Dear All,

We are absolutely delighted to share with you the news that Sarah Crossan has today been appointed Irish Children’s Laureate by President Michael D. Higgins of Laureate na nÓg, following in the footsteps of Siobhán Parkinson, Niamh Sharkey, Eoin Colfer and most recently PJ Lynch.

The laureate is chosen as a result of their internationally recognised body of high quality children’s writing or illustration and the considerably positive impact they have had on readers as well as other writers and illustrators.

Over the next two years Sarah will engage with young people across Ireland, inspiring them to read and write poetry. Watch her video message here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=Mvk-e720O5Y

In 2016, Sarah won the CILIP Carnegie Medal and CBI Book of the Year as well as the YA Book Prize, the CLiPPA Poetry Award, and many other awards for her novel, One, a novel in verse about a set of conjoined twins. In 2017 the Dutch translation of One, Een, won the Dioraphte Literature Prize and the German translation, Eins, received a double shortlisting for the prestigious Deutsche Jugendliteraturpreis.

Sarah’s novels The Weight of Water and Apple and Rain were twice shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal and the CBI Book of the Year.

In 2017 Sarah published We Come Apart, her first collaboration with Costa Children’s Book Award winner Brian Conaghan, which was also shortlisted for several awards. She was also chosen to represent Ireland for the Hay Festival in Aarhus, Denmark, in a celebration of children’s writing. Her short stories and poems have been included in several collections including Amnesty’s Here I Stand. Sarah is also the author of the dystopian novels Breathe and Resist.

Sarah’s latest novel for teenagers, Moonrise, has been shortlisted for the Costa Children’s Book Award, the CBI Book of the Year, the YA Book Prize and an Irish Book Award.

Sarah’s novels have been translated into more than twenty languages and several of her books have been optioned for film and TV.