Enid Mary Blyton was an English children's writer, whose books have been worldwide bestsellers since the 1930s, selling more than 600 million copies. Her books are still enormously popular and have been translated into ninety languages. As at June 2019, Blyton held 4th place for the most translated author. She wrote on a wide range of topics, including education, natural history, fantasy, mystery, and biblical narratives. She is best remembered for her Noddy, Famous Five, Secret Seven, the Five Find-Outers, and Malory Towers books, although she also wrote many others, including; St. Clare's, The Naughtiest Girl, and The Faraway Tree series.
Ursula Kroeber Le Guin was an American author. She is best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the Earthsea fantasy series. Her work was first published in 1959, and her literary career spanned nearly sixty years, producing more than twenty novels and over a hundred short stories, in addition to poetry, literary criticism, translations, and children's books. Frequently described as an author of science fiction, Le Guin has also been called a "major voice in American Letters". Le Guin said she would prefer to be known as an "American novelist".
Elizabeth de Beauchamp Goudge FRSL was an English writer of fiction and children's books. She won the Carnegie Medal for British children's books in 1946 for The Little White Horse. Goudge was long a popular author in the UK and the US and regained attention decades later. In 1993 her book The Rosemary Tree was plagiarised by Indrani Aikath-Gyaltsen; the "new" novel set in India was warmly reviewed in The New York Times and The Washington Post before its source was discovered. In 2001 or 2002 J. K. Rowling identified The Little White Horse as one of her favourite books and one of few with a direct influence on the Harry Potter series.
Sally Jane Morgan is an Australian Aboriginal author, dramatist, and artist. Her works are on display in numerous private and public collections in Australia and around the world.
Ali Smith CBE FRSL is a Scottish author, playwright, academic and journalist. Sebastian Barry described her in 2016 as "Scotland's Nobel laureate-in-waiting".
Jamila Gavin is a British writer who is known mainly for children's books, including several with Indian contexts.
May Hill Arbuthnot was an American educator, editor, writer, and critic who devoted her career to the awareness and importance of children's literature. Her efforts expanded and enriched the selection of books for children, libraries, and children's librarians alike. She was selected for American Libraries article “100 Most Important Leaders we had for the 20th Century”.
Elizabeth Wright Enright Gillham was an American writer of children's books, an illustrator, writer of short stories for adults, literary critic and teacher of creative writing. Perhaps best known as the Newbery Medal-winning author of Thimble Summer (1938) and the Newbery runner-up Gone-Away Lake (1957), she also wrote the popular Melendy quartet. A Newbery Medal laureate and a multiple winner of the O. Henry Award, her short stories and articles for adults appeared in many popular magazines and have been reprinted in anthologies and textbooks.
Catherine Johnson FRSL is a British author and screenwriter. She has written several young adult novels and co-wrote the screenplay for the 2004 drama film Bullet Boy.
Susanne Julia Gervay is an Australian author. Her younger fiction in the I Am Jack series are rites-of-passage books focusing on school bullying reaching adults and children. The first instalment has been adapted into a play by the award-winning Monkey Baa Theatre for Young People. I Am Jack is the first of four books including Super Jack, Always Jack and Being Jack. Her powerful realistic young adult literature includes Butterflies, The Cave and That's Why I Wrote This Song which is a collaborative work with her teenage daughter Tory who wrote and sings the songs that are part of the book and downloadable from her website.
Mary Lassiter Hoffman is a British writer and critic. She has had over 90 books published whose audiences range from children to adults. One of her best known works is the children's book Amazing Grace, which was a New York Times best-seller at 1.5 million copies and a finalist for the 1991 Kate Greenaway Medal. From 2002 to 2012, she wrote the teen fiction series Stravaganza.
Alison Jean Lester is an Australian author and illustrator who has published over 25 children's picture books and two young adult novels; The Quickstand Pony and The Snow Pony. In 2005 Lester won the Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Picture Book of the Year for her children's book, Are We There Yet?: A Journey around Australia. Her books have been published worldwide.
Joan Margaret Phipson AM was an Australian children's writer.
Kathryn White is a British children's book author based in Bristol.
Ellen Frankel was the Editor-in-Chief of the Jewish Publication Society (JPS) from 1991 until 2009, and also served as CEO of the JPS for 10 years. She retired in 2009 to pursue her own writing and scholarly projects, serving as JPS's first Editor Emerita.
Jennifer Roy is an American children's writer. She is best known for fiction including Yellow Star, which won a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Award (2006), Sydney Taylor Honor Award, The William Allen White Children's Book Award (2009), a New York Public L Book, an ALA Notable Book, National Jewish Book Honor Award, and received starred reviews in Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, VOYA and Booklist. She has written 35 educational books for children ages 5–16, including the "You Can Write" series.
Gail Sidonie Sobat is a Canadian writer, educator, singer and performer. She is the founder and coordinator of YouthWrite, a writing camp for children, a non-profit and charitable society. Her poetry and fiction, for adults and young adults, are known for her controversial themes. For 2015, Sobat was one of two writers in residence with the Metro Edmonton Federation of Libraries. She is also the founder of the Spoken Word Youth Choir in Edmonton.
Dinah Mary Jefferies is a British novelist, and a short-story and article writer.
Rebecca Johnson is an Australian author and primary-school science teacher who has written more than 100 children's books. Her works include the Steve Parish Story Book collection, the Juliet – Nearly a Vet series, the Insect Series, and the Steve Parish Reptiles & Amphibians Story Book range.
Isabella Tree, Lady Burrell is a British author and conservationist. She is author of the Richard Jefferies Society Literature Award-winning book Wilding: the return of nature to a British farm that describes the creation of Knepp Wildland, the first large-scale rewilding project in lowland England. The 3,500-acre (1,400-hectare) wildland project was created in the grounds of Knepp Castle, the ancestral home of her husband, Sir Charles Burrell, a landowner and conservationist.
