Dr Catherine Butler

Reader

School of English, Communication and Philosophy

: butlerc6@cardiff.ac.uk
: +44(0)29 208 75971
: 2.41, John Percival Building, Colum Drive, Cardiff, CF10 3EU

I joined Cardiff University in 2015, having previous worked at the University of the West of England in Bristol. I specialize in children's literature, but have published in various areas of English.

I am the author of several monographs and the editor of five academic volumes, as well as having published six novels for children and young adults. I am editor of the journal, Children’s Literature in Education, and a board member of the International Journal for Young Adult Literature.

I am part of the School's English Literature research group.

I arrived at Cardiff University in 2015. Previously I taught for 25 years at the University of the West of England, Bristol, where I was Associate Professor in English Literature.

As well as my academic work, I have practised as a children's writer, and have had six novels published by HarperCollins, Orion and Usborne, as well as shorter works and collections.

Honours and awards

Mythopoeic Scholarship Award, 2009

Professional memberships

Children's Literature Association
Society of Authors

Academic positions

Associate Professor, University of the West of England

Speaking engagements

NCRCL conference, Roehampton University (2010)
British Science Fiction Association (2010)
Turkish Board of Education Symposium, Ankara (2010)
Danish Cultural Institute (2012)
Contemporary World Children and Young Adults Literature Forum, Istanbul (2012)
Margaret Mahy Symposium, University of Cambridge (2013)
Society of Authors (2013)
Keynote, Taiwan Children’s Literature Research Association Symposium, Tunghai University, Taichung (2013)
Keynote, Diana Wynne Jones Conference,University of Newcastle (2014)
Cheltenham Festival (2014)
Luxembourg Teachers' Day (2014)

We are currently unable to retrieve the list of publications. Visit our institutional repository.

My current teaching is primarily in children's literature, which I teach both from the point of view of academic criticism and as a branch of creative writing.

My research is centred on children’s literature, especially fantasy and historical fiction. Other research interests include:

children's literature and Japan
gender identity
the relationship of the academy to creative authors and ‘lay’ readers
fan fiction

My current monograph is a book titled British Children's Literature in Japanese Culture (Bloomsbury, 2023).

I am interested in supervising PhD students in the areas of:

Children's literature
Fantasy literature

Current supervision

Eris Leigh

Research student

Pamela Anne

Research student

Past projects

Since arriving at Cardiff in 2015, I have supervised to completion:

Sole supervisor for Debbie Gascoyne -
Fish in Dark Water: Intertextuality and Interpretation in the Work of Diana Wynne Jones (award 2019)