Agent: Joyce Sweeney (Found independently)
Agency: The Seymour Agency
Website: www.theseymouragency.com
Yukiko writes stories that celebrate the wonder and diversity of our world. She is inspired by her mixed Japanese-English background, and loves to tell stories where she can share some of her cultural experiences. Her writings also draw from her work as a natural history museum curator and she particularly delights in engaging readers with the unusual and overlooked stories of the natural world.
She was a 2022 The Word For Diversity Editor-Writer Mentorship Finalist, judged by Random House Books for Young Readers, and was selected for the 2022 WriteMentor Summer Mentorship Program. As a museum curator, Yukiko’s exhibitions have been recognized with multiple awards for their innovation, storytelling and sustainability, and she is the recipient of the Governor General of Canada’s Award for Excellence in Museums: History Alive.
After calling London, Edinburgh, Chicago and Vancouver home, she is currently settled in Cornwall, UK with her husband, three children and hundreds of books. Yukiko is represented by Joyce Sweeney of The Seymour Agency.
What was the inspiration behind your winning story.
SACHIKO”S NAME is about my middle child. Children obviously develop at different rates and reach certain milestones at different times, but watching her struggle with doing some things that came sooner to others was, at times, heart-breaking. But it was also inspiring. She taught me that she didn’t need to do things the same way as everyone else and that she could forge her own path. In the main character Sachiko, I have tried to capture my daughter’s strength of character and confidence in her own self, and I hope that others will admire her – as I do.
Agent: Joyce Sweeney (Found independently)
Agency: The Seymour Agency
Website: www.theseymouragency.com
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