KRISTEN HARRISON

Publisher in London, United Kingdom

Visit my company website

When I'm not enjoying the wonderment of life, I'm working hard to find exciting ways to help children to learn and discover their best selves. I'm particularly interested in literacy and the sciences and how we can open up these subjects to children using art and visual learning techniques.

Most of my work stems from the art of making books. I've spent the past 20 years working in production, editorial and content development for world-leading publishing imprints in Melbourne, London and Berlin. These include Penguin Reference, Allen Lane, Harvill Secker, Random House Books, Guardian Books, Faber, November Editions and many more.

In 2011 I founded my own publishing company, The Curved House, to be at the intersection of books, art and education. We focus on producing books and learning resources that marry our publishing skills with the principles of art education and the knowledge of world-leading STEM and academic experts. An example is our flagship Principia Space Diary, created with author Lucy Hawking and funded by ESA Astronaut Tim Peake and the UK Space Agency. This project has reached over 95,000 primary-aged students in the UK and has received amazing feedback from teachers and students for being a truly empowering STEM programme. It's this kind of feedback, and the potential to have a real impact in schools, that gets me out of bed in the morning.

I'm inspired by people and organisations who want to make a difference in education and those who recognise that every child has the potential to learn and create. The key is to offer a "way in" that engages children the way children are engaging with the world: visually, interactively and in a manner that is wholly empowering for them.

I'm very happy to hear from anyone who shares these values.

  • Work
    • Book Publishing
  • Education
    • RMIT University
    • University of Melbourne