Contributors

Caroline Carpenter is Children's Editor and Deputy Features Editor at the book-trade magazine The Bookseller, where she also chairs the YA Book Prize. She joined The Bookseller through a Creative Access internship in 2013, following publishing internships and a stint at The Voice newspaper. Outside of her job, she is a co-host on the children's books podcast 'Down the Rabbit Hole', and a published author.

Stella Hine As a mixed-heritage and painfully shy child, reading and books were always my refuge, my joy, my freedom, and never more so than through the two years of lockdown and Black Lives Matter in 2020–2022. During this period, I was privileged to be a Yoto Carnegie and Kate Greenaway judge, probably the pinnacle of my professional life. Social justice has been at the heart of my career which I started as a librarian, continued as a teacher and, recently, completed the circle by becoming a college librarian. Being able to contribute to the publishing world by promoting new voices at this time is a huge honour.

Simone Taylor is Assistant Editor at Scholastic Children's Books UK. After short stints at Nosy Crow and Collins Learning, Simone joined Scholastic in 2019, first working across both fiction and picture books — including working on books by Dav Pilkey, Catherine Coe, Remi Blackwood, Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler — before moving to a full-time role in the picture books team. As Assistant Editor, Simone works across novelty, activity and picture books. She is especially keen to nurture underrepresented voices and creative talent to ensure the industry reflects the society that we live in.

Natascha Biebow is the founder of Blue Elephant Storyshaping, an editing, coaching and mentoring service empowering writers and illustrators at all levels to fine-tune their work. With over 25 years’ experience editing numerous award-winning children’s books, she is passionate about shaping stories, teaches picture-book craft, and is the Editorial Director of Five Quills. She is the author of the award-winning, bestselling The Crayon Man: The True Story of the Invention of Crayola Crayons. In 2018 she was awarded an MBE for services to children's authors and illustrators. She is the recipient of the SCBWI Stephen Mooser Member of the Year Award and a member of the SCBWI Council of Advisors.

Anna McQuinn is editor-at-large at Alanna Max. She is the creator of the successful inclusive series Booky Girl Lulu and Zeki Books. Her eloquent style of writing brings all aspects of a subject together in the most poetic way. She has written over 30 picture books and is published worldwide in many languages by Annick Press, Barefoot Books, Chicken House, Scholastic, O’Brien Press, Alanna Max, and many others.

Ken Wilson-Max is an award-winning author, illustrator and publisher of children’s books. His unique and distinctive style always manages to capture special moments between children and grown-ups. He has created over 70 books published in many languages by Scholastic, Macmillan, Chronicle Books, Candlewick Press, Holiday House, Bloomsbury, Alanna Max and many others. Ken is also the patron of the Jericho Prize.

Fiz Osborne started her publishing career in 2006 and, after a brief stint in the Production department (which has definitely helped her to be a better editor), she found her calling in the picture books team. After four and a half years at Scholastic, she moved to Bloomsbury to be part of their first dedicated picture books team, helping her then-manager build a brand-new list from the ground up. From there, freelance life called, but after two years of being a Jackie of all trades the lure back to Scholastic was too great, and that’s where Fiz has been settled since 2017. As Editorial Director, Fiz manages a team of editors and designers, drives the budget and strategy, and shapes the publishing programme. It’s a job like no other, and she loves it (most of the time). 

Tennille Rolingson is a part-time freelance writer, full-time third-culture kid and writer of the Jericho Prize blog. Ambitious but still quite new to the world of writing, in just over a year, she has managed to wrack up a few writing credits including a published article about West Indian revolutionary C.L.R James in Bad Form's 'Caribbean' issue. From writing fanfiction as a teen to working on her own novel, she focuses on a wide range of different topics, genres and mediums. Currently, she runs her own blog A Girl Between Two Seas that includes her personal, sometimes poetic, musings.

Fabia Turner is the founder of the Jericho Prize. She is also a former Ealing borough primary school teacher and Scholastic Education book editor with a lifelong passion for children's literature. With 12 years' combined experience in education and publishing, she has advocated for the use of multicultural/multi-ethnic resources in UK schools while working in both sectors. Concerned about the lack of Black critics on the UK arts scene, she also became a member of the Critics of Colour Collective in 2018, writing theatre reviews for their online platform. In 2018, she created Candid Cocoa, an arts blog now focused on getting more Black children's books into primary schools. 

Louise Tucker is a book editor who has also combined publishing with education. Using creative techniques, she devised university courses to inspire and educate. Her varied career includes establishing an archaeological field school and managing international cultural tours. Publishing has always been at the heart of her work and Louise has edited many books for children and young adults. Working on DK’s Children Just Like Me was a career highlight, as this exciting book involved finding families worldwide to represent different cultures and lifestyles. Raised in Ealing to Anglo-Indian parents, Louise is pleased to be supporting Fabia in promoting multicultural/multi-ethnic books through the Jericho Prize. She currently provides editorial services on a freelance basis.

Matthew Turner is a writer and marketing consultant. After completing a PhD in English Literature, Matthew taught at the University of Sussex while continuing his research into modern literature and popular culture. Over the past 20 years, he has worked in marketing, managing content projects and promotional campaigns. His most recent full-time role was as Head of Content for a FTSE 250 company, and he now works as a freelance consultant. As a playwright, Matthew’s work has been produced at the Arcola Theatre, Theatre503, the Brighton Fringe and elsewhere. His last two plays, Closed and Dead Yard, both reached the final 40 of the Bruntwood Prize. Dead Yard, which focuses on the generational struggles of a contemporary British-Jamaican family, was also selected for the Arcola PlayWROUGHT festival in 2017.

Rachel Gray is an Edinburgh-based book lover with a real passion for children’s literature. She helps out with social media and marketing for the Jericho Prize and currently works for Scottish Book Trust, a Scottish charity encouraging reading across the country. Rachel runs a book blog A Cascade of Books and social-media accounts where she shares her love of books! When she doesn't have her head stuck in a book, she enjoys all sports and drinking copious amounts of coffee!