Award-winning author Patrice Lawrence gave a keynote address at the conference – and just weeks later, she was named Waterstone's Children’s Laureate 2026-2028. Patrice's conference speech gave an insight into the themes that will define her tenure. School Library Association Content and Communications Editor, Jenny Mark-Bell reflects on being in the audience:
When Patrice Lawrence took the stage at the 2026 conference, no one in the audience knew that, just weeks later, she would be named Children’s Laureate for 2026-2028.
But with hindsight, she was already setting out her stall, revealing the themes that would later be announced as the focus of her laureateship. Her keynote address powerfully set out the need for representation and inclusivity in children’s books, highlighting the lack of stories available to her as a young reader that reflected her own experiences.
“I have always loved questions, and my school library had the books that could give me some of the answers,” she said.
“But in spite of that, in spite of loving books and loving reading, I never thought that somebody like me could ever be an author.”
Patrice, who worked for 20 years in the not-for-profit sector, for organisations championing social justice – has stated her intention as Children’s Laureate to promote reading as a way to “connect us and make us feel like we belong.” In her conference keynote address, she told the audience: “None of the books that I read when I was growing up had families even vaguely like mine.”
Patrice’s mother came from Trinidad to Brighton to train as a nurse. She became pregnant during a relationship with a student nurse and after he left, baby Patrice was privately fostered by a white working-class family until she was four years old, while her mother completed her training. Later, her mum married an Italian, and they became a multi-ethnic, working-class family living in an affluent Sussex town.
“What we all had in common,” said Patrice, “was a love of books. Even now, my mum is always surrounded by books. Go to her house, open a cupboard to put your shoes in, and a book will land on your head. My foster mum taught and encouraged me to read, and my dad was a massive reader – he always wanted me to read Steppenwolf and even now, so many years later, it’s still sitting on my shelf unread.”
But despite being surrounded by stories from an early age, “I thought that given that I was neither white nor dead, I probably couldn’t be a writer.”
Now, she is the award-winning author of titles encompassing everything from picture books to Young Adult. She is perhaps best known for Orangeboy, winner of the YA Book Prize.
She stated the need for the book-loving community to acknowledge that stories can do damage. “The books that I grew up with were steeped in imperialism, colonialism and gender stereotypes. One of the books that I had growing up was End Blyton’s The Little Black Doll. Basically, it’s about an ugly black doll whose owner only grew to love it when it got caught in the rain and became white. As a child, that reinforced the idea for me that I did not belong – and that I did not deserve to belong.
“When I think about representation, one of the things I always think about is about how we as humans are prone to tribalism and hierarchies. We think about skin colour, we think about worship, we think about presenting gender, we think about how our brains are wired, we think about how we communicate. We think about the way it should be and how other people are.
“I have had to challenge myself because I have a lot of that internal bigotry in myself as well, so for me, writing books has been part of that learning process.”
She urged librarians to ask children how books make them feel, to acknowledge that books reflect society's values. They have the power to challenge them or reinforce them – even simply by omission. “I only realised I could write Black characters when I read Pig-Heart Boy by Malorie Blackman in my 30s,” she said.
As a writer, Patrice tackles big subjects: racism; homelessness; imprisonment. But she always does it with hope, wisdom and compassion – all qualities she will bring to the laureateship.
“We all know how important and how powerful books can be,” she said. “We know how books give humanity to people whose humanity is taken away. Books broadcast untold stories and allow us to see things from other perspectives.”
We are delighted to share our post-conference digital special of TSL, which includes this feature on Patrice Lawrence, as well as interviews with some brilliant authors including Jacqueline Wilson HQ, Jamie Smart, Matt Goodfellow and Iqbal Hussain, highlights from some of the workshops and plenty of pictures from the weekend. Read the full issue