Nicola Morgan

11 November 1961 –

Author

Nicola Morgan is an award-winning author of nearly 100 books, including the Young Adult novels Wasted, Fleshmarket (currently being adapted for the London stage), Mondays are Red and The Passionflower Massacre, and the renowned book on the teenage brain, Blame My Brain.  

Nicola was born in a school in 1961, where her parents worked. They kept moving from school to school. Morgan's father taught English and French and her mother taught mathematics and science. Her parents taught at boys' schools and when she was eleven, Nicola was sent to boarding school. She later went to Cambridge University where she read Classics and Philosophy. Nicola Morgan wanted to become a writer after leaving university, but also took up a post as a teacher in a small school and taught English. Morgan also took a diploma in teaching people with reading and writing problems. Nicola also set up a website, The Child Literacy Centre, to help parents help their children with all aspects of reading. She ran this single-handedly, without funding until closing the service in 2009. Nicola is on the Children’s Writers and Illustrators Group committee of the Society of Authors, is a former chair of the Society of Authors in Scotland, is an Ambassador for Dyslexia Scotland, was one of the 50 international authors invited to take part in the World Writers’ Conference and is an Enterprise in Education Champion. She is the creator of Brain Sticks™, original and extensive multi-media teaching materials for healthy brains and minds.

She speaks internationally on the subjects of adolescence (teenage brain, behaviour and stress) and the reading brain, and most recently The Teenage Guide to Stress. She also writes and speaks about the publishing industry. Her book, Write to be Published, and blog, Help! I Need a Publisher!, are renowned for clarity and honesty as are the ebooks Write a Great Synopsis and Dear Agent. She has also successfully self-published. 

Nicola is the founder of the concept of Fair Reading and founder of the Complementary World Book Night idea.

By 1999, Nicola Morgan had published dozens of best-selling home-learning books, while still working towards publication as a novelist. By 2010, she had published nine novels, all but one for teenagers, and five non-fiction books, including the internationally acclaimed Blame My Brain.

Some of the awards that Nicola’s books have received include the Scottish Children’s Book of the Year (twice), the RED award and the Coventry award.

To make your own nomination download the nomination form here