Malorie Blackman was born in [[Clapham]], [[London]]. Her parents were both from [[Barbados]]. At school, she wanted to be an English teacher, but she grew up to become a [[system programming|systems programmer]] instead.<ref name="Penguin authors">{{cite web
[[London]]. Her parents were both from [[Barbados]]. At school, she wanted to be an English teacher, but she grew up to become a [[system programming|systems programmer]] instead.<ref name="Penguin authors">{{cite web
Malorie BlackmanOBE (born 8 February 1962) is a British writer who held the position of Children's Laureate from 2013 to 2015.[1] She primarily writes literature and television drama for children and young adults. She has used science fiction to explore social and ethical issues. Her critically and popularly acclaimed Noughts and Crosses series uses the setting of a fictional dystopia to explore racism. Her book New Windmills Spring sold out within a week of publishing it. [citation needed]
She married Neil Morrison in 1992 and their daughter was born in 1995.[3]
Author
Blackman had her book "New Windmills Spring" sold out within a week of publishing it.[5] Ever since, she has written more than 60 children's books, including novels and short story collections, and also television scripts and a stage play.[5][6]
Her work has won over 15 awards.[6][7] 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.[6] She became the first person of colour writer to work on Doctor Who ever (something almost accomplished by Robin Mukherjee 29 years earlier, during the run of the original series with the unmade Alixion).[8] Her books have been translated into over 15 languages including Spanish, Welsh, German, Japanese, Chinese and French.
Blackman's award-winning Noughts & Crosses series, exploring love, racism and violence, is set in a fictional dystopia. 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".[9] 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.[3] 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."[2]
Blackman eventually decided to address racism directly.[3][9] 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.[3]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".[3]Noughts and Crosses is now available in the US published under the title Black & White (Simon & Schuster Publishers, 2005).
In June 2013, Blackman was announced as the new Children's Laureate, succeeding Julia Donaldson.[11][12]
Personal life
Malorie Blackman lives with her husband Neil Morrison and daughter Elizabeth in Kent, England. In her free time, she likes to play her piano, compose, play computer games and write poetry.[13] She is the subject of a biography for children by Verna Wilkins.[14]
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'.[15]
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, ISBN0-552-55600-9
"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, ISBN1-85340-893-X
Short story in the multi-author collection The Crew and Other Teen Fiction, Heinemann Library, ISBN0-431-01875-8
"Contact" in the multi-author collection Out of This World: Stories of Virtual Reality (chosen by Wendy Cooling), Dolphin, 1997, ISBN1-85881-602-5
Aesop's Fables (retold by Malorie Blackman, illustrated by Patrice Aggs), Scholastic, 1998, ISBN0-590-54382-2
"Dare to be Different" (illustrated by Jane Ray) in the multi-author collection Dare to be Different, Bloomsbury Publishing, 1999, ISBN0-7475-4021-7
"Peacemaker" in the multi-author collection Peacemaker and Other Stories (illustrated by Peter Richardson and David Hine), Heinemann Educational, 1999, ISBN0-435-11600-2
Books for new readers
The Betsey Biggalow stories:
Betsey Biggalow the Detective (illustrated by Lis Toft), Piccadilly Press, 1992, ISBN1-85340-163-3
Betsey Biggalow is Here! (illustrated by Lis Toft), Piccadilly Press, 1992, ISBN1-85340-172-2
Hurricane Betsey (illustrated by Lis Toft), Piccadilly Press, 1993, ISBN1-85340-199-4
Magic Betsey (illustrated by Lis Toft), Piccadilly Press, 1994, ISBN1-85340-237-0
^ abcBlackman, Malorie (1995–2007). "Malorie Blackman". Penguin UK Authors. Penguin Books Ltd. Archived from the original on 19 April 2007. Retrieved 23 March 2007.
^Also published as 4u2read.ok Hostage, Barrington Stoke, 2002,
ISBN1-84299-056-X, and as a "Close Look, Quick Look" photocopiable version for teachers, Barrington Stoke, 2004, ISBN1-84299-236-8
^Originally published separately as Whizziwig, 1995, and Whizzywhig Returns, 1999
