Meet our 2022 Writers-In-Residence

Rashmi writes a mix of fiction and non-fiction picture books. Her debut picture book with Diane Ewen, Never Show a T-Rex a Book won the Society of Authors Queen’s Knickers Award and has been shortlisted for the Lollies 2022 and the sequel, Never Teach a Stegosaurus To Do Sums was shortlisted for the Sainsbury’s Children’s Book Award.

Her non-fiction picture book How To Change The World, illustrated by Annabel Tempest, was part of Empathy Lab’s Read For Empathy Collection, Editor’s Choice in The Bookseller, and has been shortlisted for the North Somerset Teacher’s Book Award in the Information Books category. She has a deliciously mixed bag of picture books out in 2022 too and some fantastic new illustrator collaborations but more on that soon!

Despite the accolades and the very lucky start, Rashmi is fully familiar with that spiky regular guest, Imposter Syndrome, but with a few tricks up her sleeve to sort it out. She loves playing with words and supporting other creatives, especially underrepresented ones – her #KidLitBookBoost Instagram Live chats with children’s authors and illustrators are all about helping shout about books because she believes with all her heart that there’s room in this industry for ALL of us.
She’s constantly learning herself and having benefited from so much support in children’s publishing, she’s all about sharing that learning and all that love and paying it forward. 

Marcus was born and raised in a small village in East Kent in the south-east of England. He now lives in the south of France. Marcus is a writer of over 40 books for adults and young adults, of novels for younger people, of non-fiction and academic essays. He even published a couple of picture books once but that’s a secret. He is winner of many prizes, most notably the 2014 Michael L. Printz Award for his novel Midwinterblood. Marcus has also received two Printz Honors, for Revolver in 2011 and The Ghosts of Heaven in 2016, giving him the most citations to date for America’s most prestigious book prize for writing for young adults. Other notable award winning books include Floodland, Marcus’ first novel, which won the Branford-Boase Award in 2001, a prize for the best debut novel for children published in the UK each year; My Swordhand is Singing, which won the Booktrust Teenage Prize for 2007, and Lunatics and Luck, part of The Raven Mysteries series, which won a Blue Peter Book Award in 2011.

His books have been shortlisted for over forty other awards, including the Carnegie Medal (eight times), the Edgar Allan Poe Award (twice) and the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize (four times). He has been nominated for another of the world’s pre-eminent prizes for writing for children – the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award – five times: in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. Marcus has been announced as one of the two UK nominations for the 2022 Hans Christian Andersen Award, along with the wonderful David McKee. More information here and here.

Marcus was Author-in-Residence at Bath Spa University for three years, has reviewed books and written articles for various national newspapers such as The Times, The Sunday Times, and The Guardian, and magazines, such as Tatler. He periodically teaches creative writing at Arvon and Ty Newydd. He has judged numerous books awards, including the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and the Costa Book Awards. 

In addition, he has illustrated some of his books, and has provided wood-engravings for a couple of private press books. He has worked for the British Council, promoting literature outside of the UK, and has lectured in many places, as far afield as Los Angeles, London and Kuala Lumpur.