From March 11 to 27, Yew Chung International School of Beijing (YCIS Beijing), as the main sponsor of the Bookworm Literary Festival, will invite four professional authors and writers to visit the campus to enrich the learning experiences of our students and to promote the potential of pursuing a career in writing, journalism, and art.

The school will host a diverse set of authors aimed at all age groups from Primary School through Secondary School. A brief introduction to each of the authors is listed below.

Bidisha is a British writer and BBC broadcaster specialising in human rights, international affairs, and culture. Her work is regularly featured in the British newspaper The Guardian as well as the BBC. She is in Beijing to discuss her fifth and most recent book, Asylum and Exile: Hidden Voices of London. Another of her notable works, Beyond the Wall: Writing a Path through Palestine, chronicles the ongoing territorial disputes in the occupied territories of Palestine and the daily lives of the people living there. She will visit YCIS Beijing on March 11.

Phillip Wilcox is the current Australian Poetry Slam National Champion and two-time New South Wales (NSW) Poetry Slam champion. He is an award-winning poet who hosts and co-organises Three Poets Speak, a Sydney showcase of the finest spoken word artists from around Australia. He has been featured in major events such as the Sydney Writers Festival, Wollongong Writers Festival, and Newtown Festival, where he performed for a crowd of more than 8,000. He is also a playwright, having co-written and directed Thursday, one of the most successful productions of the 2013 Sydney Fringe Comedy Festival. He will visit YCIS Beijing on March 17.

Larry Feign is an accomplished cartoonist and illustrator, whose works have been featured in Time, Newsweek, The Economist and the New York Times. He has also produced animated cartoons for Cartoon Network and Disney and has published 15 books which have won numerous awards. He will be giving a talk to some of our Primary and Secondary students on working as a cartoonist, followed by a series of small-group drawing workshops. He will visit YCIS Beijing on March 25.

Mark Greenwood, an acclaimed Australian children’s author whose books promote an understanding of multicultural issues. Among his many titles, The Legend of Moondyne Joe and The Legend of Lasseter’s Reef won the West Australian Premier’s Award for children’s books; Ned Kelly & The Green Sash won the West Australian Young Readers’ Book Award; and Simpson and His Donkey was a CBCA Honour Book and a USBBY Outstanding International Book. He will visit YCIS Beijing on March 21.