Event Update: This event has moved to the Revue Stage.
Whether a parallel world of ghosts, magic, or mystical creatures, the desire to imagine is one of the joys of youth… and never really leaves us if we treat it carefully. These authors know how to keep imagination alive—and how to use it to create magnificent worlds. Katherine Rundell’s YA sensation, Impossible Creatures, crackles with delight in a world of unmapped islands with magical creatures. She is joined by Linh Nguyễn, whose No Place Like Home is a portal fantasy unlike any other, and Melissa Yue, whose Misadventures in Ghosthunting shares the fascinating protagonist Emma’s ghosthunting history. Together, they’ll discuss how they begin to construct such creative realities, how to keep them alive—and why they’re so passionate about magical fiction. Grades 4–7. Moderated by Jael Richardson.
Themes: Middle grade fiction, fantasy, magic, worldbuilding, mystery, adventure, creative writing
Curriculum Connections: English Language Arts 4-9
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LINH S. NGUYỄN is a Vietnamese immigrant to Canada who straddles many intersecting worlds. Her stories revolve around home, liminality and living between cultures. She graduated from the University of Toronto as an English major and went on to pursue her master’s in Arts, Creativity and Education at the University of Cambridge.
JAEL RICHARDSON is the author of the memoir The Stone Thrower, a picture book by the same title and the picture books Because You Are and The Hockey Jersey. Her debut novel, Gutter Child, was shortlisted for the Amazon First Novel Award. She is the founder and Executive Director of the Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD). She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph and lives in Brampton, Ontario.
KATHERINE RUNDELL is a Fellow of St Catherine's College, Oxford. She is the author of Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne, which won the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, and Why You Should Read Children’s Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise. Her multi-award-winning novels for children have been translated into more than forty languages and sold over two million copies worldwide. She has written for, among others, the London Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement, the New York Review of Books, and the New York Times, about books, the natural world and night climbing.
MELISSA YUE loves all things spooky and can often be found obsessively researching ghost stories over bubble tea. Her work is informed by her experiences in the Chinese-Canadian diaspora community, her previous career in education, and all her nerdy interests. She views her writing as a way to connect to her roots.
