Online Event: Using folklore and ghost stories to reframe big themes in YA with author Clara Kumagai

Join award winning author Clara Kumagai for a talk about the use of speculative fiction to tackle big themes in young adult storytelling. Drawing on folklore, ghost stories and classic narratives, Clara will present  how these elements in her work (and in the work of other writers) use the fantastic to show reality in new ways.

Clara Kumagai hails from Canada, Japan and Ireland. Her debut YA novel, CATFISH ROLLING (2023), blends magic-realism with Japanese myth and legend into an original story about grief, memory, time and an earthquake that shook a nation. Catfish Rolling was nominated for the YOTO Carnegie Award, shortlisted for the Great Reads Award and won the KPMG Children's Books Ireland Award. Her second YA novel, SONGS FOR GHOSTS, (2025) is full of longing, love and heartbreak. Inspired by Puccini's Madame Butterfly the story blends historical fact with ghost stories and paranormal mystery, whilst exploring themes of identity, family, and the connection between past and present. The book has received starred reviews from Kirkus and Booklist.