Katrina Nannestad
Katrina Nannestad is an award-winning Australian author. Her books include The Girl Who Brought Mischief, the Girl, the Dog and the Writer series, the Olive of Groves series, the Red Dirt Diaries series, the Lottie Perkins series and Bungaloo Creek.
Katrina grew up in country New South Wales in a neighborhood stuffed full of happy children. Her adult years have been spent teaching, raising boys, perfecting her recipe for chocolate-chip bickies and pursuing her love of stories. She now lives near Bendigo with her family and an exuberant black whippet called Olive.
If you like author Katrina Nannestad here is the list of authors you may also like
Buy books on AmazonTotal similar authors (71)
-
Bronnie Ware
Bronnie Ware is an author, songwriting teacher, and speaker from Australia. Her inspiring memoir, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, has connected with hearts all over the world, with translations in 27 languages. Bronnie lives in rural Australia and loves balance, simple living, and waking up to the songs of birds.
Buy books on Amazon -
Stuart Wilson
Stuart Wilson lives in Naarm/Melbourne with his wife and son. He is the author of The 113th Assistant Librarian and the Prometheus High books. Quite the oxymoron, he can frequently be found lost in a book.
Buy books on Amazon -
Maryam Master
Maryam Master is a writer with more than 20 years' experience creating work for stage and screen.
Buy books on Amazon
In 2019 she wrote the stage adaptation of David Walliams' best-selling book The Midnight Gang. The show enjoyed a sellout season at the Sydney Opera House and will begin an extensive national tour in 2021. The previous year she wrote an acclaimed adaptation of Walliams' Billionaire Boy, which also toured nationally.
In 2017 Maryam collaborated with Australian Children's Laureate Leigh Hobbs on Horrible Harriet: Live on Stage. In 2016, her new version of Mr Stink toured nationally and to the UAE, and was nominated for a Sydney Theatre Award.
Maryam started her career in television, writing over 80 episodes of Home and Away (Seven Network). Since th -
-
Danielle Binks
Danielle Binks is a Melbourne-based author, and literary agent.
Buy books on Amazon
In 2017, she edited and contributed to Begin, End, Begin, an anthology of new Australian young adult writing inspired by the #LoveOzYA movement, which won the ABIA Book of the Year for Older Children (Ages 13+).
The Year the Maps Changed was Danielle's debut middle-grade novel, and The Monster of Her Age will be her first foray into YA, coming 2021. -
Nova Weetman
Nova Weetman wrote short fiction and children’s television before publishing her first YA novel, The Haunting of Lily Frost, in 2014. She lives with her partner, a playwright, and their two children in Brunswick, Australia.
Buy books on Amazon -
Pip Harry
Pip Harry is an Australian children’s author and journalist. Her middle grade novel, The Little Wave, won the CBCA 2020 Book of the Year Award and the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year. It was shortlisted for the 2020 NSW Premier's Literary Awards – Ethel Turner Prize for Young People's Literature.
Buy books on Amazon
Her young adult novels include I’ll Tell You Mine, Head of the River, and Because of You, shortlisted for the CBCA Book of the Year Awards, Victorian Premier's Literary Award and Queensland Literary Awards.
Are You There, Buddha? is a 2022 CBCA Notable book and was nominated for the Ethel Turner prize.
Pip’s latest middle grade novel, August & Jones is out now. -
Tristan Bancks
Tristan Bancks tells stories for the page and screen. His books for kids and teens include Two Wolves, The Fall, Detention, the Tom Weekly series, and Nit Boy. Ginger Meggs, Tristan’s 100th anniversary book of short stories, is based on characters created by his great-great uncle, Jimmy Bancks, in 1921. His books have won and been shortlisted for many awards, including a Children’s Book Council of Australia Honour Book, the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, ABIA, YABBA, KOALA, NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and Queensland Literary Awards. His latest release is Cop & Robber, a nailbiting crime story for age 10+.
Buy books on Amazon
Tristan is a writer-ambassador for literacy non-profit Room to Read. He is currently working with producers to develop a number of hi -
Sally Murphy
Sally Murphy is an Australian author of over 30 children's books. She's also the slightly crazy mother of six beautiful kids. You'll find bits of her buried somewhere in every one of her books. She loves reading, writing, and speaking about reading and writing.
Buy books on Amazon
PEARL VERSES THE WORLD won the 2010 Australian Family Therapists’ Award for Children’s Literature as well as the 2010 Australian Speech Pathology Book of the Year Award for Best Book for Language Development. It was also an Honour Book in the CBCA Children's Book of the Year Awards.
TOPPLING won the children's book category of both the Queensland and Western Australian Premier's Book Awards, and was short-listed in the CBCA Children's Book of the Year Awards. -
Asphyxia
Asphyxia is an artist, writer and public speaker. Author of the much-loved junior fiction series the Grimstones, Asphyxia has also been a circus performer and puppeteer. An avid art-journal creator, she loves to share her process and help others benefit from this amazing tool for self-expression, problem-solving, planning, goal-tracking and self-esteem.
Buy books on Amazon
Deaf since the age of three, Asphyxia learnt to sign when she was eighteen, which changed her life. She is now a Deaf activist, sharing details of Deaf experience. She raises awareness of oppression of Deaf people and what we can do to change this. Her free online Auslan course (www.asphyxia.com.au) has had over 15,000 students.
Asphyxia is kept busy with her small farm where she combines fo -
Craig Silvey
Craig Silvey is an author and screenwriter from Fremantle, Western Australia.
Buy books on Amazon
His critically acclaimed debut novel, Rhubarb, was published in 2004. His bestselling second novel, Jasper Jones, was released in 2009 and is considered a modern Australian classic. Published in over a dozen territories, Jasper Jones has won plaudits in three continents, including an International Dublin Literary Award shortlisting, a Michael J. Printz Award Honor, and a Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlisting. Jasper Jones was the Australian Book Industry Awards Book of the Year for 2010.
His third novel, Honeybee, published in 2020, was an award-winning bestseller. Honeybee was the 2020 Dymocks Book Of The Year, won the Indie Book Award for Best Fiction, and wa -
Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
Kimberly Brubaker Bradley's next book, The Night War, will be published April 9, 2024. She is the author of nineteen previous books, including the Newbery Honor winners Fighting Words and The War that Saved My Life. The sequel to the latter, The War I Finally Won, appeared on many state-award and best-books lists and was described as “stunning” by The Washington Post and “honest” and “daring” by The New York Times. She is also the acclaimed author of She Persisted: Rosalind Franklin. Kimberly and her husband have two grown children and live with their dogs, two highly opinionated mares, and a surplus of cats on a fifty-two-acre farm in Bristol, Tennessee. Visit her at kimberlybrubakerbradley.com.
Buy books on Amazon -
Morris Gleitzman
Morris began his writing career as a screenwriter, and wrote his first children's novel in 1985. His brilliantly comic style has endeared him to children and adults alike, and he is now one of Australia's most successful authors, both internationally and at home. He was born in England in 1953 and emigrated to Australia in 1969 so he could escape from school and become a Very Famous Writer.
Buy books on Amazon
Before realising that dream, he had a colourful career as paperboy, bottle-shop shelf-stacker, department store Santa Claus, frozen chicken defroster, fashion-design assistant and sugar-mill employee. In between he managed to gain a degree in Professional Writing at the Canberra College of Advanced Education. Later he became sole writer for three award-wi -
Robyn Bavati
Robyn Bavati lives in Melbourne, Australia. She is married and has three grown-up children and a cat called Fudgie. She loves visiting schools.
Buy books on Amazon
Robyn's favourite children's book is The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. She doesn't have a single favourite book for adults. Her answer will change depending on when you happen to ask her.
-
-
Fiona Lloyd
Fiona was born in the beautiful North-East of England near picturesque countryside, windswept beaches and the vibrant cultural city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. She dreamed of writing in a cosy country cottage and of life as a theatre actress but, as it often does, life got in the way.
Buy books on Amazon
Working and travelling instead, Fiona floated in the Dead Sea, climbed the Sydney Harbour bridge, gave guided tours in Holland and fell in love with all things Greek during her two years in Athens and Skiathos. Her most special travel experience was in Myanmar where she visited the place where her Granny was born.
Amongst her myriad of interesting jobs, Fiona worked as a television colourist on Home & Away, This is Greece and Secrets of Britain’s Great Cathedrals. S -
Craig Silvey
Craig Silvey is an author and screenwriter from Fremantle, Western Australia.
Buy books on Amazon
His critically acclaimed debut novel, Rhubarb, was published in 2004. His bestselling second novel, Jasper Jones, was released in 2009 and is considered a modern Australian classic. Published in over a dozen territories, Jasper Jones has won plaudits in three continents, including an International Dublin Literary Award shortlisting, a Michael J. Printz Award Honor, and a Miles Franklin Literary Award shortlisting. Jasper Jones was the Australian Book Industry Awards Book of the Year for 2010.
His third novel, Honeybee, published in 2020, was an award-winning bestseller. Honeybee was the 2020 Dymocks Book Of The Year, won the Indie Book Award for Best Fiction, and wa -
Maryam Master
Maryam Master is a writer with more than 20 years' experience creating work for stage and screen.
Buy books on Amazon
In 2019 she wrote the stage adaptation of David Walliams' best-selling book The Midnight Gang. The show enjoyed a sellout season at the Sydney Opera House and will begin an extensive national tour in 2021. The previous year she wrote an acclaimed adaptation of Walliams' Billionaire Boy, which also toured nationally.
In 2017 Maryam collaborated with Australian Children's Laureate Leigh Hobbs on Horrible Harriet: Live on Stage. In 2016, her new version of Mr Stink toured nationally and to the UAE, and was nominated for a Sydney Theatre Award.
Maryam started her career in television, writing over 80 episodes of Home and Away (Seven Network). Since th -
Nova Weetman
Nova Weetman wrote short fiction and children’s television before publishing her first YA novel, The Haunting of Lily Frost, in 2014. She lives with her partner, a playwright, and their two children in Brunswick, Australia.
Buy books on Amazon -
Danielle Binks
Danielle Binks is a Melbourne-based author, and literary agent.
Buy books on Amazon
In 2017, she edited and contributed to Begin, End, Begin, an anthology of new Australian young adult writing inspired by the #LoveOzYA movement, which won the ABIA Book of the Year for Older Children (Ages 13+).
The Year the Maps Changed was Danielle's debut middle-grade novel, and The Monster of Her Age will be her first foray into YA, coming 2021. -
Bren MacDibble
Bren lives in Kalbarri on the amazing Coral Coast of Western Australia.
Buy books on Amazon
Her first children's novel: How to Bee (2017) won multiple awards, The Dog Runner (2019) and Across the Risen Sea (2020) also won and were shortlisted in multiple awards. The Raven's Song (2022) written with the amazing award-winning Zana Fraillon, has recently been launched.
All her novels are packed full of wild adventures and feature children surviving environmentally changed futures. They are stories that don't mask the realities of the world children see all around them, but do offer hope, safe fictional exploration of climate issues and examples of resilience.
Bren grew up on the land in NZ, and hopes that while children enjoy these wild adventures with colourful cha -
Lucinda Gifford
Lucinda is a busy author and illustrator who enjoys drawing wolves, chickens, princesses, moose, birds, tropical islands and fancy houses. She has illustrated over 30 books and and written about 7 of these so far.
Buy books on Amazon
Lucinda picture book 'Whitney and Britney Chicken Divas' was chosen for National Simultaneous Storytime in 2020, with over 1.2 million people reading her rhyming text about a couple of surprisingly talented chickens. Several of Lucinda's books have been shortlisted for awards and she has also received the Five Mile Press Illustrator prize in 2014. Lucinda currently lives in Melbourne with her prop-maker husband, two boys, a greedy dog, and some very glamorous chicken puppets. -
Matt Stanton
Matt Stanton is a bestselling children's author and illustrator, with over a quarter of a million books in print. He is the co-creator of seven bestselling picture books, including the mega-hits, There is a Monster Under My Bed Who Farts and This is a Ball. He is launching his much-anticipated middle-grade series, Funny Kid around the world in July 2017.
Buy books on Amazon
Email: matt.stanton@gmail.com -
Karen Foxlee
Karen Foxlee is an Australian author who lives and writes in Queensland. Her young adult novels The Anatomy of Wings (UQP/Knopf/Atlantic) and The Midnight Dress (Knopf/UQP/Hot Key Books) have been published internationally to much acclaim. The Anatomy of Wings won the Commonwealth Writers Prize Best First Book 2008 (South Asia/Pacific), the Dobbie Award 2008, and a Parent’s Choice Gold Award in the U.S. The Midnight Dress was selected as an ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults title in 2014. Foxlee’s first middle grade novel Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy (Knopf / Hot Key Books) was published in January 2014 and to date has received several starred reviews.
Buy books on Amazon
Karen Foxlee was born in Mount Isa, Queensland in 1971. She has worked most of her adult -
Allison Rushby
Allison Rushby adores cities with long, winding histories; wild, overgrown cemeteries; redbrick Victorian museums; foxes; tea; and ivy. She lives in Queensland, Australia.
Buy books on Amazon
http://www.allisonrushby.com. -
Claire Legrand
Claire Legrand is the New York Times-bestselling author of a dozen novels, including the Empirium Trilogy, A CROWN OF IVY AND GLASS, SAWKILL GIRLS, SOME KIND OF HAPPINESS, and THE CAVENDISH HOME FOR BOYS AND GIRLS. She is one of the four authors behind THE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES, an anthology of dark middle grade fiction.
Buy books on Amazon -
Shivaun Plozza
Shivaun Plozza is an award-winning author of books for children and young adults. Her debut novel, Frankie, was a CBCA Notable Book and won a number of awards, including the Davitt Awards and a commendation from the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award. Her second novel, Tin Heart, sold in three foreign territories, received two starred reviews, and was nominated to ALA’S Best Fiction for Young Adults list. Her debut middle-grade novel, The Boy, the Wolf, and the Stars, is forthcoming in 2020 from HMH Books for Young Readers and Penguin Random House Australia. She is a frequent contributor to anthologies, and when she is not writing she works as an editor and manuscript assessor.
Buy books on Amazon -
N.H. Senzai
I grew up speaking two languages, balancing life lived on the edge of two cultures, and, happily, two cuisines—tandoori chicken and hot dogs, grilled side by side on the 4th of July. I got on a plane for the first time at two months, in Chicago, IL, where I was born, and have been travelling ever since. I grew up in San Francisco, Jubail, Saudi Arabia, and attended boarding school in London, England where I was voted “most likely to lead a literary revolution” due to my ability to get away with reading comic books in class. I’ve hiked across the Alps, road-tripped through Mexico, swum with barracudas in the Red Sea, taken a train across the Soviet Union, floated down the Nile, eaten gumbo in New Orleans and sat in contemplation at the Taj M
Buy books on Amazon -
Sue Whiting
A former primary school teacher with a special interest in literacy education and children’s literature, Sue Whiting has worked in the publishing industry for almost twenty years, both as an author and editor of books for children and young adults.
Buy books on Amazon
Sue has written numerous books in a variety of genres: fiction and nonfiction, picture books through to YA, and is published in Australia and internationally. Her middle grade novel Get a Grip, Cooper Jones and nonfiction picture book, Platypus were both named CBCA Notable Books, and her picture book, A Swim in the Sea, illustrated by Meredith Thomas, was the Speech Pathologists’ 2014 Book of the Year. Her latest books include, Missing a mystery/suspense novel for readers aged 10+ and the picture -
Sophie Beer
Sophie Beer is an award-winning illustrator/author living in Brisbane, Australia.
Buy books on Amazon
Sophie Beer is an award-winning illustrator/author living in Brisbane, Australia. She rejoices in creating bright, funny picture books which centre equality, inclusion and kindness. Her books have been printed all over the world and have sold close to one million copies. She has published with Penguin Random House New York, Simon & Schuster, Hardie Grant, Scholastic, and many more. As an illustrator, she has worked with the likes of Disney, Google, The Guardian, The Boston Globe. As a writer, her work has appeared in Frankie Magazine and The Big Issue. In 2022 she received a Varuna Writers Space Fellowship to complete her first middle grade novel. When she's no -
Shirley Marr
Shirley Marr is a multi-award winning children's and YA author and a first generation Chinese-Australian living in sunny Perth. Her titles are Fury, Preloved, Little Jiang and All Four Quarters of the Moon and the CBCA Book of the Year for Younger Readers A Glasshouse of Stars
Buy books on Amazon
She describes herself as having a Western Mind and an Eastern Heart and writes in the middle where both collide. She takes milk and sugar with her tea much to the dismay of her oolong drinking friends and eats chicken feet much to the disgust of her Aussie friends. Her passion is to distil her cultural heritage through the lens of resilient young women. -
Wai Chim
Wai Chim grew up in New York City and now calls Sydney, Australia home. She is the author of several children and young adult titles. You can find her online at waichim.com or on twitter @onewpc.
Buy books on Amazon -
Jackie French
Jackie is an award-winning writer, wombat negotiator and the Australian Children’s Laureate for 2014-2015. She is regarded as one of Australia’s most popular children’s authors, and writes across all genres - from picture books, history, fantasy, ecology and sci-fi to her much loved historical fiction. In her capacity as Australian Children’s Laureate, ‘Share a Story’ will be the primary philosophy behind Jackie’s two-year term.
Buy books on Amazon -
Emma Lord
Emma Lord is an award-winning Australian author with a love of all things sci-fi, fantasy and horror. She’s a sucker for a fictional apocalypse, but can’t shake a nagging suspicion she’d be among the first to die if a real one hit. Anomaly is her debut novel and incorporates everything she loves in a story: an apocalyptic setting, creepy monsters, and a young woman more powerful than she appears.
Buy books on Amazon -
Meg Gatland-Veness
Meg Gatland-Veness is a high school drama teacher in New South Wales, Australia.
Buy books on Amazon
Meg Gatland-Veness was born in a tiny country town called Milton and now lives on the Central Coast of New South Wales with her boyfriend and two cats. She attended the University of Newcastle where she studied a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Secondary Teaching.
Meg has been writing stories for as long as she can remember and reading them even longer. She always carries a notebook with her in case inspiration strikes or she encounters a beautiful new word. Equal to her love of words is her passion for championing local youths and fostering important conversation about issues facing young Australians.
When she's not writing novels, Meg is a high school drama t -
-
David Hill
Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads data base.
Buy books on Amazon -
Rebecca Lim
Rebecca Lim is an Australian writer, illustrator and editor and the author of over twenty books, including Tiger Daughter (a Kirkus, Amazon and Booklist Best Book, CBCA Book of the Year: Older Readers and Victorian Premier’s Literary Award-winner), Two Sparrowhawks in a Lonely Sky (NSW History Award-winner and Book Links Children’s Historical Fiction Award-winner) and the bestselling Mercy. Her work has been twice shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award, shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards, ARA Historical Novel Prize and Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards, shortlisted multiple times for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, Aurealis Awards and Davitt Awards, and longli
Buy books on Amazon -
Zanni Louise
Zanni Louise has been writing stories since she was little, growing up in country NSW. She’s written over forty internationally published books for kids including picture books, chapter books and books for 10-12 year-olds. Her first teen fiction under her alias, Zanni L. Arnot, A Guide to Falling off the Map (Scholastic US; Hachette AU) is out later this year.
Buy books on Amazon
Her picture books including the bestselling Human-Kind series have been recognised by prominent awards, including Children’s Book Council of Australia, Speech Pathology Awards, Educational Publishing Awards, White Raven’s International Catalogue of Children’s Books, Panda Awards and the Australian Book Design Awards.
Her junior-fiction and middle-grade books have been selected for K.O. -
Lian Tanner
Lian Tanner has been dynamited while scuba diving and arrested while busking. She once spent a week in the jungles of Papua New Guinea, hunting for a Japanese soldier left over from the Second World War. She likes secrets, old bones, and animals that are not what they seem. Nowadays she lives by the beach in southern Tasmania.
Buy books on Amazon
Lian's bestselling fantasy series The Keepers won two Aurealis Awards for Best Australian Children's Fantasy and has been translated into eleven languages. Her second series, The Hidden, has been published in Australia/New Zealand and North America. Lian's third series, The Rogues, is set in the same world as The Keepers, and has been translated into Spanish.
Lian's first picture book 'Ella and the Ocean' (illustrated -
Zana Fraillon
Zana Fraillon was born in Melbourne, but spent her early childhood in San Francisco.
Buy books on Amazon
Zana has written two picture books for young children, a series for middle readers, and a novel for older readers based on research and accounts of survivors of the Forgotten Generation. She spent a year in China teaching English and now lives in Melbourne with her three sons, husband and two dogs.
When Zana isn't reading or writing, she likes to explore the museums and hidden passageways scattered across Melbourne. They provide the same excitement as that moment before opening a new book - preparing to step into the unknown where a whole world of possibilities awaits. -
Suzy Zail
A Family lawyer in her past life, Suzy is now the bestselling author of more than 14 books for adults, teens and children. Suzy is best-known for her young adult novels, Inkflower, The Wrong Boy, Alexander Altmann A10567 and I am Change, stories that shine a light on injustice. She is also the founder of Give A Girl a Book, shipping more than 10,000 books (donated by school libraries and students) to girls in Africa who couldn’t otherwise afford them. Suzy's novels have won Reader's choice for Book of the Year for older readers, in the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Awards, been shortlisted for the Young Australians Best Book Awards and the U.K. Coventry Inspiration Book Awards and have been named an Outstanding Inter
Buy books on Amazon -
Gemma Malley
Gemma Malley studied Philosophy at Reading University before working as a journalist. She edited several business magazines and contributed regularly to Company magazine and the Sunday Telegraph before moving into the Civil Service in a senior communications role at Ofsted. The Declaration, her first novel for a teenage audience, and its sequel, The Resistance, were published to critical acclaim. She lives in South London.
Buy books on Amazon -
Clare Atkins
Atkins is an author, scriptwriter, script editor and produce. Born and raised in Sydney, she has also lived in Bathurst (for university), on a small Spanish island called La Gomera, and in Arnhem Land. She currently lives in Darwin.
Buy books on Amazon
She has also written for many successful Australian television dramas, including All Saints, Home & Away, Headland, Winners & Losers and Wonderland.
She has a teaching degree, and loves running workshops about scriptwriting and creative writing in general. -
Rebecca Westcott
Rebecca Westcott was born in Chester. She went to Exeter University to train as a teacher and has had a variety of teaching jobs that have taken her to some very interesting places, including a Category C male prison. She started writing a diary when she was eight years old, although she had no idea that one day her entries would be used to help her write a book. Rebecca currently teaches in a primary school and lives in Dorset with her husband and three children. Dandelion Clocks is her first book.
Buy books on Amazon -
Morris Gleitzman
Morris began his writing career as a screenwriter, and wrote his first children's novel in 1985. His brilliantly comic style has endeared him to children and adults alike, and he is now one of Australia's most successful authors, both internationally and at home. He was born in England in 1953 and emigrated to Australia in 1969 so he could escape from school and become a Very Famous Writer.
Buy books on Amazon
Before realising that dream, he had a colourful career as paperboy, bottle-shop shelf-stacker, department store Santa Claus, frozen chicken defroster, fashion-design assistant and sugar-mill employee. In between he managed to gain a degree in Professional Writing at the Canberra College of Advanced Education. Later he became sole writer for three award-wi -
Dianne Wolfer
Dianne lives on the south coast of Western Australia. She is author of 25 books with more titles on the way. Her latest novel 'Scout and the Rescue Dogs' celebrates truckies and rescue dogs, and links to the catastrophic Black Summer bushfires. It's a 2024 CBCA Notable and shortlisted for WA Young Readers' Awards.
Buy books on Amazon
Other recent titles include: 'The Last Light Horse', a CBCA Notable Book now adapted for CineStage by Theatre 180; 'Mia' (Allen and Unwin's award-winning Through my Eyes series); and an Aussie STEM Stars title about Skye Blackburn-Lang, Australia's first farmer of edible insects.
Dianne's doctoral research into anthropomorphism and animal characters in children's literature was selected as a Board of the Graduate Research School De -
Jane Godwin
Jane Godwin is the Publisher, Books for Children and Young Adults, at Penguin Books Australia. She is also a highly acclaimed author of many books for children. Her work is published internationally and she has received many commendations. The Family Tree won the 2000 Queensland Premier's Award (Children's Books); Sebby, Stee, the Garbos and Me was shortlisted for the 1999 New South Wales State Literary Award (Patricia Wrightson Prize) and was a YABBA finalist; and The True Story of Mary was shortlisted for the 2006 CBCA Book of the Year Awards, Younger Readers. In 2009 her picture book with illustrator Anna Walker, Little Cat and the Big Red Bus, was a notable book in the CBCA Awards and was also shortlisted for the Speech Pathology Austra
Buy books on Amazon -
Hayley Lawrence
Hayley Lawrence worked as a lawyer in a commercial firm in Sydney before trading city life for the coast when she married a pilot. Hayley and her husband had many adventures while she worked for a small law firm on the Mid-North Coast of NSW. They now have five vivacious daughters who continue to bring immense joy and utter mayhem to their life.
Buy books on Amazon
Despite leaving legal work, Hayley could not leave behind the stories of the people she’d encountered. They are stories that provoke questions about the nature of humanity, and it’s these questions that haunt her novels. -
Pip Harry
Pip Harry is an Australian children’s author and journalist. Her middle grade novel, The Little Wave, won the CBCA 2020 Book of the Year Award and the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year. It was shortlisted for the 2020 NSW Premier's Literary Awards – Ethel Turner Prize for Young People's Literature.
Buy books on Amazon
Her young adult novels include I’ll Tell You Mine, Head of the River, and Because of You, shortlisted for the CBCA Book of the Year Awards, Victorian Premier's Literary Award and Queensland Literary Awards.
Are You There, Buddha? is a 2022 CBCA Notable book and was nominated for the Ethel Turner prize.
Pip’s latest middle grade novel, August & Jones is out now. -
Stuart Wilson
Stuart Wilson lives in Naarm/Melbourne with his wife and son. He is the author of The 113th Assistant Librarian and the Prometheus High books. Quite the oxymoron, he can frequently be found lost in a book.
Buy books on Amazon -
Barry Jonsberg
Barry Jonsberg is an Australian author and teacher originally from Liverpool, England. He holds degrees in English and Psychology from Liverpool University and moved to Australia in 1999. His debut novel, The Whole Business with Kiffo and the Pitbull, earned acclaim in 2005, and his follow-up, It’s Not All About YOU, Calma, won the 2006 South Australian Festival Award for Children’s Literature. Jonsberg has continued to receive numerous honors, including awards and shortlistings for Dreamrider, My Life as an Alphabet, A Little Spark, and Smoke & Mirrors, affirming his place in contemporary young adult literature.
Buy books on Amazon -
Tristan Bancks
Tristan Bancks tells stories for the page and screen. His books for kids and teens include Two Wolves, The Fall, Detention, the Tom Weekly series, and Nit Boy. Ginger Meggs, Tristan’s 100th anniversary book of short stories, is based on characters created by his great-great uncle, Jimmy Bancks, in 1921. His books have won and been shortlisted for many awards, including a Children’s Book Council of Australia Honour Book, the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards, ABIA, YABBA, KOALA, NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and Queensland Literary Awards. His latest release is Cop & Robber, a nailbiting crime story for age 10+.
Buy books on Amazon
Tristan is a writer-ambassador for literacy non-profit Room to Read. He is currently working with producers to develop a number of hi -
Robert Newton
Robert Newton works as a full-time firefighter with the Metropolitan Fire Brigade. His first novel, My Name is Will Thompson, was published in 2001. Since then he has written four other novels for young people, including Runner, which was published by Penguin in 2005. He lives in Melbourne with his wife and three daughters.
Buy books on Amazon -
Jane Arthur
Jane Arthur was the recipient of the Sarah Broom Poetry Prize in 2018, judged by Eileen Myles. She has worked in the book industry for over fifteen years as a bookseller and editor. She has a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from the IIML at Victoria University of Wellington. Born in New Plymouth, she lives in Wellington with her family and dogs.
Buy books on Amazon -
Deborah Abela
Deb knew she wanted to be a writer when she was 7 years old. Her first story was about a man made out of cheese. It wasn’t very good. She’s had much more practice writing since then and strangely enough her first writing job was for a kids’ show on channel Ten called “Cheez TV”. After 7 years of writing scripts about everything from llamas to bungy jumping and how to go to the toilet in outer space, Deb wrote her first novel - Max Remy Superspy Part 1: In Search of the Time and Space Machine.
Buy books on Amazon
It’s about a feisty girl called Max and her best friend Linden who travel the world as secret agents fighting bad guys. It’s an action packed series based on loads of adventures Deb had, just after she left school. She’s slept beside alligators, been h -
Emily Gale
Emily Gale has worked in the children’s & YA book industry for over twenty years. In London she worked as an editor for Penguin and Egmont, and later as a freelance manuscript consultant and pre-school book writer. In Melbourne she worked with the late literary agent Sheila Drummond, finding new children’s and YA authors; she has reviewed for Bookseller and Publisher, spent several happy years at independent bookshop Readings as a children’s buyer, during which time she was instrumental in establishing the Readings Children’s Book Prize, and worked in two school libraries. Emily’s writing includes novels for teenagers like Girl, Aloud, Steal My Sunshine, and I Am Out With Lanterns, as well as books for 10+ including The Other Side of Summer
Buy books on Amazon -
Nicki Greenberg
Nicki Greenberg is a writer and illustrator with a special interest in sequential art narrative - a fancy way of describing comics.
Buy books on Amazon
Nicki's first books, The Digits series, were published when she was fifteen years old, and sold more than 380,000 copies. Since then, she has devoted most of her ink to comics, but has also written and illustrated fiction and non-fiction books for children.
At seventeen, Nicki fell in love with The Great Gatsby. Almost ten years later, she set out to pay tribute to F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel by interpreting it in comic art form. It took more than six years to complete this enormous labour of love.
This mad undertaking was followed by three years' passionate work on Shakespeare's Hamlet, which was finally staged o -
Tara Eglington
Tara Eglington grew up in Byron Bay, Australia, and now lives in Sydney.
Buy books on Amazon
Tara is the author of four Young Adult novels: How to Keep a Boy from Kissing You, How to Convince a Boy to Kiss You (titled Kissing Games in the USA), My Best Friend is a Goddess and The Long Distance Playlist. Her books have been published in Australia, New Zealand, and the USA.
Tara’s third YA novel My Best Friend is a Goddess was a CBCA 2017 Book of the Year: Older Readers Notable. It was also the #7 best-selling YA title by an Australian author for the year July 2016-June 2017 in Australia.
Tara’s hobbies when she’s not writing include watching endless cat videos on YouTube, planning pretend holidays to the Maldives, and daydreaming about who would play Hayden Paris -
Mette Jakobsen
Originally from Denmark, Mette Jakobsen now resides in Sydney. She is an adventurer, author and playwright.
Buy books on Amazon
Mette has a PhD in Creative Writing and has graduated from NIDA’s Playwright
Studio. Her novels have been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize, topped
the Indie Book List, and mentioned on Oprah’s Booklist.
Mette has taught creative writing at universities and several of her plays have been
broadcast on ABC Radio National.
The Tower Series is her first YA title. -
Sher Rill Ng
Sher Rill Ng is a Naarm/Melbourne-based digital illustrator.
Buy books on Amazon
She designed and illustrated for SaaS companies before releasing her first author-illustrated picture book Our Little Inventor (2019 Allen & Unwin). Her work includes middle grade book covers for The Twelve by Cindy Lin, The Rogues by Lian Tanner and Winnie Zeng Unleashes a Legend by Katie Zhao.
Our Little Inventor has been adapted into a children's opera, composed by Emma Jayakumar and presented by the West Australian Opera, which will premiere in October 2022. -
Sam Angus
Sam Angus is a bestselling and award-winning author of historical adventure novels for children of nine and over. Her novels, required reading for schools across the United Kingdom, deal lightly with some of the bleakest moments of British and Colonial history. Her books include Soldier Dog, Captain, A Horse Called Hero, The House on Hummingbird Island and School for Skylarks.
Buy books on Amazon
Sam Angus was born in Italy, and grew up in France, and spent much of her childhood moving from home to home and country to country, but most of her early childhood was spent in Franco's Spain. She went to more than ten different schools and was the naughtiest girl in all of them. She then went on to read English at Trinity College Cambridge, where she secretly kept a -
Kate Gordon
Kate Gordon grew up in a small town by the sea in Tasmania. She is the author of numerous award-winning picture-books and novels for younger readers, including Aster’s Good, Right Things, published by Yellow Brick Books in November, 2020, which won the CBCA Book of the Year for younger readers in 2021, and was shortlisted in the Tasmanian Literary Awards in 2022. The companion novels, Xavier in the Meantime and Indigo in the Storm were published in 2021 and 2023. Whalesong was published by Yellow Brick Books in 2022, following Kate’s residency at the Maritime Museum of Tasmania. Kate continues to write novels and picture books from a cottage overlooking the river and the mountain on the Eastern Shore of Hobart. She has two daughters, an eld
Buy books on Amazon -
Rachel Winters
Rachel Winters is single and living in London. In addition to completing a creative writing MA, she’s spent most of her twenties freelancing for local papers and online magazines–including editing a craft magazine and writing a weekly column about pets (though she doesn’t own any). It’s very Sex and the City. She likes long walks in the country, big cities and firmly believes there are few problems that can’t be solved with good friends and very large glasses of wine. She’s currently an editor at Orion Books.
Buy books on Amazon -
Allayne L. Webster
Allayne is an author of Junior Fiction, Middle Grade and Young Adult literature. She’s the recipient of multiple arts grants, a Premier’s Reading Challenge Ambassador, and a former literary festival board member.
Buy books on Amazon
Paper Planes (Scholastic) was a 2016 Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Notable/shortlisted for the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature. A Cardboard Palace (MidnightSun) was a 2018 CBCA Notable and published in Sweden. Our Little Secret (Scholastic) was listed for the Golden Inkys and has recently been republished by Ligature Press. The Centre of My Everything (PenguinRandomHouse) was listed in the 2019 Davitt Awards (crime) and shortlisted in the 2020 Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature. Sensitive (UQP) is publishe -
Shelby Matheson
Shelby Matheson is a born-and-raised Australian with a Bachelor in journalism and creative writing, as well as a graduate diploma in editing and publishing from USQ. She has been writing full-length novels since she was fourteen and has always known that being an author was the only career for her. In her spare time, she enjoys video games, drawing, crochet, collecting books (and even reading them), but her greatest passion will always be writing and escaping to the worlds in her head.
Buy books on Amazon
You can find her on Instagram and Threads as @shelbymathesonbooks -
Emma Bowd
Emma is an internationally published and award-winning Australian author of books for adults and children; an experienced presenter; and a passionate literacy advocate with the children's education charity, Ardoch.
Buy books on Amazon
Emma's love of words, fashion, travel and everyday family life has seen her write fun, feel-good books which showcase contemporary culture and capture the joy of childhood.
Her debut rhyming children’s picture book, 'Wonderful Shoes' (illustrated by Tania McCartney; Windy Hollow Books, 2021) was awarded a CBCA Notable Book, Early Childhood, 2022; named in a prestigious list of Best Rhyming Books for Little Ones (Children's Books Daily, 2021); and features on Play School Story Time (Series 5, ABC Kids TV, 2022).
Her 2023 children’s -
A.J. Betts
I'm a Perth-based writer who writes realistic fiction for teenagers (14+) but adults enjoy them too. I'm also an English teacher, poet, writer of non-fiction texts, presenter and reader.
Buy books on Amazon -
Sally Murphy
Sally Murphy is an Australian author of over 30 children's books. She's also the slightly crazy mother of six beautiful kids. You'll find bits of her buried somewhere in every one of her books. She loves reading, writing, and speaking about reading and writing.
Buy books on Amazon
PEARL VERSES THE WORLD won the 2010 Australian Family Therapists’ Award for Children’s Literature as well as the 2010 Australian Speech Pathology Book of the Year Award for Best Book for Language Development. It was also an Honour Book in the CBCA Children's Book of the Year Awards.
TOPPLING won the children's book category of both the Queensland and Western Australian Premier's Book Awards, and was short-listed in the CBCA Children's Book of the Year Awards. -
Patricia Weerakoon
Dr Patricia Weerakoon is a medical doctor turned sexologist and author. She is an evangelical Christian and is married to Vasantha. Her son, Kamal, is a Presbyterian minister.
Buy books on Amazon
Her writing and speaking brings together her enthusiasm for sex and her love for the glory of God.
As a sexologist, Dr Weerakoon has used practical sex education, sex research and sex therapy to bring good, holistic sexual health. Her Christian framework for sex therapy has enriched and empowered the sex lives of many couples.
Dr Weerakoon has a recognised media presence, and is a highly regarded public speaker and social commentator in sexuality and sexual health. -
Michelle Worthington
My name is Michelle Worthington and I am an internationally published award winning Australian author of empowering picture books for kids of all ages. My goal is to be known for unique, classically elegant and compassionate stories that inspire young children to fall in love with books and reading.
Buy books on Amazon