Sharna Jackson is a best-selling author and curator who specialises in developing and delivering socially-engaged initiatives for children and young people across culture, publishing and entertainment.
Her debut novel High-Rise Mystery (2019) won numerous awards and accolades including Best Book for Younger Readers at the 2020 Waterstones Book Prize and Sunday Times Book of the Week. The sequel, Mic Drop, was released in 2020. Sharna also develops books to encourage participation in the arts, with two activity books released with Tate in 2014 (which won the FILAF award for Best Children’s Art Book in 2015) and Black Artists Shaping the World in 2021. She was Southbank Centre’s Imagine A Story Author in 2019/20 creating London/Londoff with over 1200 school children in the capital.
She was recently the Artistic Director at Site Gallery, an international contemporary art space in Sheffield, UK, and was formerly the editor of the triple BAFTA-nominated Tate Kids website.
Sharna was a member of BAFTA’s Children’s and Learning and New Talent committees and the Children’s Media Conference advisory board. She was also on the board of Sheffield Doc/Fest, New Writing North and Upswing. Every year she curates Playground – an exhibition showcasing work that blends digital play with physical objects and Ensemble – a show highlighting ethnic minority talent and achievement in the UK games industry.