All Booked Up

I'm still buzzing from being at the recent Children's Literature Conference at the Seamus Heaney centre in Belfast. It was great to hear so many speakers and panels talking about a range of issues impacting being creative and also sharing their very varied experience. 

Events like these are great for making connections and re-connecting with other creatives and professionals in the children's literature world. It was great to be there to support and encourage local creators, catch up with writing pals and meet others I'd previously connected with online in person at last.

It was a packed programme, but I managed to squeeze in a very quick tour of Oliver Jeffers' exhibition at the Naughton Gallery at Queen's.

It's amazing to reflect how the local kidlit community is thriving, spurred on by the success of so many local creators producing work of such a high quality. Below are just some books from my collection of signed copies of books for children and young people created by local writers and illustrators. 

What's most encouraging is that this pile keeps growing as more and more local writers and illustrators for children are getting their books published. This can only be good for young readers and writers from here.