In September this year, Stripes will celebrate its tenth birthday. We wanted to mark this important milestone in a meaningful and imaginative way. In publishing I’ll Be Home for Christmas our aim is not only to provide crucial financial support to Crisis, but also to raise awareness of the charity’s work among young adult readers, particularly at this time of year. Most of us take it for granted that we will share Christmas with family and friends, but for an alarmingly high number of young adults this isn’t the case.
Stripes is primarily known for its illustrated fiction, so this has been an amazing opportunity for us to reach out to the YA community in the UK. We have got involved in some of the fantastic initiatives celebrating YA fiction, including the Young Adult Literature Convention (YALC) and The Bookseller YA Book Prize. We also ran a competition to find a new voice in YA and are delighted to welcome Tracy Darnton to the anthology.
I am hugely grateful to all the exceptionally talented authors for their involvement in, and their commitment to, I’ll Be Home for Christmas, and for their wonderful contributions – they have produced such a diverse and inspiring range of stories and poetry and each one has offered a unique response to the theme of home. We’ve eagerly awaited the arrival of each piece; some have made us laugh, some have made us cry – all have made us think…
And a massive thank you to William Grill for his stunning cover – it superbly captures the essence of the book and is the most delightful wrapping paper this Christmas anthology could have.
This has been a truly rewarding and exciting experience for all of us at Stripes – and a fantastic way to celebrate ten years of publishing. We go forwards into our next decade with renewed dedication and energy.
Jane Harris, Publisher
Stripes Publishing – June 2016