June 2009

• In May I went to Antwerp to attend a performance of a play based on passages selected from This Is all: The Pillow Book of Cordelia Kenn by a young Flemish actress, Marieke Dilles. The play was in two parts. An hour when Marieke as Cordelia told her story, followed by half an hour when Will (played by Joris Hessels) told his. The play ended with Cordelia joining Will for the final 'wedding' scene. The play was presented as Marieke's 'masterpiece', her final project to achieve her Master's Degree in theatre studies. She is now working on the possibility of making a commercial production of her play.

• Immediately after my trip to Antwerp I went to New York for discussions with my American editor, Susan Van Metre of Abrams Amulet Books. While there we celebrated the fifth anniversary of the founding of Susan's Amulet Books at a meeting of about 50 New York youth librarians, journalists, and several of Susan's authors.

• While in New York I handed over a collection of my short stories about young people, most them written earlier this year, which I hope Susan and my various other publishers will publish.

• From Thimble Press we have just published Poetry for Children: The Signal Award 1979 - 2001, edited by Nancy Chambers. (ISBN 9780903355520, £22.00 inc UK inland p&p). The book collects together all the articles written about the winners of the Signal Poetry Award and the highly commended books during the time of the Award's existence. For more information: www.thimblepress.co.uk

• This summer I'm busy writing a Poetics of Youth Literature, and at the same time working on an antenovel about an insurgent old man and a youth novella.

• This autumn I'll be travelling to Sweden, Belgium, Holland, and twice to Italy to give talks and lectures.

All contents are ©Aidan Chambers unless otherwise stated.