Brian Caswell was born in Wales in 1954 and emigrated to Australia when he was twelve. He became a rock musician in the 1970s and later a high school teacher specialising in history, English and creative writing. He worked in high schools in Sydney’s south-west for 15 years, abandoning full-time teaching in 1991 once it…
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One of Australia’s foremost illustrators, Julie Vivas’s work for the world renowned Possum Magic (written by Mem Fox) began a career as a children’s illustrator that has since seen the creation of some very important picture books. Her very distinctive watercolour style is seen in such well-known books as Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partidge, The Nativity,…
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Lisa Shanahan grew up in a small suburb of Sydney, near the Georges River, with her younger brother and sister and a large cast of lost and found cats. After finishing high school, she studied Communications at the University of Technology where she majored in writing, before going on to train as an actor at…
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Successful from the Debut Ever since her debut novel, Looking for Alibrandi, burst onto the scene in 1992, the character of Josephine Alibrandi has had a huge following among teenage and adult readers alike. Winner of the CBCA Book of the Year for Older Readers in 1993, Melina Marchetta’s novel has remained on the bestseller…
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Markus Zusak’s writing career was launched at the Reading Matters conference in Melbourne in May 1999 when his remarkable first novel, The Underdog, was launched by David Metzenthen. The Underdog illuminates the apathy and uncertainty of adolescence with impeccable perceptions of growing up. With a combination of first-person narrative and dream sequences, Zusak exposes the…
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Donna Rawlins was born in Sunshine, Victoria, but now lives in Sydney. She came to children’s book illustration from a background in the print and publishing industries where she worked as a darkroom operator, graphic designer, silkscreen and offset printer, book designer and editor. Donna has illustrated her own books and those of other writers,…
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