Emma Blackburn is Post Wave’s Publisher. Emma has 25 years of experience in publishing illustrated books for children. Having grown successful publishing lists at Simon & Schuster and Bloomsbury, she was most recently Group Pre-school and Picture Book Publisher at Hachette UK. She has published a roster of award-winning talents such as Lauren Child, Rachel Bright, Jim Field, Benji Davies, Tom Percival and Sara Ogilvie. 

Q. Congratulations on the launch of Post Wave Children's Books in the UK - you have made quite an impact. Please talk us through your journey so far and how this new imprint came to be.

It’s been a really exciting, energising and creative journey so far. Post Wave Publishing UK was established in the autumn of 2023 as an independent publishing house, focusing on our children’s imprint Post Wave Children’s Books. As the UK subsidiary of Post Wave China, a leading, privately-owned publishing house, we champion fantastic stories from all around the world. Our Managing Director Emma Hopkin, who has over 30 years of industry experience, including roles at Bloomsbury and Macmillan Children’s Books was the first member of the UK team, based in our London office. Since then, the UK team has grown to 13 across all publishing functions. On top of that, we have teams based in the USA and in Berlin. 

We brought our inaugural list of 8 titles to market in Autumn 2024. This was a selection of picture books, non-fiction, preschool and gift books that showcased the very best in international publishing. This year saw the launch of our first UK-originated titles with the gorgeous Our Love by exciting new talent, Fatima Ordinola, which was published in January. By the end of 2025 we will publish over 30 beautifully illustrated books. And there’s lots more to come!

Q. Describe Post Wave Children’s Books in three words.

A. Dynamic. Innovative. Globally-focused.

Q. What is your editorial ethos? How do you choose what to publish?

A. We want every child across the globe to be a reader. We believe that being a reader brings opportunities and opens up the world. Our mission is to create original, beautiful, fun, clever books that visually delight, entertain, inspire and help children discover the world around them. We put creative partnerships, innovation and children at the heart of everything we do and so we seek out new projects and collaborations that will help us achieve this mission.

Q. What are your future plans for Post Wave Children's Books? Any upcoming gems to watch out for?

A. We plan to grow quickly, nimbly and strategically but we are also very much focused on retaining our familial, collaborative working practices. We love working with talented creatives to help deliver their vision and we will continue to seek out books that stand out from the crowd. Because we are new and building something organically, we thrive on the opportunity to do things differently. It’s liberating and energising in equal measure.

There are so many gems in our forward programme that it’s really hard to select just a few but we have a fantastically funny story-within-a-story picture book by Carly Gledhill, Pencil's Best Story Ever. It’s guaranteed to feed little ones’ imaginations and to get them creating stories of their very own.

We have Head to Toe, a visually stunning collection of weird and wonderful facts about the human body, written and illustrated by Pui Lee.

For Christmas, we have Slide and Peek Santa, a fabulously festive board book that is the ideal stocking filler.

The end of the year also sees the publication of A Winter's Morning, by Angelique Leone and illustrated by award-winning Gregoire Solotareff.

We’re also really excited about the paperback edition of Daishu Ma’s Tiger, It's Snowing! which has been longlisted for the BookTrust Storytime Prize.

Beyond this, there’s lots to come from talents such as the amazing David Litchfield, Mariajo Ilustrajo and a few top secret names that I can’t yet divulge.

Q. Where does the name Post Wave come from?

A. The name Post Wave is inspired by the waves that follow the first waves – the waves that come after the first waves, constantly replacing and refreshing what has gone before. 

Q. Can a publisher be environmentally responsible?

A. Absolutely! We are always striving to be more responsible and to make balanced, mindful design choices to reduce the environmental impact of a book. We work closely with our suppliers to identify economical formats to reduce paper wastage. We use recyclable packaging. We source paper responsibly, using FSC papers and boards, and use mineral oil-free inks. We choose sea freight rather than air freight to distribute our books to reduce carbon emissions. We consolidate shipping and warehouse deliveries globally. We recycle in the office and encourage our shared office to think green. We offset our air travel and take the train where possible. We know we have a footprint - and we do our best to lessen it and hope to eradicate it.

Q. We see you have your own illustration prize - tell us more!

A. We do! We launched the Post Wave Prize for Illustration this year in association with the Anxi County Historical and Cultural Research Association. The theme of this year’s prize is ‘Time for Tea’. The prize will open in October to emerging and aspiring illustrators across the globe and will be judged by a panel of industry experts in February next year. An overall winner will be selected and will win a cash prize and the opportunity to be published by Post Wave Publishing UK. Meanwhile, two highly commended entries will be awarded a portfolio review. More details are available on our website:

postwavepublishing.com/about/post-wave-prize-for-illustration

Q. Finally, can you tell us about three of your star authors or illustrators?

A. We have so many creative talents on our list and, of course, to us they are all stars because they all bring something unique and special and, together, enable the list to be so richly vibrant and diverse. 

Daishu Ma’s picture books about a little girl called Mei and her best friend Tiger are delightful and we are really proud to be publishing her work. We can’t wait to publish more stories in this successful series. 

Then we have a new and exciting collaboration between John Dougherty and David Litchfield - an epic poetry gift book that everyone is going to want to get their hands on.

And we’ve just signed a talented emerging picture book author Will Hamilton-Davies and can’t wait to bring his books to market. 

We also have a few other familiar names that we will be working with and will be announcing these over the next few months.

Browse the selection of Post Wave Children's Books below. Click on a cover to read our review, buy or download an extract.