The Interview

On a very sunny morning at the Edinburgh International Book Festival Hayley and Kiera from Beeslack Community High School interviewed Kevin Brooks in the bustling press tent. Kevin spoke to them about his work, his favourite novels and his plans for the future. This is a transcript of their interview.

At the Edinburgh International Book Festival 2009, one of our teen reviewers Amy interviewed Australian author Lili Wilkinson. Lili was at the festival to talk about her novel Scatterheart but Amy asked her about many other things as well, including the website Inside A Dog and what it's like having an author for a mum.

In September we will be embarking on a two-week long tour of the Highlands with the hugely succesful duo Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell. But, before we venture North we thought we would give you a sneak-peek into their lives, the way they work together and how the whole creative relationship began.

This month we feature two poets Elspeth Murray, from Scotland and Amanda Lichenstein from Chicago USA who recently took part in a Cultural Exchange Programme bewteen Scotland and Chicago. First Elspeth reflects on how the exchange helped develop her teaching techniques and build skills that can be transfered to our schools. We look forward to featuring an interview with Amanda who is currently working on an arts project in Tanzania.

This month we feature short interviews with all of the 2009 Royal Mail Award shortlisted authors. Here you can read about the thoughts of James Jauncey, Keith Gray and J.A. Henderson who were all nominated in the Older Readers (12-16) category.

You can also read the interviews with the shortlisted authors in the Early Years (0-7) and Younger Readers (8-11) categories.