Gwyneth Lewis was National Poet of Wales from 2005-06. She wrote the bilingual words for the front of the iconic Wales Millennium Centre. She’s an award-winning poet. Her most recent collection is Sparrow Tree (Bloodaxe Books). She has published seventeen books of poetry, non-fiction and, with Rowan Williams, a translation of The Book of Taliesin (Penguin…
Chair of the Royal Society of Literature, Daljit Nagra’s four poetry collections, all with Faber & Faber, have won the Forward Prize for Best Individual Poem and Best First Book, the South Bank Show Decibel Award and the Cholmondeley Award, and been shortlisted for the Costa Prize and twice for the TS Eliot Prize. Daljit is a…
Nicola Morgan, sometimes known as The Teenage Brain Woman, is a multi-award-winning author of fiction and non-fiction whose written and spoken work on young brains, psychology and mental health is loved by teenagers, schools and families around the world. In 2018 the School Library Association awarded her the Outstanding Contribution to Information Books. Her teenage novels…
Sarah McIntyre illustrates and writes picture books such as the Grumpycorn books and The New Neighbours, and works with co-author Philip Reeve on highly illustrated books such as Oliver and the Seawigs, Pugs of the Frozen North, and The Legend of Kevin. She’s seen first-hand how illustration and drawing pictures can inspire children to read and create…
Allan Ahlberg has published over 100 children’s books and, with his late wife Janet Ahlberg, created award-winning picture books, including Each Peach Pear Plum and The Jolly Postman, both winners of the Kate Greenaway Medal. He has also written prize-winning poetry and fiction and lives in Bath.
Sir Alan Ayckbourn, CBE is an Olivier and Tony Award-winning playwright. He has written numerous plays that are staged throughout the world including Absurd Person Singular and The Norman Conquests. Artistic Director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough for 39 years, he has also worked extensively in London’s West End and is considered to be one of the most…
Malorie Blackman, OBE is a writer of children’s and young adult fiction and was the Children’s Laureate between 2013 and 2015. Her series Noughts and Crosses was voted as one of BBC’s The Big Read’s ‘The Nation’s Best-Loved Books’ in 2003 and in 2007 she was appointed OBE. She has published over sixty children’s books and won over…
William Boyd, CBE is a novelist, screenwriter and winner of the SoA’s 1981 Somerset Maugham Award for A Good Man in Africa, which also won the Whitbread Book Award. In 2005 he was appointed CBE and in 2006 won the Costa Book Award for his book Restless. He has written eleven novels and has been shortlisted for the…
Simon Brett, OBE writes detective fiction and was a radio producer whose work includes producing the BBCs first episode of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, as well as episodes of I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue and Just a Minute. For radio he wrote After Henry and No Commitments. He has written a great many mystery novels and in 2004 was awarded…
Tracy Chevalier FRSL is an American-British historical novelist who has written eight novels. Her second book, Girl With a Pearl Earring, won her the Barnes & Noble Discover Award and was adapted in 2003 into an Academy Award-nominated film. She served as Chair of the Management Committee from 2004 to 2008, and was a member and later…
Wendy Cope, OBE is an English poet. She has had four collections of poetry published including Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis and Family Values. In 1987 she won the SoA’s Cholmondeley Award and in 1995 the American Academy of Arts and Letters Michael Braude Award. In 2007 she was a judge for the Man Booker Prize and in 2010…
Cressida Cowell is the author-illustrator of the How to Train Your Dragon and The Wizards of Once book series, and the current Waterstones Children’s Laureate (2019-2021). How to Train Your Dragon is also an Academy Award nominated film and TV franchise. Cressida is a trustee of World Book Day, a patron of Read for Good, and an ambassador for the…
