CMC 2014 - Creative Keynote: Malorie Blackman

She originally trained in Computer Science and worked in computing before publishing her first book at the age of 28. She has since written 60 books for children and young adults.

Malorie writes children's novels, young adult novels, picture books, short stories and early readers. She has also written television scripts, including episodes of the children's television drama, ‘Byker Grove’, and original dramas for CITV and BBC Education. Her stage play, ‘The Amazing Birthday’, was performed in 2002 at the Polka Theatre.

She adapted her novel ‘Pig-Heart Boy’ for television, winning several awards, including a BAFTA for best children's drama in 2000.

Her best-known books for young adults are the multi award-winning ‘Noughts & Crosses’ series, which overtly addressed racial issues, depicting a world in which black people, or “Crosses”, are the ruling elite and white people, or “noughts”, struggle for acceptance.

In 2004, she wrote a novel entirely in verse, ‘Cloud Busting’, which won a Nestlé Smarties Book Prize (Silver Award). In 2007, she edited ‘Unheard Voices’, an anthology of stories and poems to commemorate the bicentenary anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade, and in 2009 she contributed to ‘Free?’,  a book of stories celebrating Human Rights.

In 2005, she was honoured with the Eleanor Farjeon Award in recognition of her distinguished contribution to the world of children's books; she was also awarded an OBE in 2008. Her most recent novel is ‘Noble Conflict’ (2013).

Malorie was appointed Waterstones Children’s Laureate in 2013 in recognition of her outstanding achievements.  Her role covers the whole of the UK and entails meeting thousands of children and young people over her two-year term of office.  This, along with her career long commitment to inclusion and diversity, take her to the heart of her theme for her CMC Creative Keynote: ‘The Right to be Seen, the Need to be Heard’ or ‘We Are The Stories We Eat!’