Lisa Forrest is a story teller for all ages. She became a household name when she burst onto the international swimming scene in 1978 as a 14 year old school girl – with an infectious grin and bright personality she quickly became the darling of Australian sport, but it wasn’t just her performances in the…
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Ursula Dubosarsky was born and grew up in Sydney. She wanted to be a writer from the age of six. Now having published a number of award-winning books for children and young adults, Ursula is regarded as one of the most talented writers in Australia. Her books for younger children include Maisie and the Pinny…
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Jane grew up as the fourth of five girls, and with writers for parents she lived in a world of chaos, drama and books. Jane was free to eavesdrop and observe many colourful characters, providing her with an endless supply of stories and impersonations that kept her family entertained. Jane’s Literary Path After working as…
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Lindy’s experiences as a librarian at Taronga Zoo, and her involvement with the Zoo’s education program was the inspiration for her picture book ZOOming in on Taronga. Her book is designed to enhance a child’s experiences at the zoo, and the clever, crazy story of the animal photographs provides an entertaining introduction to the magical…
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Linda Aronson has won awards as a playwright, scriptwriter, comic novelist and screenwriting theorist. Her book Screenwriting Updated (published in Australia as Scriptwriting Updated,) is the leading text internationally on how to write non-linear films, and in between her own writing, she teaches screenwriting to professionals internationally, everywhere from Hollywood to Africa, Prague, London and…
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When Deb was a small child, she spent most of her time imagining she was on great adventures all over the world. When she grew older, she bought a backpack, a plane ticket and went on them for real. After 3 years she came home, completed a Bachelor of Communications at UTS, worked in children’s…
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The huge success of James Bradley’s debut novel, Wrack, which was short-listed for some major literary awards and has now been published in several countries, led to its inclusion on the NSW HSC syllabus. Fascinated with the existence of sixteenth-century maps that indicate a very early Portuguese exploration of the Great South Land, James has…
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Mark Baker’s first novel, The Fiftieth Gate, was a runaway success on its first printing in 1997. A moving biography of his parents’ journey to Australia as survivors from the holocaust, the book was added to the HSC English syllabus in 1998. Mark is a lecturer in Jewish history at the University of Melbourne and…
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Mark Svendsen is a Brisbane-based author and poet. His books cover a large range of genres, from picture books to poetry collections, novels for early readers and novels for teenagers. He has also written opera libretti and his work has been included in many anthologies. His first book was The Bunyip and the Night, a…
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Roland Harvey is a Melbourne-based illustrator and publisher whose large numbers of books have been entertaining children for a number of years. His irreverent approach to Australian history in his well-known series with Alan Boardman, including Eureka Stockade, Crossing of the Blue Mountains and The Voyage of the First Fleet, has added another dimension to…
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Terry Denton’s devious sense of humour has made his many books huge favourites with a large number of children. His very first picture book, Felix and Alexander, won the CBC Picture Book of the Year award and he has since then received numerous commendations for his work. His collaborations with other authors such as Paul…
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Unarguably Australia’s greatest living poet, and a declared ‘national treasure’, Les Murray has a string of literary prizes to his name – including the Queen’s Medal for his verse novel, Fredy Neptune, the T.S. Eliot award for poetry for Subhuman Redneck Poems, and both the NSW and Victorian Premier’s awards. He has been made AO…
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John Misto is a prolific and multi-award winning writer who has been writing for the theatre, film and television for almost two decades. Originally trained as a lawyer, Misto has been working as a full-time writer since 1981. John’s writing credits are extensive. He won his third AFI Award in 1999 for The Day of…
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Mark Macleod has a long and distinguished career in the world of children’s books. He has been publisher of the Mark Macleod imprint at Hodder Headline, Children’s Publisher at Random House and was previously a lecturer in Children’s Literature at Macquarie University. As a past president of the Children’s Book Council, for many years Mark…
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Matt Ottley was born in 1962 in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea where he spent the first twelve years of his life. His family then moved to Sydney, where he attended high school and studied painting under the artist Stan Clements. Struck by wanderlust after completing school, Matt worked as a jackeroo on cattle…
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