The GLL Literary Foundation is an organisation, operated by charitable Social Enterprise GLL, that has been established to support authors to continue to write, share stories, and inspire young readers.
Having worked with a number of authors over our 12 years of managing public libraries, GLL have learnt that the path to becoming an established author does not end when the first book is published, and achieving the levels of success required to sustain a full-time literary career is not guaranteed. Being a children's author is more than writing; it requires authors to be able to deliver public events, engage with young readers, and inspire them. On top of this, they must become business owners, understand their brand, and learn to market themselves. This can be a daunting prospect for authors at the beginning of their career.
Becoming an author is competitive, and promotional budgets vary. Through our work in libraries, GLL is aware of the importance of diversity and inclusivity in the reading material provided for children and young people. We understand that representation is important and that reading levels improve when children can see themselves in the books they read. We also know that engagement with reading increases upon being able to meet and engage with authors.
Becoming an author is competitive, and promotional budgets vary. Through our work in libraries, GLL is aware of the importance of diversity and inclusivity in the reading material provided for children and young people. We understand that representation is important and that reading levels improve when children can see themselves in the books they read. We also know that engagement with reading increases upon being able to meet and engage with authors.
As the largest public library operator in the UK, GLL recognises that we are uniquely positioned to support the success of early-career authors by bridging the gap in author training and experience in the areas where we deliver public library services. In 2024 the GLL Literary Foundation was founded to combine the knowledge, expertise, and support of our team of librarians, event managers, our Start Up Programme, and our 100+ libraries.
We exist to:
- support local authors to develop the skills and knowledge that will allow them to reach their full potential,
- encourage greater promotion of diverse and inclusive texts,
- provide children and young people with the opportunity to be inspired to read and write by seeing local authors succeed,
- support publishers of all sizes to promote authors,
- connect local authors and publishers to the libraries at the heart of their communities.
Our Authors
Greenwich
Hannah Moffatt
Hannah has always loved two things: writing and silliness. As a child, you could mostly find her scribbling poems or giggling at comedies, like Mr Bean, on TV. As a grown-up, Hannah puts all that silliness into her stories. When she’s not working on books, you’ll find Hannah writing surprisingly sensible things for businesses at creative agency, Definition. And in the rare moments when she’s not writing, you’ll probably spot her strolling and daydreaming in Greenwich Park.
Janelle McCurdy
Janelle is an author and fully-fledged gamer. Janelle began writing middle-grade fantasy in her teens, signing a three-book deal for the Umbra Tales series in her early twenties. Her FAB Prize winning story, Mia and the Lightcasters, has been short and longlisted for major awards including the Week Junior Book Awards, Branford Boase Award, Diverse Book Awards and Jhalak Prize. In her free time, you can find her gaming and watching anime or attending numerous comic cons and gaming events.
Mama G
Everyone's favourite pantomime dame, and Britain's Got Talent semi-finalist Mama G has been starring in panto for almost twenty years. She started telling stories about being who you want and loving who you are in 2018 and is regular visitor to our Libraries.Towards the end of 2024 Mama G's first picture book Oh Yes I Am! was published. It explores the power of panto and self-belief, and is a love letter to one of the UK's most unique and traditional art forms.
Sherada Keats
Sharada grew up in Australia and Canada, with parents from Guyana and Yorkshire – influences that still shape her writing. Sharada loves poetry, nature, reading, writing, electricity, hot running water, petrichor, a certain degree of cliché, and circumstances that ensure young people can enjoy basic human rights, be nurtured, and grow old happily and healthily. She feels strongly that people of all ages deserve a wider variety of stories and storytellers.
Jonathan Sellars
Jonathan Sellars is an award-winning poet and author who lives in Greenwich. His poems have been published around the world and his picture book, POLLY PLUM: BRAVE ADVENTURER, sits proudly upon many a shelf.
He loves humour and rhyme, but more than anything he values the fun that can be had with words, whatever way you choose to align them.
Bromley
Adelola Sokunbi
Adeola Sokunbi is a writer-illustrator from London. She is an obsessive doodler and lover of fantasy stories who also writes her own graphic novels. Adeola works for an animation company as a Studio Senior Lighting & Compositing Artist when she is not writing.
Marcela Ferreira
Marcela was born in Rio de Janeiro and moved to London as a teenager. Being bilingual means a joyful interest in tongue twisting stories, as well as how country and culture affect the tales we tell. Unsurprisingly, her stories tend to focus on friendship, growth, change and being yourself - though funny ones are her favourite.
Alex Falase-Koya
Alex has been reading and writing since he was a teenager. His debut novel ‘Marv and the Mega Robot’ was inspired after Alex struggled to find superheroes in fiction who looked like him. By creating Marv, a superhero whose strengths are kindness and imagination, Alex hopes to have created a character to whom all children can relate.
Alom Shaha
Alom Shaha is a father of two, author, and science teacher who has dedicated his career to sharing his passion for science and education. Before focusing on teaching and writing, Alom worked in television, where he wrote, produced, and directed programmes on topics ranging from Tudor history to particle physics. When not writing, Alom teaches part-time at a comprehensive school in London
Mireille Harper
Mireille Harper is the author of Timelines from Black History (Dorling Kindersley) which has sold over 50,000 copies since its publication in 2020. She is working on a forthcoming children's history book, due for publication with Nosy Crow in 2027. By day, Mireille is Editorial Director of Tonic, an imprint of Bloomsbury, where she publishes wellbeing non-fiction books.
Image credit: Francis Augusto
Image credit: Francis Augusto
Natascha Biebow
Natascha Biebow, MBE, is the author of The Crayon Man: The True Story of the Invention of Crayola Crayons, winner of the Irma Black Award for Excellence in Children’s Literature. Her favourite crayon colour is periwinkle blue, and she is passionate about picture books and true stories. Natascha is an experienced children's book editor, coach and mentor at Blue Elephant Storyshaping, Editorial Director at Five Quills, and co-chair of SCBWI British Isles.
Lincolnshire
Bethany Walker
Bethany Walker is the author of funny picture books and chapter books. Before becoming a children’s writer, she was a teacher and then a museum educator, working in some very weird and wonderful places. Bethany grew up in North Lincolnshire and now lives close-by in Lincolnshire with her husband, two children and a rapidly increasing number of stick insects.
Mary Auld
Mary Auld is the pen name of Rachel Cooke, who lives on the Nottinghamshire/Lincolnshire border. Mary was for many years an editor and publisher of children’s non-fiction books but now focuses on writing rather than editing. She finds art in science, history in music, loves looking at things in pieces – and starting something small and following it through to something really big. In 2020, in association with the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), she wrote How to Build an Orchestra which won the Presto Music Award for children’s books.
Helen Hancocks
Helen is an author-illustrator based in Lincoln. Her first picture book ‘Penguin in Peril’ was the UK’s best-selling debut picture book of 2013, and she has been delighting readers with her vibrant & witty work ever since. Her work often features cats and cake two of her favourite things. She is also the founder of the picture book shop Shelf Editions & picture book review magazine SHELF.
Wandsworth
Fay Evans
Fay Evans has been selling, writing and making children’s books for over a decade. Originally from South Wales, she now lives in South London and works as an editorial director at Flying Eye Books, and enjoys crafting, playing dungeons & dragons and drinking a lot of coffee in her free time.
Jack Meggitt-Phillips
Jack Meggitt-Phillips is an author, scriptwriter and presenter whose work has been performed at The Roundhouse and featured on Radio 4. His bestselling debut children's series The Beast and the Bethany is translated into over 30 languages, and has had a major film deal announced.
Nadine Wild-Palmer
Nadine Wild-Palmer is an author, voice artist and performer, and is always looking for new ways to bring words to life. Her debut middle-grade book, The Tunnels Below was shortlisted for The Diverse Book Awards and she is currently working on new material which she hopes to show the world at some point during 2025. In her spare time, she loves singing and playing the piano and violin with her daughters. Her favourite smells are coffee brewing and roses in bloom.
Nathanael Lessore
Nathanael Lessore was born in London to French and Madagascan Parents and grew up with 7 siblings. His debut book Steady For This won the Branford Boase Award 2024 and Diverse Book Awards, and his book King of Nothing has been longlisted for the Yoto Carnegie medal for writing. Nathaniel writes stories that show his South East London childhood as the funny, warm, adventurous world that wasn't always represented as such.
Olivia Wakeford
Olivia Wakeford writes a lot about grief, which really means she writes about love. And dogs: she believes every story should have a dog in it! Olivia has worked in film and television, been a dog-walker, PA and more, but her favourite job is writing novels for children. Olivia can ride a unicycle (badly) and is addicted to salt and vinegar crisps. She was born in Wales and now lives in London with her husband and their socially awkward Labrador, Obi.
Dudley
Jesse Kaur
Jesse Kaur is the author of When Nani, When? which she first wrote in 2014, after many revisions and taking a sabbatical from her teaching job, Jesse had time to stand and stare (out of her window) at the cherry tree in her garden, and turned the story she'd written into a picture book. The story was finally published in 2023. When not writing, Jesse works as a cover teacher in a secondary school in her home town, Dudley.
Explore our supported authors' work
Mia and the Lightcasters
McCurdy, Janelle, author.
Marv and the mega robot
Falase-Koya, Alex, author.
Marv and the pool of peril
Falase-Koya, Alex, author.
Mia and the traitor of Nubis
McCurdy, Janelle.
Ella, queen of jazz
Hancocks, Helen, author, artist.
Revenge of the beast
Meggitt-Phillips, Jack, author.
Steady for this
Lessore, Nathanael, author.
The beast and the Bethany
Meggitt-Phillips, Jack, author.
Battle of the beast
Meggitt-Phillips, Jack, author.
Do lions hate haircuts?
Walker, Bethany, author.
Olly Brown, god of hamsters
Walker, Bethany, author.
William & the missing masterpiece
Hancocks, Helen.
Chocolate milk, x-ray specs & me!
Walker, Bethany, author.
Small!
Moffatt, Hannah, author.
Why do we wear clothes?
Hancocks, Helen, author, illustrator.
The queen next door
Ferreira, Marcela.
The tunnels below
Wild-Palmer, Nadine, author.
How to steal the Mona Lisa
Walker, Bethany, author.
Marv and the dino attack
Falase-Koya, Alex, author.
Marv and the Blizzard Zone
Falase-Koya, Alex, author.
Marv and the killer plants
Falase-Koya, Alex, author.
Small bites back: how to deal with vampires, werewolves and tooth fairies
Moffatt, Hannah, author.
William heads to Hollywood
Hancocks, Helen, author, artist.
Mr Shaha's recipes for wonder: adventures in science round the kitchen table
Shaha, Alom, author.
Mr Shaha's marvellous machines: adventures in making round the kitchen table
Shaha, Alom, author.
The cello
Auld, Mary, author.
The flute
Auld, Mary, author.
These stolen lives
Keats, Sharada, author.
Penguin in peril
Hancocks, Helen.
Drums and percussion
Auld, Mary, author.
How to find a rainbow
Shaha, Alom, author.
The treasure
Ferreira, Marcela.
Child of the beast
Meggitt-Phillips, Jack, author.
Masterpieces in pieces
Swenson, Ingrid (Curator), author.
The violin
Auld, Mary, author.
Little, brown nut
Auld, Mary.
The crayon man: the true story of the invention of Crayola crayons
Biebow, Natascha, author.
King of nothing
Lessore, Nathanael, author.
The tunnels below
Wild-Palmer, Nadine.
The final feast
Meggitt-Phillips, Jack, author.
Oh yes I am!
G, Mama, author.
Marv and the alien invasion
Falase-Koya, Alex, author.
Mia and the secrets of Lunis
McCurdy, Janelle, author.
Bear vs Dragon
Ferreira, Marcela.
Sleepover surprise
Sokunbi, Adeola, author.
Talent show magic
Sokunbi, Adeola, author, illustrator.
How to build an orchestra
Auld, Mary.
My dog
Wakeford, Olivia.
I really want to be a cat
Hancocks, Helen.
Light
Auld, Mary.
Electricity
Auld, Mary, author.
Fluffy, flying seed
Auld, Mary.
Tiny, floating coral
Auld, Mary.
Small, speckled egg
Auld, Mary.
The laugh
Evans, Fay.
When Nani when?: Polish-English
Kaur, Jesse, author.
The Science Club investigates sound
Auld, Mary.
Habitats
Auld, Mary.
How do we support our authors
The GLL Literary Foundation awards up to 20 annual placements to select authors that meet the eligibility criteria and who reside in the areas where we operate public libraries: Bromley, Greenwich, Wandsworth, Dudley, and Lincolnshire.
These placements offer:
- A bursary of £750.
- Support and guidance from a local librarian mentor.
- Networking opportunities with local booksellers, publishers, literary festivals, schools and the local community.
- Support, guidance, and a toolkit for developing and delivering author events, helping build their confidence when engaging with a range of audiences.
- Three author events to practice their learning hosted in their local libraries, one with local schools, one with the public, and one online.
- On-demand training sessions available for the duration of the programme with the libraries Start Up team covering Brand Identity, Marketing and Business Planning.
- Access to library business lounges, so that they can work in a supportive environment.
- Attendance at two annual events to bring all of the authors together with national and sector partners, proving opportunities to network with sponsors of the programme and the Foundation.
The GLL Literary Foundation also offers an unlimited number of author placements to authors who meet the eligibility criteria and who reside in the areas where we operate public libraries, but who are not selected for one of the 20 bursary supported placements.
These placements offer:
- On-demand training events accessible online at any time for the duration of the programme including:
- A webinar with a Librarian Mentor on delivering successful author events.
- Brand Identity.
- Marketing.
- Business Planning. - An invitation to a sector networking event.
- Access to work from Business Library spaces.
Our Patron, Joseph Coelho OBE, FRSL, Hon FCLIP
“Becoming established as a children’s author is extremely challenging, it takes so much more than just writing a fantastic book. This new Foundation will help authors promote their work and provide essential training and ongoing support. Libraries are very close to my heart and have played an important role in my journey as an author. I’m therefore delighted to support the GLL Literary Foundation.”
We’re honoured to introduce Joseph Coelho, award-winning performance poet, playwright, children's author, and 2022-2024 Waterstone’s Children’s Laureate, as the GLL Literary Foundation’s Patron.
Joseph grew up in Roehampton, and his first job was as a library assistant for Wandsworth Libraries. His work includes critically acclaimed picture books ‘Luna Loves Library Day’, and ‘If All the World Were’, poetry collections ‘Overheard in a Tower Block’ and 'Smile Out Loud’, and books for older readers ‘The Girl Who Became a Tree’ and ‘The Boy Lost in the Maze’. His work has been awarded the CLPE CLiPPA Poetry Award 2015 and the Independent Bookshop Week Book Award 2019, and has been shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal and UKLA Book Awards. In 2024 Joseph also won the Carnegie Medal for Writing.
Joseph’s work has poetry and performance at its heart, and aims to inspire young people through stories and characters they can recognise. Throughout his career he has highlighted the power of poetry and reading, championing and campaigning for local libraries and spotlights new voices and diversity throughout his work.
Nomination process
All author placements awarded by the GLL Literary Foundation are a celebration of an authors work in their career so far, and recognition that with further support we believe they can reach their full potential.
Nominations for these placements are a crucial step in the process, nominations for support in 2026 will open in the autumn of 2025.
To stay up to date and be notified when nominations reopen, subscribe to our newsletter below.
Nominations for these placements are a crucial step in the process, nominations for support in 2026 will open in the autumn of 2025.
To stay up to date and be notified when nominations reopen, subscribe to our newsletter below.
Subscribe to our Newsletter
