Malorie Blackman


Oneta Malorie Blackman[], FRSL is a British writer who held the position of Children's Laureate from 2013 to 2015. She primarily writes literature and television drama for children and young adults. She has used science fiction to explore social and ethical issues, for example, her Noughts and Crosses series uses the setting of a fictional alternative Britain to explore racism. Blackman has been the recipient of many honours for her work, including the 2022 PEN Pinter Prize.
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Early life and education

Malorie Blackman was born on 8 February 1962 in Merton, London, England, and she grew up in Lewisham, one of five siblings. Her parents were both from Barbados and had come to Britain as part of the "Windrush generation"; her father Joe was a bus driver and her mother Ruby worked in a pyjama factory. Blackman's father walked out on the family while she was young, leaving her mother to single-handedly raise her and her siblings. At school, Malorie wanted to be an English teacher, but she grew up to become a systems programmer instead.
She earned an HNC at Thames Polytechnic and is a graduate of the National Film and Television School.
Since the 1980s, Blackman began attending various courses at City Lit adult education college, and in 2019, City Lit announced the Malorie Blackman OBE "Unheard Voices" Creative Writing Scholarships, providing three annual awards worth up to £1000 each to fund study within the City Lit Creative Writing department.

Career

Blackman's first book was Not So Stupid!, a collection of horror and science fiction stories for young adults, published in November 1990. Since then, she has written more than 60 children's books, including novels and short-story collections, and also television scripts and a stage play. She also became the first person of colour writer to work on Doctor Who in 2018.
Blackman's award-winning Noughts & Crosses series, exploring love, racism, and violence, is set in a fictional alternative Britain. Explaining her choice of title, in a 2007 interview for the BBC's Blast website, Blackman said that noughts and crosses is "one of those games that nobody ever plays after childhood, because nobody ever wins". In an interview for The Times, Blackman said that before writing Noughts & Crosses, her protagonists' ethnicities had never been central to the plots of her books. She has also said: "I wanted to show black children just getting on with their lives, having adventures, and solving their dilemmas, like the characters in all the books I read as a child."
Blackman eventually decided to address racism directly. She reused some details from her own experience, including an occasion when she needed a plaster and found they were designed to be inconspicuous only on white people's skin. The Times interviewer Amanda Craig speculated about the delay for the Noughts & Crosses series to be published in the United States: "though there was considerable interest, 9/11 killed off the possibility of publishing any book describing what might drive someone to become a terrorist". Noughts and Crosses later became available in the US, published under the title Black & White.
Noughts & Crosses was No. 61 on the Big Read list, a 2003 BBC survey to find "The Nation's Best-Loved Book".

Recognition and awards

Blackman was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2008 Birthday Honours. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2009.
Her work has won more than 15 awards. Blackman's television scripts include episodes of the long-running children's drama Byker Grove as well as television adaptations of her novels Whizziwig and Pig-Heart Boy. Her books have been translated into more than 15 languages, including Spanish, Welsh, German, Japanese, Chinese and French.
In June 2013, Blackman was announced as the new Children's Laureate, succeeding Julia Donaldson. Blackman helped set up the first UK Young Adult Literature Convention during her time as Children's Laureate.
In 2022, Blackman was chosen as winner of the PEN Pinter Prize, becoming the first author of children's and Young Adult books to receive the accolade. In her acceptance address at the British Library in October 2022, she named Dr Abduljalil Al-Singace as the International Writer of Courage with whom she would share the prize.
In November 2023, the exhibition Malorie Blackman: The Power of Stories opened at the British Library, celebrating and contextualizing her career. As described by Wallpaper magazine, it "shines a light on Blackman's journey as an author, while touching upon social issues represented in her novels.... The landmark exhibition... is an open invitation to learn about the importance of media representation, and Black activism throughout the 1960s to 1980s."

Personal life

Malorie Blackman lives with her husband Neil and daughter Elizabeth in Kent, England. In her free time, she likes to play her piano, compose, play computer games and write poetry. She is the subject of a biography for children by Verna Wilkins.
In March 2014, Blackman joined other prominent authors in supporting the Let Books Be Books campaign, which seeks to stop children's books being labelled as "for girls" or "for boys".
In August 2014, Malorie Blackman was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September's referendum on that issue.
Blackman is a contributor to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa with a letter written to her daughter.
In 2019, Stormzy namechecked Blackman in his "Superheroes" song, and in 2022 she appeared in the "Mel Made Me Do It" promo video.
Blackman's memoir Just Sayin': My Life In Words was published by #Merky Books in 2022. She has said it was "the hardest thing I've ever written… Because I didn't make it up, did I? It’s all true! I had to revisit past events, dig deep into memories…" It was summed up by Patrice Lawrence as "a book about survival and success". The review in the Times Literary Supplement said that Blackman "offers 'a skip and a trip' through the years, writing with candour and humour."

Works

Published books

Novels for young adults and children

Not So Stupid!: Incredible Short Stories, The Women's Press, 1990, Trust Me, Livewire, 1992,. Corgi Children's, 2013, Words Last Forever, Mammoth, 1998,
  • The Noughts & Crosses series, in reading order:
  • *Noughts & Crosses, Doubleday, 2001,
  • *Callum, RHCP Digital 2012,
  • *An Eye for an Eye,, Corgi Children's, 2003,
  • *Knife Edge, Doubleday, 2004,
  • *Checkmate, Doubleday, 2005,
  • *Double Cross, Doubleday, 6 November 2008
  • *Nought Forever, Penguin, 2019
  • *Crossfire, Penguin, 8 August 2019
  • *Endgame, Penguin, 16 September 2021The Stuff of Nightmares, Doubleday, 2007, Boys Don't Cry, Doubleday Children's, 2010. Corgi Children's, 2011, Unheard Voices: An Anthology of Stories and Poems to Commemorate the Bicentenary Anniversary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade, ed. Malorie Blackman, Corgi Children's, 2007, Noble Conflict, Doubleday Children's, 2013, Chasing the Stars, 2016,

Short stories for young adults

  • "Humming Through My Fingers" in the multi-author collection Shining On: A Collection of Stories in Aid of the Teen Cancer Trust, Picadilly Press, 2006,
  • Short story in the multi-author collection The Crew and Other Teen Fiction, Heinemann Library,

Novels for children

Hacker, Doubleday, 1992, Operation Gadgetman!, Doubleday, 1993, Jack Sweettooth the 73rd, Viking Children's Books, 1995, The Space Stowaway, Ginn, 1995, Whizziwig, Viking Children's Books, 1995, Thief!, Doubleday, 1995, A.N.T.I.D.O.T.E, Doubleday, 1996, Pig-Heart Boy, Doubleday, 1997, Animal Avengers, Mammoth, 1999, Dangerous Reality, Doubleday, 1999, Don't Be Afraid, Ginn, 1999, Forbidden Game, Puffin Books, 1999, Hostage, Barrington Stoke, 1999, Tell Me No Lies, Macmillan Children's Books, 1999, Whizziwig Returns, Puffin, 1999, Dead Gorgeous, Doubleday, 2002, Cloud Busting, Doubleday, 2004, The Deadly Dare Mysteries, Corgi Children's, 2005, Whizziwig and Whizziwig Returns, Corgi Children's, 2005, Doctor Who: The Ripple Effect, Puffin, 2013

Short stories for children

  • "Contact" in the multi-author collection Out of This World: Stories of Virtual Reality, Dolphin, 1997, Aesop's Fables, Scholastic, 1998,
  • "Dare to be Different" in the multi-author collection Dare to be Different, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1999,
  • "Peacemaker" in the multi-author collection Peacemaker and Other Stories, Heinemann Educational, 1999,

Books for new readers

  • The Betsey Biggalow stories:
  • * Betsey Biggalow the Detective, Piccadilly Press, 1992,
  • * Betsey Biggalow is Here!, Piccadilly Press, 1992,
  • * Hurricane Betsey, Piccadilly Press, 1993,
  • * Magic Betsey, Piccadilly Press, 1994,
  • * Betsey's Birthday Surprise, Piccadilly Press, 1996,
  • The Girl Wonder series:
  • * Girl Wonder and the Terrific Twins, Orion Children's Books, 1991,
  • * Girl Wonder's Winter Adventures, Orion Children's Books, 1992,
  • * Girl Wonder to the Rescue, Gollancz, 1994,
  • * The Amazing Adventures of Girl Wonder, Barn Owl Books, 2003,
  • The Puzzle Planet adventures:
  • * Peril on Planet Pellia, Orchard Books, 1996,
  • * The Mellion Moon Mystery, Orchard Books, 1996,
  • * The Secret of the Terrible Hand, Orchard Books, 1996,
  • * Quasar Quartz Quest Orchard Books, 1996,
  • The Longman Book Project :
  • * Rachel versus Bonecrusher the Mighty, Longman, 1994,
  • * Rachel and the Difference Thief, Longman, 1994,
  • * Crazy Crocs, Longman, 1994, Elaine You're a Brat!, Orchard Books, 1991, My Friend's a Gris-Quok, Scholastic, 1994, Grandma Gertie's Haunted Handbag, Heinemann, 1996, Space Race, Corgi Children's, 1997, Fangs, Orchard Books, 1998, Snow Dog, Corgi Children's, 2001, The Monster Crisp-Guzzler, Corgi Children's, 2002, Sinclair, Wonder Bear, Egmont Books, 2003,

Picture books

That New Dress, Hodder Wayland, 1991, Mrs Spoon's Family, Andersen Press, 1995, Dizzy's Walk, Tamarind Books, 1999, Marty Monster, Tamarind Books, 1999, I Want a Cuddle!, Orchard Books, 2001, Jessica Strange, Hodder Children's Books, 2002,
  • Contributed to A Christmas Tree of Stories, Scholastic Press, 1999,

Memoir

Just Sayin': My Life In Words, Cornerstone, 2023,

Stage plays

  • The Amazing Rob The Mechanic
  • ''Noughts and Crosses''

Radio scripts

  • ''Noughts and Crosses''

Awards and nominations

Body of work

  • 1997, Excelle/Write Thing Children's Author of the Year Award.
  • 2005, Children's Book Circle's Eleanor Farjeon Award.
  • 2008, OBE
  • 2013, The Kitschies Black Tentacle for "outstanding achievement in encouraging and elevating the conversation around genre literature"
  • 2022, PEN Pinter Prize.

Novels

For ''Hacker'' (1995)

For ''A.N.T.I.D.O.T.E'' (1997)

  • 1997, Stockport Children's Book of the Year Award.
  • 1997, Stockton-on-Tees Children's Book Award.
  • 1998, Sheffield Children's Book Award.
  • 2001, Stockport Schools Book Award.

For ''Pig-Heart Boy'' (1997)

For ''Tell Me No Lies'' (1999)

  • 1999, Stockport Children's Book Award .

For ''Dead Gorgeous'' (2002)

  • 2003, Calderdale Book of the Year.
  • 2003, Salford Children's Book Award.

For books in the ''Noughts & Crosses'' series

For ''Cloud Busting'' (2004)

  • 2004, Nestlé Smarties Book Prize .
  • 2005, Redbridge Children's Book Award.
  • 2005, Stockport Schools Book Award.
  • 2006, Nottingham Children's Book Award .
  • 2006, West Sussex Children's Book Award.

For ''Crossfire'' (2019)

  • 2019, Costa Children's Book Award.

Television adaptations

For ''Pig-Heart Boy''

  • 2000, BAFTA Best Drama.
  • 2000, Race and Media Best Drama Award.
  • 2000, Royal Television Society Award.
  • 2001, Chicago TV Festival.
  • 2001, Prix Danube Children's Jury Prize.

For the ''Doctor Who'' episode "Rosa"

  • 2019, Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form), nominated