MEET OUR COURSE LEADERS 

WriteMentor course leaders specialise in all genres and age ranges of children’s fiction, from Picture Book to Young Adult, and help writers develop their craft, forge industry links, and launch their publishing careers.

Aisha Bushby | Author of A Pocketful of Stars

Aisha‘s debut middle grade novel, A Pocketful of Stars, was published by Egmont in August 2019 and her second novel Moonchild: Voyage of the Lost and Found will be published in August 2020. Aisha studied English literature and Philosophy at the University of Birmingham and works part-time as a bookseller. Her dream is to live in a house where the animals – preferably cats – outnumber the people. Her short story, Marionette Girl, features in a Young Adult anthology published by Stripes Publishing. 

Alexandra Sheppard | Author of Oh My Gods

Alex is a Young Adult Author based in North London. Her debut novel Oh My Gods was published by Scholastic UK in January 2019 and has since received coverage from The Guardian, Refinery 29 and Buzzfeed. Alex also runs school workshops and talks around the UK exploring creative writing and Greek mythology.Find out more about her course here

Lindsay Galvin | Author of The Secret Deep

Lindsay is the author of Young Adult novel The Secret Deep and Middle Grade novel Darwin’s Dragons. She has a degree in English Language and Literature, is fascinated by psychology and the natural world, and teaches Science. She is a WriteMentor mentor and writer of WriteMentor ‘The Anxious Author‘ blog series. 

Emma Read | Author of Milton the Mighty series

Milton the Mighty is Emma’s first novel and was shortlisted for the 2017 Bath Children’s Novel Award and named as one of the Times Children’s Books of the Year 2019. Her second novel, Milton the Megastar, is out now. Emma regularly goes into schools to run events and workshops. She was once a very sensible biologist but now she uses her transferable talents such as attention to detail, patience and fine motor skills, to extract Lego from under the sofa. And of course to write children’s books.

Lauren James | Author of The Loneliest Girl in the Universe

Lauren is the twice Carnegie-nominated author of The Loneliest Girl in the Universe. Her books have sold over a hundred thousand copies worldwide and shortlisted for the YA Book Prize and STEAM Children’s Book Award. Her writing is described as ‘gripping romantic sci-fi’ by the Wall Street Journal.

Clare Helen Welsh | Author of The Tide

Clare writes picture book texts – sometimes funny and sometimes lyrical. Her first picture book was published in 2015, and she currently has books in development with Little Tiger Press, Quarto, Andersen and Nosy Crow. She does school visits and offers critique services. Clare lives in Devon with her husband and two children.

Kesia Lupo | Senior Editor at Chicken House and author of We Are Blood and Thunder

Maz Evans | Author of Who Let the Gods Out (series)

Maz’s debut children’s novel Who Let the Gods Out was published by Chicken House in February 2017 and was selected as the Waterstone’s Children’s Book of the Month. It entered the bestseller charts on its first week on sale and received over 20 award nominations, including the Carnegie Medal, Branford Boase, Books Are My Bag and Waterstone’s Children’s Book of the Year. Her acclaimed creative writing events have featured at Hay, Imagine, Edinburgh, Bath and Latitude.

Find out more about their courses here

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WRITEMENTOR PARTNERS

WriteMentor is grateful for its community of authors, agents, editors and other industry professionals who support the organisation through leading courses, judging awards, hosting pitching sessions and mentoring writers