by Janis MacKay (Author)

JANIS MACKAY is a writer, storyteller and creative writing tutor, from Edinburgh, Scotland. After careers in journalism and theatre Janis completed a Masters in Creative Writing at the University of Sussex in 2004. She won the Kelpies prize with her first novel for children; Magnus Fin and the Ocean Quest and later, in 2013, won the Scottish Children’s Book Awards with her novel, The Accidental Time Traveller, published by Floris Books. Her novel, Wild Song, published by Piccadilly, was nominated for a Carnegie Medal. With eleven published books for children, and one self published book for adults (The Watchmaker’s Wife – a fictional story based on the life of her grandmother) On a Northern Shore is Janis’s first published work for adults. Janis teaches creative writing at Edinburgh University’s Centre for Open Learning, and also runs a one year novel writing course. She led the storyteller’s apprenticeship for many years and loves to combine oral traditional storytelling when doing author events.