Kathy Henderson

Kathy Henderson is an award-winning children’s author and poet, and an artist, illustrator and printmaker. From picture books to poetry and young fiction she enjoys the mix of words, images and sound. Among her books Lugalbanda, illustrated by Jane Ray, won the Aesop prize and the Parents’ Choice Foundation gold award; The Little Boat, illustrated by Patrick Benson, won the Kurt Maschler award; The Year in the City, illustrated by Paul Howard, won the Primary English best picture book award; 15 Ways To Go To Bed, was shortlisted for the Smarties prize; and The Storm for the Kate Greenaway award.

Her latest collection of illustrated poems is The Dragon with a Big Nose. With a background in music and a strong interest in oral traditions she began writing poetry programmes for BBC Schools Radio and went on to collect women’s songs in My Song Is My Own and world lullabies in Hush Baby Hush!

Kathy started work in publishing. She was a commissioning editor at Penguin Education, the National Community Development Project and at Frances Lincoln. She has continued working since then as an occasional editor across a wide range of subjects.

Over the last 30 years Kathy has made author visits to hundreds of schools all over the country, taught communication skills to science graduates, adult literacy in south London and traveller children on the rubbish dumps of the west Midlands. Based in London, she has strong ties to the East Anglian coast.