About Michaela
Michaela writes picture books, novels, non-fiction and poetry. She spends some of the time living in the quiet countryside and some of the time living by the breezy seaside and an enormous amount of time daydreaming, which is where so much writing starts.
She has written approximately 200 titles. Frankly, she stopped counting them some time ago…
She writes fiction, non-fiction and poetry and regularly visits schools to perform and to run story writing or poetry workshops.
A popular speaker at national and international conferences, her work includes a British Council sponsored trip to South Africa to give talks and run workshops with teachers in townships. She has also visited schools in the USA, France, Switzerland and Spain. In the UK she has spoken at: UKRA conference, Primary English conference, the University of Leicester School of Education, University of Nottingham School of Education and the Federation of Children’s Books. She has contributed to many conferences and INSETs.
She is a committee member at the Society of Authors. She is also a National Poetry Day Ambassador.
Read more about her at The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education.
Awards
Michaela has been shortlisted or won various awards including the BBC Blue Peter Award (twice), the Children’s Book Award and Birmingham Libraries and Surrey Libraries Award and has won a UKRA (now UKLA) award, been an International Reading Association Children’s Choice and a World Book Recommended Read. In 2016 she won the Quick Reads Award for Respect! published by Barrington Stoke. Her poetry Wonderland: Alice in Poetry was shortlisted for the very prestigious CLiPPA Award for poetry and Reaching The Stars: Poems About Extraordinary Women and Girls won the North Somerset Teachers’ Award.
Walter Tull’s Scrapbook (non-fiction) the account of World War One hero and footballer and first black British army officer, Walter Tull was chosen by the Guardian to feature in as one of the 50 best culturally diverse books.
Her books are published in many languages including Welsh, Xhosa and Zulu.
An Interview with Michaela
1. Which children’s authors do you admire?
"You just can’t beat Lewis Carroll, A.A. Milne and Edward Lear – but, to be a bit more up to date, I also really love books by Morris Gleitzman. I also have a great fondness for the BFG by Roald Dahl. I love books that are funny and play with words and I admire Morris Gleitzman for being so funny and sharp and light and serious at the same time. That’s an art!”
2. Where do you read?
“I read books anywhere - in bed, on a beach, in the bath. That’s why I don’t like showers - you can’t ready poetry (for a long) in a shower.”
3. What made you decide to be an author?
"I didn’t DECIDE to write poetry and stories. It seemed to come naturally – like speaking or walking. I have always liked to play with words and to make up stories and rhymes in my head. I went into writing for children because I had a child and I enjoyed sharing the same world as him.”
4. What would you have been if you weren’t an author? "
As well as being an author I have already been a traveller, a worker at odd jobs (some very odd jobs…), a teacher, I had my own business and I worked as a Writer in Residence in prisons. And I was a mum – a very important job.”
5. What are the best and worst things about being an author?
"The best thing about being a writer is getting a new idea and capturing it. The worst thing is when you have managed to get a story or a poem just right and an editor wants to change it – often for reasons of marketing or fashion.”
6. Where do you get your ideas from?
"Reading influences my writing. I read a lot – all sorts of things. I also listen to what is going on around me. I keep my eyes open. And I give myself time to think and dream.”
7. What is your advice to those who would like to write?
"My advice is – if you really want to write – just do it. Every day, sit down somewhere and write. Anything. For practice in finding words, finding your voice. Don’t think about ‘being a writer’. Just write.”
