who write chapter books and middle-grade fiction. Follow @gemma_cooper on Twitter

Miriam Craig

Miriam Craig writes books for children and teaches creative writing. She worked on My Golden Ticket, a personalised book published by Wonderbly and the estate of Roald Dahl, telling the story of the reader’s visit to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. Miriam also writes poetry for adults and performs improv comedy. With Lorraine Gregory in 2014 she co-founded #ukmgchat, a popular Twitter chat for writers of middle grade books, to meet each other, share knowledge and discuss writing craft. Follow @miriamhcraig on Twitter.

Mo O’Hara

Originally from America, Mo moved to London because she wanted to live abroad but spoke no foreign languages. After a brief and unsuccessful stint as a serving wench at the Tower of London Mo found work as an actress and comedy performer. Mo’s book My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish, illustrated by Marek Jagucki, was a New York Times best seller. Now, Mo lives in South London with her husband, her two kids and her two (slightly bitey) cats. Mo runs and loves travelling all over the world. Mo has toured all across the USA and the UK and has also visited schools and festivals in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. She has volunteered with SCBWI for about 10 years and loves organising PULSE events with her partner in crime Candy Gourlay. Follow @mo_ohara on Twitter

Candy Gourlay

Candy was born in the Philippines, grew up under a dictatorship and met her husband during a revolution. Her latest book is a comics biography for the First Names series (with illustrator Tom Knight) of the explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who happens to be credited with “discovering” the Philippines. Her novel Bone Talk was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and the Costa Prize in 2019 – it is set in the moment when headhunting tribes in the Philippines come face to face with American invaders. Her novels have also been listed for the Waterstones, the Blue Peter and the Guardian Children’s Book Prize. She loves concocting new events for the SCBWI Pulse stream with Mo O’Hara. Follow @candygourlay on Twitter

Lorraine Gregory

Lorraine is the daughter of an Austrian mother and an Indian father raised on an East London Council Estate. It was when she started making up stories to entertain her son that she decided to follow her dream and try to get published. Her debut was Mold and the Poison Plot – a fast paced, fantasy adventure about a boy with a big heart and a nose to match – for which she won SCBWI’s Crystal Kite Award. Her second book is The Maker of Monsters, a fantasy adventure about a boy who must save the world from monsters and fight his own doubts too. Follow @authorontheedge on Twitter

Cath Howe

Cath runs arts events in schools and other venues, often using her own drama scripts and creative writing. This close contact with her readership brings authenticity and resonance to her fiction. Cath’s debut, Ella on the Outside, received outstanding reviews, was nominated for the Carnegie Medal and won the North Somerset Teacher’s Award. It was followed by Not My Fault, an uplifting story of families, forgiveness and finding out who you are. Both books are published by Nosy Crow who will also publish her new novel How to Be Me in 2021. For schools, Cath has written highly acclaimed primary drama resource Let’s Perform. Follow @cath_howe on Twitter

Stephanie King

Stephanie is a Commissioning Fiction Editor at Usborne Publishing, where she joined as a fresh-faced assistant in 2007, and is lucky to have worked on books by their many incredible established and debut authors across all genres and age-ranges. She has acquired award-winning teen and middle-grade books and worked on younger illustrated fiction series. She also works in-house developing Young Reading series, Fairy Ponies. She is a strong (noisy) advocate for diversity in publishing and a Megaphone editor. Stephanie is looking for strong voices and compelling storytelling across all ages. She would especially love to fall in love with some teen romance, be reduced to hysterics by a funny young series, or be chilled to the bone by something deliciously creepy. Follow @beret_girl on Twitter

Em Lynas

Em is a children’s author with a love of silly poetry, magic, and folklore. Em has been a shelf stacker, a shoe shop assistant, a primary school teacher, an educational publisher and now, an author of funny books. She created a website The Funeverse of funny poetry by children’s authors and illustrators. She is the author of the Witch School books, illustrated by Jamie Littler,  published by Nosy Crow. She lives by the seaside on the North East coast with her husband, Geoff, and although she did have pets when her children lived at home; hamsters, guinea pigs, a rabbit and a jar of stick insects, she is currently petless.  Follow @emlynas on Twitter.

James Nicol

James has loved books and stories his whole life. As a child he spent hours absorbed in novels, watching epic 1980s cartoons or adventuring in the wood at the bottom of the garden searching for monsters and witches. He has worked as a bookseller and still works part time as a librarian when to writing. He is the author of the bestselling Apprentice Witch series.  He lives in Yorkshire in a house with too many books and to many musical instruments with his partner and a black and white cockapoo called Bonnie. Follow @jamesenicol on Twitter

Jasmine Richards

Jasmine was born in London, grew up in a library, and was the first in her family to go to university. After graduating from Oxford, and following a brief stint at New Scotland Yard, she chose a career in publishing over being the next Sherlock Holmes. Today she is the founder of Storymix, a children’s fiction development studio that creates inclusive stories and nurtures voices from under-represented backgrounds in children’s books. She is the author of several middle grade books including The Book of Wonders, a magical fantasy, and Oliver Twisted, a  horror Dickens mashup. Follow @jrichardsauthor and @storymixstudio on Twitter

Rashmi Sirdeshpande

Rashmi is a lawyer turned children’s author who loves taking big ideas and making them accessible and exciting for young readers. She writes uplifting and inspiring picture books and non-fiction. Her non-fiction work includes Dosh: How To Earn It, Spend It, Grow It, Give It, illustrated by Adam Hayes, and How To Change The World, illustrated by Annabel Tempest. Follow @RashmiWriting on Twitter

Kate Shaw

Kate has spent all her career in publishing, first as a publicist at Penguin and then as an agent at Aitken Alexander and The Viney Agency before founding The Shaw Agency in 2019.
She has promoted Booker-shortlisted authors, discovered Sunday Times-bestselling writers and represented multiple award-winning books that have sold millions of copies worldwide in dozens of languages and been optioned for film & TV. She represents the Blue Peter Best Story winner of 2020 Vashti Hardy and 30 other writers including Holly Smale, James Nicol and Serena Patel. Kate’s passions are stories that make her laugh and cry, strong characters and great hooks. Follow @katejshaw on Twitter

Louie Stowell