On Better Words this week: Kelly McCaughrain
Writing about abortion and teen pregnancy for younger readers
Kelly McCaughrain is a YA writer from Belfast, Northern Ireland. Her first book, Flying Tips for Flightless Birds won the Children's Books Ireland Book of the Year Award and NI Book Award. She was the Queens University Belfast Children's Writing Fellow 2019-2021. Her new YA, Little Bang, is about teen pregnancy and was published by Walker Books in January 2024. When she's not writing she's mentoring teen writers with Fighting Words NI or travelling in her ancient VW campervan, Gerda.
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Things we talked about
The inequality of pregnancy and motherhood and how Kelly tackled this in a novel for teen readers
Why a dual perspective was the best way to tell this story
How to represent the nuance of the abortion debate and teen pregnancy through Mel and Sid
The importance of exploring friendship dynamics alongside the pregnancy storyline
How growing up in Northern Ireland during The Troubles impacted Kelly's writing
The importance of humour in dealing with tough situations
How a story competition helped Kelly score an agent
The difference between writing her debut novel and this second novel
Why it's so inspiring to teach creative writing to teens
Other recommendations
Before we chat with our featured author, we always share some other recommendations.
Caitlin recommends: Cherry Beach by Laura McPhee-Browne
Childhood best friends Hetty and Ness leave Melbourne to live abroad in Canada. This is a beautiful exploration of friendship and love, found through a library 'blind date with a book'. It felt like it took a while to read, but I really wanted to savour this writing.
Michelle recommends: Everyone on This Train is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson*
This is a sequel, but you don't have to have read Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone to enjoy this witty and clever murder mystery. In this fiction disguised as a memoir, several mystery writers on a literary festival train journey must utilise their 'expertise' to investigate when one of their own is killed.
- Caitlin & Michelle
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