A Thousand Stories: Children's Writers of Colour Conference

A Thousand Stories is Megaphone Writers CIC’s first writing conference. It is a day for people of colour who want to write or create books for children. We want to help emerging writers of colour to find their voices, discover the joy and reward of writing for children, connect with a creative community and meet people who can help them reach an audience, all in a supportive space. We're doing this in Birmingham - once the city of a thousand trades, and now the super-diverse, youthful city of a thousand stories!

For the full programme for the day and all other details, please see our website: megaphonewrite.com/a-thousand-stories/

The ticket price of £10 includes the full day programme of panels with authors and publishing professionals. It also includes:
- a vegetarian lunch (some vegan options) and refreshments.
- the option to send in a sample of your writing and receive 30 minutes of free, expert feedback from editor Stephanie and author Leila, with the opportunity to win a £50 book token for our favourite piece of writing!
- membership of our forum, Megaphone Community, a free source of support for children's writers of colour.

We want to make attendance financially accessible for everyone. We are offering a pay-as-you-can option for unwaged people. Please contact us on hello@megaphonewrite.com  if you would like to take this offer up.

What is Megaphone Writers CIC?

Megaphone Writers CIC is a not-for-profit run by Leila Rasheed, a Birmingham-based children’s author and writing tutor, published most recently by Scholastic (EMPIRE'S END), and Stephanie King, a freelance editor at Scribbling Suit, formerly commissioning editor at Usborne, working on titles by authors including Pseudonymous Bosch, Vanessa Curtis, Sarah Hagger-Holt, William Hussey, Ann M Martin, Serena Patel, Michelle Quach, Meredith Russo, Darren Simpson and L A Weatherly. We support people of colour who write for children and teenagers, by providing them with affordable, accessible, transformative opportunities to develop their creativity and skills and connect to an audience. We want every child to see themselves in stories – and as authors of their own stories.

Megaphone is best known for its mentoring scheme, which has run, with funding from Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grants and sponsors, since 2016. It has helped launch the careers of critically acclaimed and prize-winning authors such as Danielle Jawando, Maisie Chan, Joyce Efia Harmer and Nazima Pathan. Our wider community of writers also includes many who are  now published - here is some of our favourite feedback: megaphonewrite.com/what-people-say-about-us/ 

Megaphone mentoring was founded because of the lack of ethnic minority voices in children's literature. In the decade from 2007 - 2017, less than 2% of published children's authors in the UK were British people of colour (Book Trust Represents, 2017), a huge mis-match with the school population and the result of historical under-representation of ethnic minority communities and voices in mainstream culture. The result was a lack of 'windows, mirrors and sliding glass doors' (Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, 1990) in British children's literature. Megaphone mentoring was designed as an affordable alternative to an MA in Writing and an opportunity for unpublished writers of colour to be mentored by those who shared their experience. Since Megaphone mentoring first launched in 2016,  25% of mentees have gone on to publication.