Eve McDonnell

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I’m Eve, I love naples-yellow and ultramarine, not to mention all the colours hiding in the black and white pages of a good children’s book. I write, and when I’m not writing, I’m painting. And when I’m not doing either, I’m a fire-spitting dragon hissing at myself to just start somewhere.

My love for painting was kick-started at a young age when I won a prize in the Texaco Art Competition (go, little me!). I attended the National College of Art and Design before embarking on a career in graphic design. It didn’t take me long to see the similarities between a blank canvas, a blank screen and a blank page so, when a fortune-teller shrieked write! write! write! at me, I listened* and began writing for children that very day.

Prior to publication, winning the Wells Festival of Literature Book for Children Award (see here for interview) and long-listing in the Bath Children’s Novel Award (go, bigger me!) was my point of no return. And thank goodness I did ‘start somewhere’ as my debut children’s book, ELSETIME, is now on the bookshelves in Ireland, the UK, Germany and Russia, and shortlisted for the Awesome Book Award and the Spellbinding Book Award. My second novel, THE CHESTNUT ROASTER, joined it in October 2022 and was selected as a Guardian Book of the Year, The Times Children’s Book of the Week, and it’s stunning cover, designed and illustrated by Holly Ovenden, has been shortlisted for The Week Junior Book Awards. Read more about my books here.

I guess I’m in this writing game for the long run and can’t wait to see where it takes me. I could just ask that fortune-teller, but nah!

Onward!

Eve x

*and who’d blame me? She’d also predicted twins and, soon after, bingo!