Writing for young people is a constant exploration of the points where a character's ordinary world and the reader's ordinary world intersects. Candy Gourlay will briefly discuss the concept of the "ordinary world" in fiction and break down how she built her indigenous characters from historical readings and contemporary insight.

Biographical notes

Candy Gourlay was born in the Philippines, grew up under a dictatorship and met her British husband during a revolution. In trying to write for children who, like her, do not normally see themselves between the covers of a book, Candy has discovered a passion for the histories of cultures intersecting with other cultures. In her award winning debut novel Tall Story, she lightly explores the impact of the migration phenomenon that has pushed many Filipino mothers to leave their families. In Shine, listed for the Guardian Prize, she asks why people leave and why people stay. These explorations led to her Costa and Carnegie shortlisted novel Bone Talk, set in the moment when headhunting tribes in the Philippines came face to face with the American invasion of 1899. Her latest book tries to hilariously explain the forces that led to European exploration of the East Indies (which Candy only latterly realised includes the Philippines) via a comics biography illustrated by Tom Knight of the explorer Ferdinand Magellan, credited with “discovering” the Philippines among other places. Her first picture book, Is It a Mermaid, lushly illustrated by Francesca Chessa, plays with the story that European sailors first encountering bulbous sea cows in the shallows of Southeast Asian islands mistook them for mermaids.

Eve Makis is the author of four novels, a life-writing guide and an award-winning screenplay. She’s recipient of the Young Booksellers International Book of the Year Award and the Aurora Mardiganian Gold Medal, her works shortlisted for the East Midlands Book Award and the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize. She teaches fiction on the MA in creative writing at Nottingham Trent University.