I love to visit schools, libraries and bookshops and am available for festivals, speaker events and workshops.

 

Past author events include the Hay festival, the Edinburgh literary festival, a creative writing workshop at the V&A Museum of Childhood, an introduction to the Barbican's Family Film Club, and a Q&A with the lovely Dame Jacqueline Wilson.

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I am thrilled to have been invited to a number of schools and have given readings and story-making sessions for Early Years through to Middle School. I also enjoy running creative writing workshops for adults who would like to write for children. 

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 Testimonials

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'Brilliantly engaging!'

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'Really, really enjoyable and interactive'

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'Great fun for adults and kids'

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'Fascinating, helpful, life-changing - this will completely change the way I write!'

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'Has inspired me to attack my latest picture-book with renewed vigour!'

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'The workshop inspired me and my child to view writing in a positive and fun way'

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'I'm a writer - I can't tell you how helpful this workshop was'

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'I want to bring back everything I've learned to my class and teacher!'

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'The Inspiration Machine is amazing!!!! I have learned so much'.

 

 

(Testimonials collected at a creative writing workshop for adults and children held at the V&A Museum of Childhood.)

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Anna was an absolute delight to have visiting our school. She was enthusiastic and professional, with a well-prepared talk and book reading for younger children and an engaging and interactive workshop enjoyed by Years 3 to 6. She adapted her activities brilliantly for every age group and was keen to take the time to speak to every child that wanted to meet a real author. All the children came away excited to read her books and write their own stories, and we had a huge queue of children and parents thrilled to meet her after school and have her sign a book. I would recommend her to any primary school looking to encourage reading or writing for pleasure.

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Roberta Cresswell (Year 3 teacher, Grove Primary School, Wantage)

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Anna’s workshop was hugely engaging and interactive, giving the children the opportunity to design and create their own fantasy characters, inspired by her book ‘Into Goblyn Wood’ and other relevant literature. The children developed an appreciation of the intricacies of creating fantasy characters and settings, understanding how they can interrelate and lead into a cohesive plot. The pupils were able to participate throughout, and were subsequently keen to craft stories using their characters – this complemented our curriculum well. The workshop was pitched perfectly for our Year 5 pupils, in two separate groups with differing abilities. The children were really buzzing afterwards.

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William Dickson (Head of English at the Dragon School, Oxford. Event performed for Year 5 pupils).

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Anna Kemp came along to Flo's The Place in the Park as part of our Once Upon a Park event series. She did a fantastic, animated reading of two of her books. The children were fixated and when they got to dance with scarves and practice ballet it got even better! Anna was a very expressive, animated facilitator who was great with the kids. The drawing exercise went down very well too Thanks so much for a lovely morning!

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Makena Lohr (Flo's The Place in the Park Community Centre, Oxford)

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We were hugely lucky to find and entice Anna Kemp to our 2019 Dolphin School Book Fest in May. Her picture books are very popular with their wonderful eye-catchingly colourful and flamboyant illustrations by Sara Ogilvie and her very positive and funny poetry-style stories. The pupils were absolutely delighted to have a chance to meet Anna and to be involved in her comprehensive workshop and story-telling sessions. Thank you Anna – we hope you’ll be back at Dolphin School with more wonderful stories in years to come.

 

Kirsty Harrison (Dolphin School Library). 

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