CONFERENCE

Joseph Coelho is the former Waterstones Children’s Laureate. Having attended a performance poetry course run by Apples & Snakes, Joseph started performing his poems in schools and running writing workshops for students. His first collection, The Werewolf Club Rules was published in 2014 and Joseph has been writing and performing ever since. Recent titles include the Fairytales Gone Bad series, Luna Loves Gardening, Our Tower, Ten Word Tiny Tales and the Carnegie-winning novel, The Boy Lost in the Maze.

Helen Stephens is an award winning author and illustrator, best known for her 'How to Hide a Lion' series. She is Co-founder of The Good Ship Illustration who offer no nonsense advice for illustrators. 'How to Hide a Lion' was nominated for The Kate Greenaway Medal and The Redhouse Book Awards. It has been adapted for stage by The Polka Theatre in London, then it toured the UK. Helen’s most recent book, 'Smelly Peggy' is about her dog Peggy and all her bad habits.

Ken Wilson-Max is an award-winning author, illustrator, and publisher of children’s books. He was born in Zimbabwe, lives in London and has over 75 books published in many languages worldwide. His distinctive style always manages to capture special moments between children and grown-ups and his books are full of good, authentic representation. In 2020 his book, Astro Girl won the STEAM award for early years picture books. Of his other books, Where's Lenny? was listed in 50 Best Culturally Diverse Children's Books by The Guardian, while Stars With Flaming Tales, written by Valerie Bloom won the CLiPPA award in 2021. Several of his books are included in the core books list of CLPE and BookTrust for early years education.

Becky Bagnell is the founder of the Lindsay Literary Agency and has been in publishing for over 25 years. She worked as a commissioning editor at Macmillan before becoming a literary agent in 2008. Becky represents clients in all genres of children’s publishing, from picture books and non-fiction to middle grade and YA, and they have been published in multiple languages across the world. Her clients include the multi-award winning authors, Pamela Butchart, Sue Wallman, Sam Gayton, Larry Hayes, Louise Finch and Kate Peridot.

Linas Alsenas began his book career over 20 years ago as an editorial assistant at Abrams in New York City. In 2005 he moved to Sweden, where he focused on his own projects full-time: four picture books (which he wrote and illustrated) published by Scholastic and Abrams, as well as a nonfiction history book for teens and a YA novel. He moved to London in 2013 to return to the editorial side of children’s publishing. After two years working for Walker Books, he took a commissioning editor position at Scholastic UK in 2016, and over seven years progressed to Editorial Director. He moved over to Penguin Random House in 2023, and today works on the 6+ team’s middle-grade and young-adult lists. Books he has edited have won numerous awards and accolades, and he has taught fiction “masterclasses” for different groups. He is a co-founder of Pride in Publishing.

Creative Director, Farshore Tiffany has worked as a designer in the Children’s Book industry for over 30 years. She’s always looking for exciting, commercial, and original illustration styles and clever concepts. She currently works at Farshore (part of HarperCollins UK) as Creative Director, managing a team of 20 designers. Tiffany is a Trustee at ‘Picture Hooks’ and helped develop HarperCollins Design Academy, which is in its third year. Tiffany looks after the design out-put for all the Farshore lists from board books to YA, Minecraft to Michael Morpurgo and Winnie-the-Pooh.

Teri Terry has lived in France, Canada, Australia and England, collecting degrees, passports and an unforgettable name along the way. A scientist, a lawyer, an optometrist and now a writer, she is the author of over a dozen award-winning, best-selling thrillers for teens. It began with the Slated trilogy; most recent are chilling ghost story, Scare Me, and Dark Blue Rising, the first of the Circle trilogy. The Stepdaughter's Lie and The Patient are her recent psychological thrillers for adults.

Literary and Illustration Agent, Pickled ink Helen is a literary and illustration agent at Pickled Ink, representing a small clutch of authors and illustrators. She has worked in children’s publishing for over twenty years, beginning her career in marketing and design before moving into editorial. After stints as a commissioning fiction editor and a foreign literary scout, she joined Pickled Ink as a managing agent in 2016. Pickled Ink is a small, boutique illustration and literary agency representing the best in illustration and writing. Helen’s authors and illustrators include Laura Ellen Anderson, Annaliese Avery, Melissa Castrillón, Angela Woolfe, Phil Corbett, Lo Cole and Dominique Valente.

Philip is an author, playwright, poet, illustrator and screenwriter. In his day job he works on Sustainability, helping decarbonise world-wide supply chains. Philip has been working with children as a Scout Cubs Leader for quite a few years. His mission is to get more kids reading! Especially boys, whose reading stats are consistently lower than girls'. Philip's Microraptor series aims to get boys reading again!