BREAKING NEW GROUND
CELEBRATING BRITISH WRITERS & ILLUSTRATORS OF COLOUR
Yaba Badoe ll
Yaba Badoe is an award-winning Ghanaian-British documentary filmmaker and writer. A graduate of King’s College Cambridge, she has taught in Spain, Jamaica and Ghana. Her short stories for adults have been published in Critical Quarterly and in African Love Stories: An Anthology, edited by Ama Ata Aidoo. In 2014 Yaba was nominated for the Distinguished Woman of African Cinema award. Her debut novel, A Jigsaw of Fire and Stars, published by Zephyr, was shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award 2018 and has been nominated for the 2019 Carnegie Medal. Yaba is based in London. @yaba_badoe Fiction A Jigsaw of Fire and Stars. London: Zephyr, 2017. (12+) The Secret of the Purple Lake. Illustrated by Gbolahan Adams. London: Cassava Republic, 2017. (10-13) True Murder. London: Jonathan Cape, 2009. (Adults) Wolf-Light. London: Zephyr, 2019. (12+)
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Ben Bailey Smith llll
Once an underground rapper, in 2010 Ben Bailey Smith created the double BAFTA winning CBBC television series 4 O’clock Club, which combines razor sharp rhymes and laugh-out-loud comedy. It filmed its ninth season in 2018. He has appeared on Blue Peter, both as a performer and a contributor to their reviews of children’s literature, and has been a storyteller on CBeebies’ Bedtime Stories. In 2016 he contributed to Sky’s countdown of the nation’s favourite Roald Dahl books and in 2017 made an unforgettable cameo in the Sky One adaptation of the David Walliams’ bestselling children’s novel Ratburger. In 2016, Ben released his first children’s book, I Am Bear; the follow up, Bear Moves, is just out. He’s currently writing a young adult play for the National Theatre’s Connections programme. His latest work is a comic tale of the school run entitled Get a Move On!, aimed at 5-8 year olds. Ben lives in London. docbrown.co.uk Fiction I am Bear. Illustrated by Sav Akyuz. London: Walker Entertainment, 2016. (2-5) Bear Moves. Illustrated by Sav Akyuz. London: Walker Entertainment, 2019. (3-7)
Francesca Beard llll
Francesca Beard was born in Malaysia and grew up on an island balanced on the equator, surrounded by eagles, lizards, cobras and a fighting cockerel for a guard dog. Her best friend was Fluffy, a smooth-haired mongrel. After a spell in real jobs, she now exists as a London-based poet who has been called ‘the Queen of British performance poetry’ (London Metro) and ‘spinetingling’ (The Independent). She has performed her poetry in all sorts of places, all over the world, from a shopping mall in the Bangkok Book Fair to a prison in Colombia, to New York’s Nuyorican Café and run creative writing workshops with The British Library, The Young Vic, The BBC, Hampton Court Palace, The Natural History Museum and many more. @FrancescaBeard Selected Poetry and Fiction appear in: Kin: New Fiction by Black and Asian Women. Ed. Karen McCarthy. London: Serpent’s Tail, 2003. (14+) Michael Rosen's A-Z: The best children's poetry from Agard to Zephaniah. London: Puffin 2009. (7-11) The Poetry Store. Compiled by Paul Cookson. London: Hodder Children’s Books, 2005. (6-11) She is Fierce: Brave, Bold and Beautiful Poems by Women. Ed. Ana Sampson. London: Pan Macmillan, 2018. (10+) Velocity: The Best of Apples & Snakes. Ed. Maja Prausnitz. London: Black Spring Press, 2003. (14+) Westside Storeys. Ed. Dotun Adebayo. London: The Xpress, 2003. (14+)