Award-winning author and illustrator Paul Howard has accepted the post as the new Children’s Writing Fellow for Northern Ireland at the Seamus Heaney Centre, Queen’s University Belfast.
The Fellowship was created as part of Queen’s University and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s joint ten-year Seamus Heaney Legacy project supported by the Atlantic Philanthropies. Paul will be based at the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s for two years, working with students and engaged in outreach activities.
Speaking about the appointment, Paul said:
“I’m truly honoured to be appointed our new Children’s Writing Fellow, adding to the amazing achievements of my previous Fellows, Myra Zepf and Kelly McCaughrain. As an illustrator, primarily, I aim to bring a new dimension to the role through promoting visual literacy as an alternative, accessi-ble gateway for students and children of all literacy levels to engage in, building enough confidence in them to read and create their own stories. The Fellowship will also enable me to use the opportunity to take my story-building workshops to schools, who, for whatever reason, have never experienced an au-thor or illustrator visit before, endeavour to seek creative inspiration outside of the classroom and shine a light on the incredibly rich heritage of children’s literature we have in this corner of the country.”
Paul Howard is an award-winning children’s author and illustrator, best known for illustrating Jill Tomlinson’s classic THE OWL WHO WAS AFRAID OF THE DARK and THE BURPEE BEARS, a new picture book series from Joe Wicks.
After gaining a First Class Honour’s Degree in Graphic Design & Illustration in 1989, Paul worked at The Natural History Museum for a while before becoming a full time illustrator. His work has since won acclaim from the publishing industry and children across the world.
During his 30 year long career he has collaborated with some of the greats of children’s literature such as Allan Ahlberg, Michael Rosen, Geraldine McCaughrean, Anne Fine, Trish Cooke, Martin Waddell and John Boyne, and won numerous awards including a Blue Peter Award for THE BRAVEST EVER BEAR and The Primary English Award for THE YEAR IN THE CITY.
Aside from his numerous school, library, bookshop and arts centre visits across Northern Ireland, Paul has appeared at many literary festivals, including Hay, the Edinburgh Book Festival and the Belfast Chil-dren’s Festival.
Paul has lived in Belfast for over 20 years with his wife and their three children. Alongside illustrating for others, he has also had a range of his own stories published: young fiction titles, picture books and board books, the latest of which was 1,2, BOO! for Bloomsbury.
Read the rest of this article at the Arts Council of Northern Ireland website below.
