January Newsletter
January kicks-off two of our Pathways courses: Pathways Into Children’s Publishing’s ‘Foundation’ week for untrained artists sees five days of sessions delivered with lecturers from seven university BA and MA illustration courses; and Pathways Northern Ireland, our community publishing enterprise programme for LGBTQ+ young people gets underway with sessions from Children’s Books Ireland and a host of queer publishing folk including comics artist Luke Healy, poet Jay Hulme and novelist Betsy Cornwell….
In February we’re celebrating Pathways Into Children’s Publishing mentees past and present at Conway Hall in Bloomsbury, London where we’ll be joined by some of the publishers, universities and illustrators involved in the 2022-2024 programme…
After almost three years of desk-based work we’re finally going to the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in March – where we’ll be meeting organisers to plan a regular showcase of Pathways illustrators, which we’re aiming to get going from 2o24…
In May our new one-year course for aspiring illustrators launches with Masterclasses on ‘Illustrating People’ and ‘Illustrating Animals’ from Sara Ogilvie, Jan Fearnley and Simon & Schuster’s ‘Designer of the Year’ Jane Buckley…
In July Pop Up and Cara-Friend will host a residential for the 30 LGBTQ+ young people involved in Pathways Northern Ireland, where they’ll develop the vision, brand and business plan for the queer children’s publishing venture they’ll be launching in 2024…
Thanks to a grant from the British Council, Pop Up will be running a summer school in August in Vietnam, with our friends from Simon & Schuster and Vietnamese publisher Nah Nam, to develop a new picture book about the fight to protect endangered species in Vietnam…
Subject to funding, in September we are hoping to open applications for a brand new Pathways Into Children’s Publishing course for aspiring writers from under-represented backgrounds, likely to commence from April 2024…
In October we’ll be co-presenting ‘Queer Joy!’, a free-to-attend, three-day celebration of LGBTQ+ inclusive children’s literature, with Manchester, Nottingham and Dublin UNESCO Cities of Literature – the culmination of our three-year The Rainbow Library project across England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland…
We’re aiming to re-issue – in new paperback picture book formats – four of our 10 Stories children’s books in November: Swallow’s Kiss, Indigo Takes Flight, A Match for Mermaid, Here Be Monsters. So if you want to get your hands on the last hardback editions of these four titles, make sure to do that before the autumn…
And we’ll be ending the year in December with a small exhibition of Vietnamese children’s illustration at Royal Overseas League in London and Manchester’s Metropolitan University, part of the British Council’s UK / Vietnam season exploring ‘Climate and the Environment’ through cultural partnerships.