Jennifer Burkinkshaw read English and Classics at Cambridge university before becoming an English and Drama teacher for twenty years in the UK and in Paris. She started the endless journey of fiction writing via an MA in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University. Now living in Yorkshire, Jennifer is the author of two published young adult novels, Igloo, and the recently-released Happiness Seeker. As well as travel, she enjoys reading, of course, theatre and her growing family. With her ”Igloo” (childrens book category/published) she was the grand prize winner of Eyelands Book Awards 2023
How does it feel to be the grand prize winner of an international book contest?
Winning the grand prize is an absolute delight, thank you, the pinnacle of my writing life so far. I was absolutely astonished to hear the news and still have to pinch myself to believe it’s true!
How did you hear about the contest?
I heard about the contest from a writing friend who won her category in last year’s awards. And now I’m so glad I did, of course!
When did you start writing?
I started the endless journey of learning to write in 2010 when I began an MA in Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults. Igloo was my debut novel in November 2022, but my scecond novel which just came out in November 2023, Happiness Seeker, is the story I worked on first.
I can see from your bio that you were a Drama teacher for several years. It is a brief bio so I wondered, have you ever written theatrical plays?
I have written and directed two plays for my community and have adapted novels for stage at one of the secondary schools I worked in. I’m now hoping to write the screen play of Happiness Seeker. Happiness Seeker draws a lot on my experience as a drama teacher.
You wrote a brilliant book. What was the inspiration for ‘’Igloo’’?
The setting was the first inspiration for Igloo: my family and I used to own a little chalet in the French Alps when we lived in France, and my sons used to build igloos. I thought, what if two strangers met in an igloo and there’s no way of avoiding talking to each other?
The igloo also becomes symbolically important, of course – it’s the refuge or shelter where you can be free to be yourself. This theme of identity, of having the courage to be yourself, not who others want you to be, is central to the story and very important to me. I suppose this is because it’s how I’ve felt about myself: like Nirvana, I’ve also felt a misfit at times, whilst realizing I can only be me, with both my limitations and my strengths. And, though much later in life, I’ve followed my writing dream, just as Nirvana follows her own ambitions; being a writer feels more like myself than anything I’ve ever done or been before but it’s taken until my 50s to get there!
I really enjoyed being able to bring in all the features I love about the mountains and winter, as well as a little philosophy, including Montaigne and Ruskin. Drawing on my time as an English teacher, I also used East of Eden as a sort of ‘echo text’ as I call it, a story which reflects something of Jean-Louis’s story. Talking of Jean-Louis, he is, of course, is the boy I’d love to have met if I was sixteen!
You won our grand prize participating in the category of Children’s books but after reading it I thought that it is more than this, meaning that could be a book for readers from all ages – do you agree with this?
I feel extremely honoured that you think it could be a book for readers of all ages, as it is my central belief as an author of YA fiction: that young adult is just a starting age, and that YA fiction is for all readers. Being a teenager, growing up, coming of age is the most intense period of our lives, when we go through so many first experiences and feel all of them so deeply. All of us are teenagers at some point and they are formative years we all look back on.
Certainly my reviews are from readers of all ages – teenagers who see themselves reflected in Nirvana but also adults who can either remember conflicts they had with their parents as teenagers, or who are now parents of teenagers and aware of how parents and teenagers so often want different things; and that parents are not always right!
When I take Igloo into schools for writing workshops and author events, I find teenagers do relate to Nirvana’s determination to be herself and the ally she finds in her igloo ‘happy place’; but then adults equally need a refuge and shelter to be themselves.
if your book was to be adapted for a movie script would it be a romance movie?
Igloo would be a coming-of-age first and a romance second, I think. I’d love it to be a movie of course!
How do you feel with the idea that you will travel to Greece for the ceremony?
I’m very excited about going to Athens later in the year and really privileged to come and talk about my writing there. I used to study Ancient Greece and have spent some time doing tours of the main classical sites, as well as enjoying holidays on several of the islands.
How do you feel with the idea you will be the judge for Eyelands Books Awards 2024?
Being a judge for the Eyelands Book Awards next year feels like one more privilege – these awards have given me such wonderful opportunities, thank you.
What are your writing plans for the future?
I’m hoping to write a screen play of my second YA novel, Happiness Seeker. I also have a further novel in draft form, Going West, which I hope to get back to in good time.
Eyelands Book Awards 