Thursday the 19th of November 2026 from 5-7pm GMT on Zoom, Heard Word is honoured to welcome Carnegie Medal Winner Beverley Naidoo to share a passage from her latest work, Children of the Stone City.
Beverly will also discuss her recent story collection Out of Bounds.
Please join us to meet this internationally acclaimed author and unflagging champion of social justice.
To get feedback on your work, sign up to be one of our presenting writers. There are both 20-minute (1500 words) and 5-minute (700 word “lighting round”) slots available. You can sign up here.
But even if you aren’t presenting, please join us to offer feedback.
A bit more about our Featured Writer:
Beverley Naidoo (Carnegie Medal Winner 2000) joined the resistance to apartheid as a student in South Africa, leading to detention without trial and exile in Britain in 1965. She has worked as a teacher, education adviser and academic with doctoral research into white teenagers’ responses to literature exploring racism. Her first book for children Journey to Jo’burg, banned in South Africa until 1991and now a Collins Modern Classic, celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2025. She has written novels, short stories, poetry, plays and adult non-fiction. Her many awards include the Carnegie Medal for The Other Side of Truth, the Children’s Africana Honor Book Award for Burn My Heart, and three honorary doctorates for her body of work. Children of the Stone City, her latest work, is an allegorical novel about music loving ‘Non’ children who dream of justice in a society ruled by ‘Permitteds’. Kirkus Reviews USA called it “A timely, powerful, relevant story” andThe Big Issue a ‘Best of 2022 Children’s Books for 11+’. She is online at www.beverleynaidoo.com