It's here! Full line-up and schedule for the Children's Books Ireland International Conference 2025

Frank Cottrell-Boyce, UK Children's Laureate 

Frank Cottrell-Boyce is a British author and screenwriter. In 2024, he was announced as the UK’s 13th Waterstones Children’s Laureate. His début children’s novel, Millions, won the CILIP Carnegie Medal in 2004, one of many of his accolades! In 2012, he won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize for The Unforgotten Coat, a critically acclaimed novel about two Mongolian refugee children trying to fit in at their Liverpool school.

Patricia Forde, Laureate na nÓg

Patricia Forde is Laureate na nÓg (2023-2026) and she writes in English and in Irish, with work ranging from picture books to speculative middle-grade fiction. She has written more than twenty books, along with plays, television series and even a film. Her ambition as Laureate is to encourage wild creativity– bringing children, writers and illustrators together to inspire one another, to imagine new worlds, and most of all to have fun along the way. 

New Voices

The popular New Voices panel returns this year to the Children's Books Ireland International Conference, offering début children’s artists the opportunity to present or read from their book alongside their peers. In 2025 Children’s Books Ireland has selected 10 Irish début artists (authors/illustrators) for the New Voices slot.

Meet the New Voices 2025

John Devolle

John Devolle is an illustrator, designer, and writer with over 20 years of experience. He studied Fine Art at the University of Westminster and has since run an art gallery in East London, been a graphic designer, an art director and worked on numerous children’s books. Known for his ability to translate complex ideas into engaging visuals, John has worked with publications such as The Guardian, Wired, The Economist and National Geographic, to name a few. In 2023, he was a jury member for the D&AD awards Illustration category. More recently he has been writing and illustrating a series of children’s books called ‘Big Science for little Minds’ for Pushkin Children's books. The fifth book in the series is due out this October! 

Anna McQuinn

Anna McQuinn was born and grew up in Kerry and read her BA, MA and H.Dip.Ed. in UCC. She spent much of her working life in London – as an editor, then Publisher, for 25 years. She combined this with working as an outreach librarian with disadvantaged families. In 2006, Anna founded a small independent publishing house, then in 2018 joined forces with Ken Wilson-Max to create Alanna Max.

This allowed Anna to move back to Ireland and concentrate on her writing. She has written over 100 picture books including the Lulu and Zeki books which have sold over 2 million copies worldwide. Anna has been a passionate advocate for inclusion since the early 1990s and it, along with her outreach work, informs her writing.

Briony May Smith

Briony May Smith is an author-illustrator living in the UK. Her work includes Margaret’s Unicorn, The Mermaid Moon, A Practical Present for Philippa Pheasant and Tiny Jenny. Briony was highly commended for the Macmillan Children’s Prize in 2013 and 2014 and has been shortlisted for the British Comic Awards. She illustrated The Giant’s Necklace, written by Michael Morpurgo as well as Tooth Fairy in Training and Witch in Training, written by Michelle Robinson. Briony’s books have been translated into over 20 languages. 

Lauren O'Hara

Lauren O’Hara is an illustrator from the north of England. Often collaborating with her sister, Natalia, together they have been published by Penguin Random House, Macmillan and Walker Books. Lauren has been nominated for the CILIP Kate Greenaway award on two occasions. Her book Frindleswylde by Natalia O’Hara was awarded the KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Honour Award for Illustration in 2022. In 2023, her book Madame Badobedah with author Sophie Dahl, was listed as one of The Guardian’s books of the year. 

Louie Stowell

Louie Stowell is a British author-illustrator best known for her number one best-selling Loki series. With a BA in English from the University of Oxford and 15 years’ experience in children’s publishing, Louie enjoys crafting carefully-researched books about space, ancient Egypt, politics and science – as well as creating fiction aimed at readers aged 8–12. Her other books include the Dragon in the Library series and Otherland. Louie writes full-time in London, where she lives with her wife Karen, her dog Buffy and a creepy puppet that is probably cursed.

Leon Diop 

Leon Diop is a mixed-race man from Tallaght in Dublin. Born to an Irish mother and a Senegalese father, he grew up in a mixed ethnic and religious household. He is the founder of Black and Irish, an organisation striving to transform Ireland into a global leader in equality and inclusion. He is a host of the Black and Irish podcast with Irish national broadcaster, RTÉ. 

In 2023, he co-authored the book Black and Irish: Legends, Trailblazers and Everyday Heroes with Briana Fitzsimons. This book was shortlisted for the 2023 British Book Awards and it won the Teen and YA Book of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards the same year. His upcoming book is a memoir titled Mixed Up, aimed at young adult readers and will be published by Little Island in September. 

Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin

Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin is a writer of books, screenplays and songs, for adults and children, and the founder-publisher at Futa Fata. The first 20 years of the company’s publishing output, for both children and adults, has been recognised by such accolades as Gradam Réics Carló, Gradam Uí Shúilleabháin, a number of KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards, iBbY Honours, White Raven listings, Literary Association of Ireland Awards, an An Post Irish Book Award and a Special Mention from the European Union Prize for Literature.

Jessica Love

Jessica Love is an author-illustrator and a New York based actor. She has a BA in studio art from the University of California, as well as a graduate degree from Juilliard. In 2018, her début picturebook, Julián is a Mermaid, was published. It tells the heartwarming story of a boy who wants to become a mermaid and participate in the Coney Island Mermaid Parade. In 2019, Jessica was awarded the Stonewall Book Award and the Klaus Flugge Prize for most exciting newcomer to children’s picturebooks.