I’ve been dying to tell you this for weeks! The new Children’s Writing Fellow has been announced!

Readers, writers, artists, parents, librarians and teachers of Northern Ireland, please welcome… award winning author and illustrator…

PAUL HOWARD!!!

Congratulations, Paul!

Paul is best known for illustrating Jill Tomlinson’s classic THE OWL WHO WAS AFRAID OF THE DARK and THE BURPEE BEARS, a new picture book series from Joe Wicks.

Such beautiful artwork!

One of the great things about this fellowship is that each fellow brings their own particular talents and enthusiasms to the role. We’ve had a writer of picture books in Irish, a YA novelist with a passion for working with teen writers, and now an illustrator!  Illustration is such an important part of storytelling for young people so it’s brilliant to see Paul in the post, I know he’ll do wonderful things with it.

Speaking about the appointment, Paul said: “I’m truly honoured to be appointed our new Children’s Writing Fellow, adding to the amazing achievements of my previous Fellows, Myra Zepf and Kelly McCaughrain. As an illustrator, primarily, I aim to bring a new dimension to the role through promoting visual literacy as an alternative, accessible gateway for students and children of all literacy levels to engage in, building enough confidence in them to read and create their own stories. The Fellowship will also enable me to use the opportunity to take my story-building workshops to schools, who, for whatever reason, have never experienced an author or illustrator visit before, endeavour to seek creative inspiration outside of the classroom and shine a light on the incredibly rich heritage of children’s literature we have in this corner of the country.”

So do look out for whatever Paul will be doing in the next two years and get involved! I hope as many young writers, readers and artists as possible get to meet him!

And in the meantime, Merry Christmas everyone, I hope Santa brings you lots and lots of books!

There was nothing in those mugs. Nothing! Media trickery!

 

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