Helena Pielichaty (Pierre-li-hatty, Chair) never planned to be a writer. The seeds were sown as a teacher during the late 1970s/early 1980s when she wrote short plays and customised worksheets for her pupils. This created a nagging restlessness in her that she couldn’t fathom until she took maternity leave and moved to Nottinghamshire.
In 1987, needing a diversion from discussing the merits of disposable nappies with other new mums, she enrolled on a creative writing course run by the Workers' Educational Association. The course, held in a leaky Scout and Guide Hut only lasted for six weeks but she describes it as ‘…like turning on a tap… one that I couldn’t turn off again.’
Helena has produced over thirty books for children across the age range. Her current series, Girls FC, is based around an under 11s all-girl football team.
Nicola Davies is a zoologist and children's author, who has studied geese, bats, humpbacked whales, blue whales and sperm whales in the wild. She writes non fiction and fiction for a wide range of ages, but all her books are rooted in her love for the natural world. Her publications include a book about the natural history of poo, a guide to climate change, a post apocalyptic novel for teenagers and a series of novels about an imaginary city farm. Her work has been published in more than 15 different languages.
Nicola has twenty years of experience of running work shops for children and adults, from reception to post graduate degree level. She was senior lecturer in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University for six year until 2008. uiiuHer workshops encourage students to combine learning about nature with creative writing, weaving facts and information into lyrical poetic language.
Nicola lives in Abergavenny, but comes from a family whose roots are in the Gower, as miners, steelworkers, small holders and singers.
John Dougherty graduated from the Queens University of Belfast with a degree in psychology and absolutely no idea what he wanted to do with his life. He went on to work as (among other things) a volunteer social worker, a factory machine operator and an extraordinarily unsuccessful singer-songwriter, before becoming a primary teacher - at which point he rediscovered his love of children's fiction and suddenly remembered that what he really wanted to do was write.
His books to date include three comedies about the Greek god Zeus's appearances in a primary school; one about a talking headlouse; two adventures of the world's greatest monster investigator; and two about Bansi O'Hara, a British girl of Indian-Irish descent who has faery blood running through her veins (unfortunately for her, the faeries want it back). He has been shortlisted for a number of awards, and lives in hope of winning something one day.
A frequent visitor to schools, John - having witnessed first-hand the introduction of the literacy hour - is particularly keen to re-establish the link between reading and enjoyment. He is a passionate supporter of the library service, and believes that access to a wide range of stories is fundamental to a healthy childhood and education.
John enjoys running and singing, although not at the same time. He has run three London Marathons without entirely collapsing, and is a member of Bristol-based a cappella group Original Sing. His pet hates include cruelty, onions, and politicians who view libraries as luxuries. He lives in Stroud, Gloucestershire, with his wife and two children.
Sarah McIntyre (www.jabberworks.co.uk) burst onto the children’s book world in 2009 in a shower of mud and bogies with Morris the Mankiest Monster, a picture book she illustrated with poet Giles Andreae, which won the Sheffield Children’s Book Best Picture Book and Best Overall Book awards and the Bishop’s Stortford Award. At the same time, she was writing and drawing a weekly strip, Vern and Lettuce, for David Fickling’s comics magazine, The DFC, which went on to become a standalone book.
When her comic, Scholastic’s You Can’t Eat a Princess! and OUP’s When Titus Took the Train came out in 2010, she was thrown into the events circuit and had a great time drawing monsters and aliens, wearing wacky costumes, and generally making up things as she went along. Despite her short history in British publishing, she’s full of fresh ideas, loves playing drawing games with people and harbours an intense desire to see more crossovers between children’s books and comics.
Sarah is currently working on more picture books, some indie comics and a big Monsterville exhibition at Stratford’s Discover Centre with Neal Layton and Ed Vere. Keep an eye on her blog, which she updates almost every day. http://jabberworks.livejournal.com
Michaela Morgan (www.michaelamorgan.com) was born in Manchester in the era of barm cakes not bistros. She was thoroughly educated and then, after a foray into teaching, set off to explore the world and have adventures. She learnt languages and had numerous jobs, most of which are better forgotten.
Back in Blighty she set up a business and worked in various prisons as Writer in Residence. At the same time she took to writing children’s books and is probably one of the few authors who has made visits to infant schools and Rampton in the same week. She is either a Renaissance Person or a Jack of All Trades as she keeps herself busy writing all manner of things. She has had over 120 titles published including poetry, picture books, junior novels and all sorts of books for both trade and education markets. Most of these books were published internationally.
Michaela has been shortlisted for the Blue Peter Award, the Children’s Book Award and Birmingham Libraries and Surrey Libraries Award. She has won a UKRA award, been a International Reading Association and a World Book Recommended Read.
Michaela runs writing workshops and makes author visits all over the UK and in other countries. The ones she remembers most fondly were in South African townships but she has also enjoyed ritzy International school and visits to local primaries.
Michaela divides her time between trendy Brighton, snoozy Rutland and the sunny Cote D’Azur. Her most recent titles are the picture-book Never Shake a Rattlesnake, illustrated by Nick Sharratt, the 'chapter book' Happy Birthday Sausage! and her Poetry Writing Workshop books for teachers.
Patrick Ness is a bestselling and award-winning novelist. Born in Virginia, USA, he spent his upbringing in the states of Hawaii, Washington and California. He has lived in London since 1999. He is the author of a novel and short story collection for adults, but is best known for the Chaos Walking trilogy: The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask and The Answer and Monsters of Men. The trilogy has won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, the Costa Children’s Book of the Year Prize, and the Booktrust Teenage Prize. This year Monsters of Men won the prestigious Carnegie Medal after all three books in the trilogy were shortlisted, the first time that has ever happened. A Monsters Calls is Patrick’s sixth book. www.patrickness.com
Bali Rai is a Leicester-based author of over twenty books dealing with contemporary young adult life in the UK. His first novel, (un)arranged marriage, was published in 2001 by Random House, to widespread acclaim. Since then Bali has been shortlisted for and won mumerous awards, including the 2005 IBBY Silver Award for Rani & Sukh. His first short novel, Dream On was also part of the first ever Booked Up scheme.
As part of his work, Bali regularly visits schools and colleges all over the UK, meeting hundreds of students and also does several events each year abroad. He teaches creative writing to both adults and young people and is often involved in events for the British Council. In the last three years Bali's school visits have doubled and they are highly thought of - often he is booked upto a year in advance. Bali is an ardent believer in education as a tool with which to escape poverty and is almost zealous when encouraging reading for pleasure. As such he was an early supporter of The Campaign for The Book. He is also an ambassador for The Prince's Trust in the East Midlands.
Bali has a degree in Politics and was born and raised in Leicester's vibrant multi-cultural community. He has also written for Walker Books, Hodder (now Hachette) and writes regularly for Barringston Stoke. His latest novel, City of Ghosts, was published in July 2009. www.balirai.co.uk
Nicola Smee has been drawing and making up stories since she was a child. Being a boarder in a convent school only encouraged this 'affliction'. She studied at Birmingham College of Art and her first professional children's illustration work was for the TV programme Rainbow.
Since then she has written and illustrated many books, been widely translated and shortlisted for numerous awards, including Mother Goose, The Smarties Prize, Sainsbury's Baby Book Awards and Booktrust Early Years Award. Her stories are featured regularly on TV here and abroad. Nicola's illustrations have also been commissioned for children's anthologies, various magazines, book jackets, and greeting cards.
Three new titles are to be published in 2011 - by Boxer Books, Bloomsbury and LionHudson. Of these What's the Matter Bunny Blue? (Boxer Books) has been shortlisted for the Sheffield Baby Book Award.
Nicola lives in a small coastal Essex village with her artist husband, who possesses two, larger than average ears. Two of her sons are musicians and the third is an art director, and she has two small grandchildren who she's nuts about.
The Society would be happy to forward any e-mails that you would like to send any of the above.