Thursday 26th March

6.00pm: Registration

6.30pm-7.30pm: Keynote Panel

The Children’s Writing Fellowship with Shirley-Anne McMillan, Paul Howard, Kelly McCaughrain and Máire Zepf in conversation with Damian Smyth (Arts Council of Northern Ireland)

7.30pm: Drinks Reception

Friday 27th March

9.30am: Registration and tea/coffee

10.00am: Welcome from Children’s Writing Fellow, Shirley-Anne McMillan

10.10am-11.00am: Panel One

• Prof. Hussain Alqarni (King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia): ‘Translating the Other for Children’
• Dr. Dena Attar: ‘Can we talk about this now?’

11.10am-12pm: Panel Two

• Dr. Nick Kleese (University of Minnesota Twin Cities, USA): ‘Children, Labour, and Community in Contemporary American Multicultural Picturebooks and Seamus Heaney’s Early Poetry’
• Dr. Ben Screech (University of Gloucestershire): ‘A view from Space’: Oliver Jeffers, eco-anxiety and post-Anthropocene Celestial Representations

12pm-1pm: Lunch

1pm-1.50pm: Panel Three

• Dr. Juliet Harrison (Roehampton University): ‘“Roused to such reflection”: The Pedagogic Preface’
• Amanda Dunne (Trinity College Dublin): ‘Hidden gems: an Exploration of Martin Waddell’s Pioneering Contribution to Irish Adolescent Literature’

2pm-2.50pm: Panel Four

• Fiona Monahan (Ulster University): ‘Know Your Spectrum!’
• Anna McQuinn: ‘Creating More Inclusive ‘Narratives of Nation’ in Irish Children’s Literature’

3.00pm-4.00pm: Panel Five

• Hilary Copeland and Marnie Kennedy from Fighting Words NI on the first year of the Fighting Words NI Schools Residency

4.00pm: Drinks Reception

Saturday 28th June

10.00am: Registration and tea/coffee

10.35am Welcome from Children’s Writing Fellow, Shirley-Anne McMillan

10:45am-12pm: On the Importance of Representation for Younger Readers

with Marianne McShane, Gyasi Sheppy, Colleen Larmour and Emma Larkin (chaired by Máire Zepf)

12.15pm-1.30pm: Panel A (Wolfson Lecture Theatre)
Magical Realism, Science Ficiton and Fantasy for Young Readers

with Clara Kumagai, Siobhán Murphy and Heather Bouwman (chaired by Jo Zebedee)

12.15pm-1.30pm: Panel B (Pigott Seminar Room)
InDepth: Fresh Perspectives in Picture Books with Illustrators North

1.30pm-2.30pm: Lunch

2.30pm-3.30pm Weaving New Stories from Old Threads of Telling: Twenty Years of An tSnáthaid Mhór with Andrew Whitson

3.45pm-5.00pm: Northern Lights, in partnership with Children’s Books Ireland

with Sue Divin, Jenny Ireland, John Bittles and Stephen Daly (chaired by Shirley-Anne McMillan)

5pm: Drinks Reception