Candy Gourlay

Candy Gourlay was born in the Philippines, grew up under a dictatorship and met her husband during a revolution. She had many adventures as a journalist in Asia, including visiting North Korea in 1987. Then she moved to the UK and found herself writing news about toilet paper, toothpaste and bleach. She pivoted to writing books for children and young adults and was published after nine years of rejection. Her books have been nominated for major prizes in Europe, including the Carnegie, the Guardian Prize, the Costa and the Nero Book Award. She has won the National Children’s Book Award of the Philippines twice and the Crystal Kite Prize for Europe twice. Her first novel Tall Story was selected as one of the ‘100 Best Books of the Last 100 Y

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Merlinda Bobis

Merlinda Bobis is an award-winning contemporary Philippine-Australian writer who has had 4 novels, 6 poetry books and a collection of short stories published, and 10 dramatic works performed. For her, ‘Writing visits like grace. Its greatest gift is the comfort if not the joy of transformation. In an inspired moment, we almost believe that anguish can be made bearable and injustice can be overturned, because they can be named. And if we’re lucky, joy can even be multiplied a hundredfold, so we may have reserves in the cupboard for the lean times.’

Born in Tabaco in the Philippines province of Albay, Merlinda Bobis attended Bicol University High School then completed her B.A. at Aquinas University in Legazpi City. She holds post-graduate degr
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Eliza Victoria

Eliza Victoria is the author of several books including the Philippine National Book Award-winning Dwellers, the novel Wounded Little Gods, the graphic novel After Lambana (a collaboration with Mervin Malonzo), and the science fiction novel-in-stories, Nightfall. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in several publications, most recently in LONTAR: The Journal of Southeast Asian Speculative Fiction, The Best Asian Speculative Fiction, The Dark Magazine, The Apex Book of World SF Volume 5, Fireside Fiction, and Future SF. She has won prizes in the Philippines’ top literary awards, including the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature. Her one-act plays (written in Filipino) have been staged at the Virgin LabFest at the Cultural Center
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Bob Ong

Bob Ong, or Roberto Ong, is the pseudonym of a Filipino contemporary author known for using conversational Filipino to create humorous and reflective depictions of life as a Filipino.

The six books he has published thus far have surpassed a quarter of a million copies.
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Kwame Alexander

Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, and New York Times Bestselling author of 21 books, including The Crossover, which received the 2015 John Newbery Medal for the Most Distinguished Contribution to American literature for Children, the Coretta Scott King Author Award Honor, The NCTE Charlotte Huck Honor, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, and the Passaic Poetry Prize. Kwame writes for children of all ages. His other works include Surf's Up, a picture book; Booked, a middle grade novel; and He Said She Said, a YA novel.

Kwame believes that poetry can change the world, and he uses it to inspire and empower young people through his PAGE TO STAGE Writing and Publishing Program released by Scholastic. A regular speaker at colleges and confere
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Margaret McDonald

Margaret McDonald is a Scottish author from Glasgow. She has been published in various poetry and prose magazines, including The Manifest Station, In Parentheses, Breath and Shadow, and Bandit Fiction. She is a first-generation university student and holds an MLitt in English Literature with distinction (Glasgow University) and a first class B.A Honours in Creative Writing with English Literature (Strathclyde University). She writes about the working class experience, the student experience, and the Scottish healthcare system as a former NHS employee and disabled author. Glasgow Boys is her debut.
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Tia Fisher

I’m an author from south-east England, writing from middle-grade to YA in prose and verse. I love exploring important issues: writing gritty, realistic fiction for young people; accessible fiction that opens conversations.

Crossing the Line, my debut teen verse novel about a boy who gets caught up in county lines drug exploitation, won the 2024 Carnegie Shadowers’ Medal, the 2024 UKLA prize, was in the 2024 Read for Empathy collection and was one of The Times and Sunday Times’ best children’s books of 2024.

Grab yourself an early read of Not Going to Plan, a YA verse novel about teenage sexuality, consent, and the right to make choices without shame or blame. https://lnk.to/NotGoingToPlan
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Kelly McCaughrain

Kelly was born in Belfast in 1977 and grew up in nineteenth-century Avonlea. She doesn’t remember much about her (probably very nice) childhood and suspects this is because she wasn’t paying attention. She was reading Anne of Green Gables.

She started writing when she was six.

She started hiding her writing when she was seven.

She was forced out of the writing closet when she was 35. One of her favourite activities is talking to teenagers about writing because she was too shy to do this when she was young.

She studied at Queens University Belfast, where she did two degrees. For fun. She currently lives with her husband Michael and their ancient VW campervan Gerda.

Her first novel, Flying Tips for Flightless Birds, has been described by insiders
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Sophie Cameron

Sophie Cameron is the author of several novels for teens and young adults. Her books have been shortlisted for the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing, the UKLA Book Awards, the Polari Children's & YA Prize and the Diverse Book Awards, among others, and won a Leeds Book Award in 2023. Originally from the Scottish Highlands, she now lives in Spain with her wife and their twin sons.
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Patricia Evangelista

Patricia Evangelista is a trauma journalist and former investigative reporter for the Philippine news company Rappler. Her reporting on armed conflict and disaster was awarded the Kate Webb Prize for exceptional journalism in dangerous conditions. She was a Headlands Artist in Residence, a New America ASU Future Security Fellow, and a fellow of the Logan Nonfiction Program, the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, and the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma. Her work has earned local and international acclaim. She lives in Manila.
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Joseph Coelho

Joseph Coelho is a British poet and children's book author who was elected Children's Laureate in 2022.
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Kacen Callender

Kacen Callender is a Saint Thomian author of children's fiction and fantasy, best known for their Stonewall Book Award and Lambda Literary Award-winning middle grade debut Hurricane Child. Their fantasy novel, Queen of the Conquered, is the 2020 winner of the World Fantasy Award and King and the Dragonflies won the 2020 National Book Award for Young People's Literature.

Callender is Black, queer, trans, and uses they/them and he/him pronouns. Callender debuted their new name when announcing their next young adult novel Felix Ever After in May 2019.
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Matt Goodfellow

Matt Goodfellow was a primary school teacher for more than ten years before becoming a full-time poet and author. Shu Lin’s Grandpa is his first book with Candlewick Press. He lives with his wife and children in Manchester, England.
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Randy Ribay

Randy Ribay is an award-winning author of young adult fiction. His most recent novel, Patron Saints of Nothing, earned five starred reviews, was selected as a Freeman Book Award winner, and was a finalist for the National Book Award, LA Times Book Prize, Walden Book Award, Edgar Award, International Thriller Writers Award, and the CILIP Carnegie Medal. His other works include Project Kawayan, After the Shot Drops, and An Infinite Number of Parallel Universes. His next novels, The Chronicles of the Avatar: The Reckoning of Roku (Abrams) and Everything We Never Had, (Kokila/Penguin) will be out in 2024.

Born in the Philippines and raised in the Midwest, Randy earned his BA in English Literature from the University of Colorado at Boulder and h
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David Arnold

David Arnold is the New York Times bestselling author of Mosquitoland, I Loved You in Another Life, The Electric Kingdom, Kids of Appetite, and The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik. He has won the Southern Book Prize and the Great Lakes Book Award, and was named a Publishers Weekly Flying Start for his debut. His books have been translated into over a dozen languages. He lives in Lexington, Kentucky, with his wife and son. Learn more at davidarnoldbooks.com and follow him on Instagram @iamdavidarnold.
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Clare Furniss

Furniss grew up in London, and moved to Birmingham in her teens. After brief stints as a waitress, a shop assistant, and working at the Shakespeare Centre Library in Stratford-upon-Avon, she studied at Cambridge and Aberdeen. She went on to work in media relations for the homelessness charity Shelter and spent several years as a press officer for the then Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone. She now lives in Bath.
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Holly Bourne

Holly started her writing career as a news journalist, where she was nominated for Best Print Journalist of the Year. She then spent six years working as an editor, a relationship advisor, and general ‘agony aunt’ for a youth charity – helping young people with their relationships and mental health.

Inspired by what she saw, she started writing teen fiction, including the best-selling, award-winning ‘Spinster Club’ series which helps educate teenagers about feminism. When she turned thirty, Holly wrote her first adult novel, 'How Do You Like Me Now?', examining the intensified pressures on women once they hit that landmark.

Alongside her writing, Holly has a keen interest in women’s rights and is an advocate for reducing the stigma of mental
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Eliza Victoria

Eliza Victoria is the author of several books including the Philippine National Book Award-winning Dwellers, the novel Wounded Little Gods, the graphic novel After Lambana (a collaboration with Mervin Malonzo), and the science fiction novel-in-stories, Nightfall. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in several publications, most recently in LONTAR: The Journal of Southeast Asian Speculative Fiction, The Best Asian Speculative Fiction, The Dark Magazine, The Apex Book of World SF Volume 5, Fireside Fiction, and Future SF. She has won prizes in the Philippines’ top literary awards, including the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature. Her one-act plays (written in Filipino) have been staged at the Virgin LabFest at the Cultural Center
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Phil Earle

Phil was born in Hull in 1974, and he studied English and Drama at Hull University. He worked for a year as a carer in a children’s home, then after training as a drama therapist, he worked in a therapeutic community in London, which cared for multiply abused adolescents. Then, changing tack completely, he chose a marginally more sedate life as a children’s bookseller. It was here that he developed an obsession for kid’s literature, in particular, young adult fiction.

After three years at Ottakar’s, he became a sales rep, and then a key account manager for Transworld/Random House, and is now sales director at Simon and Schuster Children’s Books.

Phil lives in South East London with his wife and three young children.
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Yvette Tan

YVETTE NATALIE U. TAN is a Manila-based horror writer. Her works have been published in The Philippine Free Press, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the Manila Times, Uno magazine, Rogue magazine, Story Philippines, and the Philippine Genre Stories, among others.

Her fiction has also appeared in anthologies such as Sleepless in Manila and Philippine Speculative Fiction II and III.
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Zillah Bethell

Zillah Bethell was born in a leprosy hospital in Papua New Guinea, spent her childhood barefoot playing in the jungle, and didn't own a pair of shoes until she came to the UK when she was eight. She was educated at Oxford University and now lives in Wales with her family.

Zillah has written three adult novels (SEAHORSES ARE REAL / LE TEMPS DES CERISES / GIRL IN PROFILE) and three children's novels (THE SHARK CALLER / A WHISPER OF HORSES / THE EXTRAORDINARY COLOURS OF AUDEN DARE)
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Courtney Summers

COURTNEY SUMMERS is an uncompromising writer¹ known for a history of risky artistic choices² and pushing boundaries³ with novels that are not for the faint of heart.⁴ She has received over 20 starred reviews and numerous awards and honors, including the Edgar and ITW Thriller Awards.

¹ Quill & Quire ² Kirkus Reviews
³ Shelf Awareness ⁴ The New York Times

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Ninotchka Rosca

Ninotchka Rosca is an outstanding contemporary writer, human rights activist and feminist. She is the author of six books: her short story collections include Bitter Country and Monsoon Country; her two novels are State of War and Twice Blessed which earned the 1993 American Book Award for excellence in literature; and her books of non-fiction are Endgame: The Fall of Marcos and Jose Maria Sison: At Home in the World - Portrait of a Revolutionary. Rosca's short stories have been included in several anthologies, among them, the 1986 Best 100 Short Stories in the U.S. compiled by Raymond Carver and the Missouri Review Anthology. She is a two-time recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship and a frequent contributor to Ms. Ma
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S.F. Said

Said grew up in the Iraqi diasporic community in London, moving there with his mother at the age of two. After graduating from the University of Cambridge, he worked as a press attaché and speech writer for the Crown Prince of Jordan’s office in London. He began a Ph.D. in 1997 looking at the lives of young Muslims in Britain, but left academia to focus on film journalism for the Daily Telegraph – where he brought attention to much 'world cinema', including contemporary Islamic cinema – and writing for children
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Baltasar Gracián

Baltasar Gracián y Morales, SJ, formerly Anglicized as Baltazar Gracian, was a Spanish Jesuit and baroque prose writer and philosopher. He was born in Belmonte, near Calatayud (Aragón). His proto-existentialist writings were lauded by Nietzsche and Schopenhauer.

The son of a doctor, in his childhood Gracián lived with his uncle, who was a priest. He studied at a Jesuit school in 1621 and 1623 and theology in Zaragoza. He was ordained in 1627 and took his final vows in 1635.

He assumed the vows of the Jesuits in 1633 and dedicated himself to teaching in various Jesuit schools. He spent time in Huesca, where he befriended the local scholar Vincencio Juan de Lastanosa, who helped him achieve an important milestone in his intellectual upbringing.
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Ricky Lee

Filipino screenwriter, journalist, novelist, and playwright.

He has written more than 150 film screenplays since 1973, earning him more than 50 trophies from various award-giving bodies, including a 2003 Natatanging Gawad Urian Lifetime Achievement Award from the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino (Filipino Film Critics). As a screenwriter, he has worked with many Filipino film directors, most notably with Lino Brocka and Ishmael Bernal. Many of his films have been screened in the international film festival circuit in Cannes, Toronto, Berlin, among others.

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Bernalyn Hapin Sastrillo

Si Bernalyn Hapin Sastrillo ay isang manunulat, mandudula, at minsa’y nakagawa na rin siya ng maiikling pelikula. Naging writing fellow siya sa IYAS National Writer’s Workshop (2015), Virgin Labfest Writing Fellowship (2014), at Kabanata Young Adult Writers’ Workshop (2014).

Ang Detective Boys of Masangkay: Ang Mangkukulam ay ang una niyang nobela. Ito’y nabuo mula sa pira-pirasong alaala niya bilang batang '90s, na hinubog upang maging ganap na akda sa tulong ng Kabanata Workshop.

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Charlson Ong

Charlson L. Ong , resident fellow of the Institute of Creative Writing and fictionist/scriptwriter/singer extraordinaire, was born on July 6, 1960. He obtained an A.B. in Psychology from the University of the Philippines in 1977, and currently teaches literature and creative writing under UP's Department of English and Comparative Literature. He has joined several writers' workshops here and abroad, and has acquired numerous grants and awards for his fiction, including the Palanca, Free Press, Graphic, Asiaweek, National Book Award, and the Dr. Jose P. Rizal Award for Excellence. His novel, Embarrassment of Riches published by UP Press in 2002, won the Centennial Literary Prize. In addition to this, Ong has served as co-editor of the Likha
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Efren R. Abueg

Efren Reyes Abueg is a Filipino novelist, short story writer, and literary critic. As a leading figure in Filipino literature, he is known for writing in the Tagalog language and is an advocate for its use.
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Aisha Bushby

Aisha Bushby was selected as one of only four previously unpublished authors in the Stripes anthology for BAME writers, A Change is Gonna Come, alongside writers such as Patrice Lawrence, Tanya Byrne and Nikesh Shukla. The anthology was awarded a YA Book Prize Special Achievement Award. Since then she has been taking part in panels, interviews and events across the UK, from Bristol Waterstones to Manchester Academy, Birmingham Literature Festival to Southbank YALW, BBC Radio 3 to Buzzfeed. A Pocketful of Stars is her debut novel.
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