Margo Lanagan’s life has followed a varied career path, working as a secretary, a kitchen hand at a roadhouse on the Nullarbor Plain, a full time student of history, an editor and finally, after living in Paris on a writing grant from the Literature Board of the Australia Council, as a full time author.
Margo is best known for her uncompromising novels for older readers, such as The Best Thing and Touching Earth Lightly. Her collections of short stories, White Time, Black Juice, and Red Spikes have been hugely successful with Black Juice being recognised in a number of very prestigious awards, including the Aurealis awards, World Fantasy awards, the NSW, QLD and VIC Premiers’ awards and the American Library Association Michael L Printz award. Red Spikes was the Older Readers’ Book of the Year in the 2007 CBCA awards and nominated for many other prizes. Her other titles include books for younger readers such as Wildgame and Walking Through Albert and she has also written teen romances (using a pseudonym) for a number of series such as Dolly Fiction. Margo’s most recent book is the highly acclaimed Tender Morsels, which was a 2009 Printz honour book.
Feedback on Margo’s Presentations
Margo has extensive experience in talking to groups of school students and conducting writing workshops. She is also in great demand as a speaker at conferences and professional development days. As one teacher said .. ‘Margo was excellent with the students. They learned a lot about the process of writing, appreciated seeing the author’s research required to write a novel and saw the process of editing. Margo certainly showed some of her ‘inner self’ to the students.’