By Leah and Elizabeth

 On Monday we went to Alcester library to listen to the black author : Maeve Clarke  This visit was organised with the link to Black History Month.

 Black History Month started in America in  Since then, it has started to be celebrated in Britain too.  In America it is celebrated in February, but in Britain it is celebrated in October.  Each year there is a vote for the ‘Black History Month Hero’, and this year some of the people up for the prize are…

A campaigner for equal rights of black and white people.

The first African to win the Nobel Peace prize.

The woman who was jailed because she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white person.

The first black President of South Africa.

The first black President of America.

The Author Visit

Maeve Clarke was born in Birmingham, but her parents were from Jamaica. She has been interested in writing since she was a child. She started writing stories for her nephews and nieces when her sister had children, but after that there were large gaps when she didn’t write anything. 5 years ago she started writing professionally again, and since, she has been a big success.

‘What Goes Round’ is Maeve’s first novel, and the idea for it came to her in a dream. It is about parallel universes. ‘Give us the Money’ is a recent graphic novel of Maeve’s which has really helped people who have English as their second language.

Maeve talked to us about her life, and how her parents emigrated from Jamaica. They were intending to only come over for about 5 years, to earn a bit of money, but they ended up staying here. She wrote a short story, inspired by her parents, called Letters a Yard, which is published in a book called Whispers from the Wind.

She also talked about her writing techniques that she learned from taking an MA in writing. These were things like:  Shoes – think of a pair of shoes that you really liked, describe them and think of a time you wore them, what were you wearing, what did you feel like, why were you there?  Characterisation – imagine you have found a bag: what does it look like, what 6 objects are in it? Then the rest of the group had to guess who it belonged to.

It was also really interesting to hear about publishing, and the business side, for those of us who would like to be writers. Did you know, from when you first send your book to the publishers, it can take 2 years of editing for the book to reach the shelves? The publishing house can keep sending it back with bits to change, and then you have to send it back once you have changed it. For Maeve’s successful books, she gets money every year, but for the less successful ones, once all the copies are sold she won’t get any more money.