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Posted 22 July at 2:37 pm in London, Verna Wilkins, authors, black authors, out and about, teachers

Last month, Class 3O at Brecknock Primary School studied the work of Tamarind author Verna Wilkins. They each wrote her a letter asking questions about her life. On Thursday, Verna visited Class 3O in person!  Their teacher Siobhan reports… 

Class 3O have been studying many books by the author Verna Wilkins, including biographies of Stephen Lawrence and Benjamin Zephaniah, as part of the Literacy Unit Authors and Letters. When they wrote to her to ask her to come and visit, imagine their surprise when she did! Especially as they were to first to hear her read her new book, Abdi’s Day which is not due out until September 2010.  Here are some of the class’ comments about her visit:

Danae: “It was delightful that what I wanted to happen happened on Thursday because Verna Wilkins came when we wrote letters to her.”

Josh: “It was extremely good that our dream to meet Verna Wilkins came true.  She is an extremely nice woman and she told us about how she wrote her books.”

Merrill: “It was amazing to see Verna Wilkins and her telling us her new story, Abdi’s Day.  I asked her if she would ever write her autobiography and she said she would get to work on it when she gets home!”

Amal: “It was so outstanding to meet Verna Wilkins because I really want to be an author when I grow up and she told me everything about how to be a writer.”

Verna shares 'Abdi's Day'
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Posted 20 May at 9:55 am in authors, black authors

Children’s book writing workshop at
The
Afro Hair and Beauty Show
Business Design Centre, Islington
May 30th and 31st, 2pm-3pm daily

Do you remember how old you were when you first saw a black person in a book? Join Patsy, Commissioning Editor at Tamarind Books, for a fun creative writing workshop on writing multicultural stories for children and teens. Patsy will give aspiring children’s writers practical tips for success and discuss the importance of representing black children in literature. Bring your notebook and pen!

 

Click to read Tamarind’s manuscript submission guidelines.

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Posted 2 December at 4:48 pm in Africa, African American, black authors, blog, news

It’s a mouthful, but December is BBBAGIWP month. It’s an event inspired by black author Carleen Brice, to welcome people from a non-black background into the sometimes segregated shelves of books by black authors.

Click for fiction suggestions from Carleen.

“Fiction at its best isn’t just enjoyable. It measurably enhances our abilities to empathize with other people and connect with something larger than ourselves.” – Keith Oatley, novelist and psychologist

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