It was a real pleasure working with children’s literature charity First Story as a freelance editor in 2023, and I’m thrilled to be returning for a second season.
The team at First Story are passionate and dedicated, bringing incredible writers into school to spark the joy of storytelling and poetry.
Working with fellow freelance Vivienne Heller, under brilliant Editorial Manager Sophie Blacksell Jones, I managed a selection of anthologies of students’ work, from manuscript to print-ready proofs.
I’ve really enjoyed liaising with the Writers-in-Residence (of whom I am in absolute awe), commissioning cover designs based on students’ ideas, copy-editing their poems, scripts and stories, and being blown away by the creativity in every collection.
I’d like to share one of my favourite poems from 2023 (and possibly of all time), which comes from A Rabbit Hole of Twisted Words, the anthology from the cohort at Beckfoot Oakbank School in Bradford, under the leadership of Writer-in-Residence Andy Craven-Griffiths. Here’s the cover, designed by the amazing Eva Pola:
And here is the poem, which was a collaborative piece, written by the whole group. I cannot tell you how much this piece delights me.
Here are a selection of the other anthologies I worked on in 2023:
