I’ve always loved writing and sharing stories, but I never saw myself as an author. It was only after sharing a story I created for an assembly with the children in my school to give a voice and representation to two pupils with same-sex parents that I was convinced to take my story-writing further.
I’d written the story as I had been made aware that the children had been having a hard time as a result of their family make up. At the time there were very few books with positive representations of same-sex parents. As we had recently introduced pets into the school, it was natural to base the main characters on these animals.
The feedback following the assembly was overwhelmingly positive. I didn’t believe one of the teachers who said I should publish the story. When I shared it with an illustrator friend, Ben, he fell in love with the story (and we have partnered on books ever since).
I now focus a lot of my time on taking my books into school to deliver assemblies and writing workshops. I have been bowled over with the amount of times teachers have enthused about the way the story and the associated workshops I run, have inspired those who are usually less enamoured with writing to go on to produce immense pieces of work.
A stand out moment had to be on a recent visit to a school where I work with a child who was a selective mute. On joining in with the snail related workshop (& meeting my pet snail who inspired the stories), his enthusiasm overflowed and he uttered the word snail, much to the delight of his key worker.
I’m thoroughly looking forward to working with Queer The Shelves to collaborate with more like-minded writers. Come along and join in the fun on 28th June at Nottingham Central Library from 10-6pm.
Connect with Troy here.
book events, lgbtq, lgbtq book festival, literary festival, nottingham, queer the shelves, troy jenkinson
