We’re very excited to announce the launch of a brand new podcast covering all things Children’s and Young Adult Literature. In the latest episode, Perry Nodelman discusses his current project as well as describing his journey into the world of Children’s Literature research and his experiences in writing and publishing books for children.
And in case you haven’t listened yet, in the first episode you can hear NCRCL PhD students Mark Carter and Emily Corbett talk about Emily’s experiences helping to create a journal and conference in the midst of a pandemic.
The podcast is available below or from wherever you get your podcasts.
YA Studies Around the World is a digital conference hosted by the YA Studies Association from 2-6 November. The conference offers a variety of fantastic opportunities to engage with YA and YA studies, both asynchronously and synchronously. Over the five conference days, there are twenty-eight live events — roundtables, panels, workshops, socials, and one rather special book launch — for you to enjoy. Each of the live events are being recorded and those recordings will be available for registered attendees to watch and rewatch at their leisure.
The conference begins on Monday 2nd November, but registration remains open until Friday 6th November. Once registered, you can access all conference materials including recordings until the end of November.
We have great pleasure in inviting you to join us for the launch of Aidan Chambers’ new book, The Age Between: Personal Reflections on Youth Fiction.
This event is being hosted in conjunction with Fincham Press as part of YA Studies Around the World, an online conference considering young adult literature, media, and culture.
This free-ticket event will take place online Wednesday 4 November 18.30-19.30 GMT.
It will feature:
An introduction by Lisa Sainsbury, Director of the NCRCL
Aidan Chambers in conversation with his editor, Alison Waller
Q&A
Winner of the Carnegie Medal, Printz Award and Hans Christian Anderson Award, Aidan Chambers is a longstanding friend of the NCRCL whose critical and creative work will be familiar to many NCRCL members and supporters. In this series of essays, Chambers explores the history and form of classic texts such as J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Anne Frank’s Diary, and Robert Cormier’s The Chocolate War. He also examines his own fascinating experiences of reading and writing youth fiction, weaving these together with fresh insights from narrative theory, anthropology and neurology.
The University of Roehampton’s Carnegie and Kate Greenaway award shadowing group is welcoming new members. More information about our group is included below. If you have any questions or would like to sign up, get in touch via the contact form.
I began university as an undergraduate almost exactly ten years ago. I had just turned eighteen and had really no idea what to expect when I rolled into Exeter wearing flip flops on that hot autumn day. Beginning that journey again triggers a sort of sense memory of those moments when I stepped into my student halls and onto campus for the first time, all tied up in scents and flavours and feelings. Sunshine mixed with bursts of warm rain; rustling pages, cheap wine and cheese toasties.
Beginning instead as a distance learning, part time postgraduate immediately felt quite different. I know my way around a library now, for instance, though I now have to find my own ways to access one, alongside tentatively exploring the wide world of digitised texts available from the University of Roehampton library. The balance of work and studying has swung the other way – as an undergraduate I would fit my hours working in the campus bookshop around my studies, now I squeeze studying in before I start work in the morning, or when I get home at night. When I think about my undergraduate life I marvel over how much time I seemed to have, and how I didn’t seem to realise it. Looking back, I seemed to spend an ordinate amount of time just sitting and thinking. I wondered how I was going to fit everything in now.
We are pleased to announce that the current round of applications for our annual scholarships in children’s literature is open (studies commencing October 2020).
IBBY UK/NCRCL CONFERENCE: A World of Information: Children’s Non-Fiction Books in the Digital Age
Centre for Literacy in Primary Education
London SE1 8QW
Saturday 9th NOVEMBER 2019
Booking is now open for the IBBY UK/NCRCL conference 2019! Please click here to secure your place.
How is non-fiction for children developing in response to technological, social and political change?
Why, in the wake of Wikipedia, are children’s information books currently enjoying such a resurgence?
How do children interact with non-fiction books?
Programme
9.00 – 9.30 Registration and coffee
9.30 – 9.45 Welcome and IBBY News
9.45 – 10.30 Sue Walker, Reading University Design of children’s information books and the legacy of Marie Neurath and Isotype
10.30 – 11.15 Joe Sutliff Sanders, University of Cambridge, and Karen Bentall, Librarian, Oakridge Elementary School, Arlington, Virginia (USA) Beauty in theory and truth: connecting academic approaches to non-fiction and school storytime
11.15 – 11.45 Coffee
11.45 – 12.45 Parallel sessions
1.00 – 2.00 Lunch
2 – 2.30 Nicola Davies The world into words: writing about big things for small people
2.30 – 3.30 A panel of publishers in conversation with writers and illustrators – Thames & Hudson with Yuval Zommer, Flying Eye, Hachette Children’s Group with Neal Layton. Chaired by Liza Miller, Hachette Children’s Group Publishing non-fiction: challenges and successes
3.30 – 4.00 Tea
4.00 – 4.30 Karenanne Knight, Portsmouth University How far is far away? Where fact and fiction meet. Cartography and the information book, a Research Project.
4.30 – 5.00 Chris Routh, Librarian, Leighton Park School Celebrating the best non-fiction for children: SLA Information Book Awards and National Non-fiction November
Two PhD students embark on a field trip to Newcastle to talk all things children’s and YA literature
‘Building New Communities in UK Children’s Literature Research: A Colloquium for Contemporary Issues in the Field’ was organised by Cambridge doctoral student, Andy McCormack, to bring together PhD students and academics from Roehampton, Newcastle, Glasgow and Cambridge universities. It was hosted by Newcastle University and Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children’s Books, and so fellow PhD student Harriet Salisbury and I ventured north to meet new people, share our research and enjoy all that the colloquium had to offer. As it turns out, the colloquium had plenty to offer!
A Distance Learner Finds Her Way to Roehampton At Last!
One of the most delightful aspects of the Roehampton Distance Learning program is the opportunity to chat with our tutors on the phone during the semester. Now, double that pleasure for an actual onsite visit, which I did last month for the ‘Being Human in YA Literatures’ symposium and the MA Open Day. I used these events as my ‘excuse’ and Virgin Atlantic was happy to carry me across the Pond from Boston. Here, I share my experiences of both events.
