Susan Eloise Hinton is an American writer best known for her young-adult novels (YA) set in Oklahoma, especially The Outsiders (1967), which she wrote during high school. Hinton is credited with introducing the YA genre.
"The Death of the Author" is a 1967 essay by the French literary critic and theorist Roland Barthes (1915–1980). Barthes's essay argues against traditional literary criticism's practice of relying on the intentions and biography of an author to definitively explain the "ultimate meaning" of a text. Instead, the essay emphasizes the primacy of each individual reader's interpretation of the work over any "definitive" meaning intended by the author, a process in which subtle or unnoticed characteristics may be drawn out for new insight. The essay's first English-language publication was in the American journal Aspen, no. 5–6 in 1967; the French debut was in the magazine Manteia, no. 5 (1968). The essay later appeared in an anthology of Barthes's essays, Image-Music-Text (1977), a book that also included his "From Work to Text".
Julia Catherine Donaldson is an English writer and playwright, and the 2011–2013 Children's Laureate. She is best known for her popular rhyming stories for children, especially those illustrated by Axel Scheffler, which include The Gruffalo, Room on the Broom and Stick Man. She originally wrote songs for children's television but has concentrated on writing books since the words of one of her songs, "A Squash and a Squeeze", were made into a children's book in 1993. Of her 184 published works, 64 are widely available in bookshops. The remaining 120 are intended for school use and include her Songbirds phonic reading scheme, which is part of the Oxford University Press's Oxford Reading Tree.
Aileen Francis Paterson MBE was a Scottish writer and illustrator, best known for her series of children's books about Maisie MacKenzie, the kitten.
Theresa Breslin is a Scottish author. Winner of the 1994 Carnegie Medal. Breslin is the author of over 50 books. She is an Honorary Fellow of the Association for Scottish Literary Studies.
Beth Webb is a British author of books for children and teenagers. She has written fifteen books, including the Star Dancer tetralogy, a fantasy series published by Macmillan, as well as the Fleabag Trilogy. She is also the co-founder of Books Beyond Words, and has illustrated more than twenty titles for adults with learning disabilities. She lives in Somerset, near Glastonbury Tor.
Walter Dean Myers was an American writer of children's books best known for young adult literature. He was born in Martinsburg, West Virginia, but was raised in Harlem. A tough childhood led him to writing and his school teachers would encourage him in this habit as a way to express himself. He wrote more than one hundred books including picture books and nonfiction. He won the Coretta Scott King Award for African-American authors five times. His 1988 novel Fallen Angels is one of the books most frequently challenged in the U.S. because of its adult language and its realistic depiction of the Vietnam War.
Barrington Stoke is a children's book publisher based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The company was founded in 1998 and publishes fiction and non-fiction adapted to different reading ages for reluctant, under-confident and dyslexic children and teens. The books are printed on cream paper to reduce glare and language-edited to increase readability. The text is a specially-adapted dyslexia-friendly font, with a considered layout and numerous chapter breaks.
Goldie Alexander was an Australian author.
Kate Clanchy MBE is a British poet, freelance writer and teacher.
BookTrust is a UK children's reading charity dedicated to getting children reading.
Feminist children's literature is the writing of children's literature through a feminist lens. Children's literature and women's literature have many similarities. Both often deal with being seen as weak and placed towards the bottom of a hierarchy. In this way feminist ideas are regularly found in the structure of children's literature. Feminist criticism of children's literature is therefore expected, since it is a type of feminist literature. Feminist children's literature has played a critical role for the feminist movement, especially in the past half century. In her book Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics, bell hooks states her belief that all types of media, including writing and children's books, need to promote feminist ideals. She argues "Children's literature is one of the most crucial sites for feminist education for critical consciousness precisely because beliefs and identities are still being formed". The cover of hooks' book, drawn by Laura DeSantis, depicts children alongside adults, showing the importance of the youth. The presence of feminism in children's literature has evolved over the years, but the overall message and goals have remained consistent.
We Need Diverse Books (WNDB) is a nonprofit organization created to promote diversity of multiple forms in children's literature and publishing, which grew out of the Twitter hashtag #WeNeedDiverseBooks in 2014. The organization's programming includes funding grants and internships for diverse authors and people interested in publishing, a mentorship program, providing lists of book recommendations for librarians, teachers, and parents on finding books with characters from marginalized backgrounds, and publishing an anthology of short stories featuring multiple authors from diverse backgrounds.
Jane Alexander is a Scottish novelist, visual artist, illustrator, designer, and short story writer originally from Aberdeen.
Regi Claire, is a novelist, short story writer and poet living and working in Scotland. Her native language is Swiss-German, but she writes in English, her fourth language.
Helena Nelson is a poet, critic, publisher and the founding editor of HappenStance Press. She has lived in Fife, Scotland, since 1977.
Pippa Goldschmidt is a British fiction writer, formerly based in Edinburgh, Scotland but now living in Germany.
Morag Hood is a Scottish writer and illustrator of children's books. Her primary medium is lino printing, although she uses a variety of techniques in her work. Her stories rely on interplay between text and illustration, creating space in the narrative for young readers to fill in. Many of her stories concern relationships, inclusion and prejudice. She has an MA in children's book illustration from the Cambridge School of Art. Hood was the winner of the UKLA book awards in the 3–6 category in 2018, for Colin and Lee, Carrot and Pea, and in 2019 for I am Bat. Her books have been nominated for several other awards, including the Kate Greenaway Medal in 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Helen Sedgwick is an author of literary fiction, science fiction and crime, a literary editor, and a research physicist.
Alastair Chisholm is a Scottish children's writer and puzzle maker.
