Richard Charlesworth

Richard has judged for the Empathy Lab the past two years and will do so for the 2022 collection as well. He has also judged for his local independent bookseller’s award which focuses on illustrated chapter fiction in 2020.

He has worked closely with the UKLA, running workshops at several conferences before joining their international conference in 2018. He is a regional representative for London and on the Awards Committee, which involves shadowing the text selection process, supporting teacher judges and reviewing applications for the awards.

Following Goldsmith’s Reading for Pleasure conference in conversation with Michael, he has spoken at a few webinars, appeared on several podcasts, and helped create resources for parents centred around Book Talk (created alongside Macmillan during Lockdown 1 last year) – this culminated in a webinar.

This has led to him recently taking on some picturebook consultancy work with the Open University. The project (currently being undertaken) focuses on the theme of hope and overcoming adversity. Framework and resources to support practitioners in classrooms/libraries alongside some academic work should be released around July. 

He is frequently found talking books on Twitter and have run a few regular events which include #OURfPBookBlether and #LetsTalkGraphicNovels.