Authors Online Profile
Beverley Naidoo | Author, Storyteller, Poet
Beverley Naidoo won the Carnegie Medal for her novel, THE OTHER SIDE OF TRUTH. Her online talks and workshops using this as well as JOURNEY TO JO’BURG and CINDERELLA OF THE NILE are fascinating as Beverley references her experiences of growing up in apartheid South Africa and how that led her to begin writing..
Online Introduction
What I can do for you
After our ‘hellos’, I’ll read the opening of a novel/ story and talk briefly about how I came to write it. Where relevant, I refer to my childhood in apartheid South Africa and how that shaped my views on power, injustice, racism, fairness, equality. I’ll show some photos, including that of Nelson Mandela (sitting on a bookcase near me). It’s always fun to perform one of my poems together with the children as ‘echo’, leading into a Q & A. I’ll show copies of different editions/covers and talk about my research, drafts, working with editors and sometimes illustrators. Even in a virtual visit, I enjoy interacting as much as possible with my audience. I follow wherever questions may lead… whether about my characters… or wanting to know more about growing up in an openly racist society… to tips for young writers to “How did it feel to win the Carnegie?” Always, I hope to stir curiosity and encourage journeys of reading and writing/righting the world!