Vanessa Harbour

Dr Vanessa Harbour is currently a senior lecturer in creative writing at the University of Winchester and will be the programme leader of the BA Creative Writing from August 2023. She has extensive experience in teaching practices at both undergraduate and postgraduate level, learning and teaching, research-informed teaching and research. In addition, she has many years experience of in research and development plus management in both academic and commercial sectors. She was the editor and co-founder of the e-journal Write4Children The International Journal for the Practices and Theories of Writing for Children and Children’s Literature​. Her PhD explored the issues of representation/representing sex, drugs and alcohol in young adult fiction and had a creative writing emphasis. Vanessa is a member of the Society of Authors. She also works alongside Imogen Cooper with the Golden Egg Academy. She has published two middle-grade historical novels based during the Second World War. Flight was published by Firefly in 2018 and Feiwell and Friends in the US in 2021. It was longlisted for the Branford Boase and the Panda Book Awards in China. It was also shortlisted for the Sheffield Children's Book Award. Flight was also picked by EmpathyLabUk for one of their books in the Read Empathy Guide 2020. The Welsh Book Council has also picked Flight as one of its titles to go into every primary school as part of its mental health drive. Safe was published by Firefly in 2022 to critical acclaim. Vanessa is currently working on more historical novels one an adult novel and the other a piece of young adult fiction. She supports aspiring writers.

Her PhD in creative writing explored the issues of representing/representation of sex, drugs and alcohol in young adult fiction.