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Margaret Wild (born 1948) is an Australian children's writer. She has written more than 40 books for children. Her work has been published around the world and has won several awards. She was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Children's Book Council of Australia in 2022.
Wild was born in Eshowe, South Africa, [1] an early European settlement now a market town. Her bank manager's family moved frequently and she attended state schools in Johannesburg. [1] She came to Australia in 1972, worked as a magazine feature writer, and finished her education at Australian National University in Canberra. [1] In Sydney she raised a family, worked as a freelance writer, worked sixteen years as a book editor in children's publishing—1984 to 2000, finally at ABC Books, Australian Broadcasting Corporation. [1]
Wild's books explore a diverse range of themes but she is particularly noted for exploring issues of identity, trust, and death. Let the Celebrations Begin (1991) focused on the imminent release of Jewish prisoners from a Nazi concentration camp, while in The Very Best of Friends (1989) the death of a farmer prompts his widowed wife to find the love to care for their respective pets, a cat and dog, equally. Fox (2000), illustrated by Ron Brooks using the colours of the Australian landscape, is a powerful story about trust and betrayal.
Recently Wild has published two verse novels, One Night and Jinx. These books investigate the trials and anxieties faced by teenagers coping with school, relationships and growing up.
In March 2020 Wild was awarded an award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature by the Australia Council. [2] In December 2020 she was nominated as Australia's author candidate for the 2022 Hans Christian Andersen Award. [3]
She now lives in Sydney.
Robin McMaugh Klein is an Australian author of books for children. She was born in Kempsey, New South Wales, Australia, and now resides near Melbourne.
Jennifer June Rowe,, is an Australian author. Her crime fiction for adults is published under her own name, while her children's fiction is published under the pseudonyms Emily Rodda and Mary-Anne Dickinson.
Tohby Riddle is an Australian artist and writer/illustrator of picture books and illustrated books that have been published in many countries, and translated into many languages, around the world. His work has been translated by Haruki Murakami and he has been nominated for the 2022 Hans Christian Andersen Medal.
Carmelina Marchetta is an Australian writer and teacher. Marchetta is best known as the author of teen novels, Looking for Alibrandi, Saving Francesca and On the Jellicoe Road. She has twice been awarded the CBCA Children's Book of the Year Award: Older Readers, in 1993 and 2004. For Jellicoe Road she won the 2009 Michael L. Printz Award from the American Library Association, recognizing the year's best book for young adults.
Elizabeth Helen Hathorn is an Australian writer for children, and a poet who works with schools, institutions and communities. She has received many awards for her books, some of which have been translated into several languages. In 2001 she was awarded a Centenary Medal for her contribution to children's theatre. In 2014 she was awarded the Alice Award for her contribution to Australian literature. In 2017 she won the Asher Peace Prize and in 2022 the ABIA Pixie O'Harris Award for excellence and dedication to children's literature.
Libby Gleeson AM is an Australian children's author. Born in Young, New South Wales, she is one of six children, the sister of former ABC TV Washington Correspondent Michael Gleeson, and the mother of Home and Away actress Jessica Tovey and Sydney Morning Herald journalist Josephine Tovey. Her sister, Margie Gleeson, works as the head teacher of Creative and Performing Arts at Albury High School.
Nadia Wheatley is an Australian writer whose work includes picture books, novels, biography and history. Perhaps best known for her classic picture book My Place, the author's biography of Charmian Clift was described by critic Peter Craven as 'one of the greatest Australian biographies'. Another book by Wheatley is A Banner Bold, an historical novel.
Pamela Freeman is an Australian author of books for both adults and children. Most of her work is fantasy but she has also written mystery stories, science fiction, family dramas and non-fiction. Her first adult series, the Castings Trilogy is published globally by Orbit Books. She is best known in Australia for the junior novel Victor’s Quest and an associated series, the Floramonde books, and for The Black Dress: Mary MacKillop’s Early Years, which won the NSW Premier's History Prize in 2006.
Deborah Mary Niland is a New Zealand–born Australian artist, known as a writer and illustrator of children's books. Some of her most popular books include Annie's Chair, When The Wind Changed, Mulga Bill's Bicycle, and Chatterbox. In 2006 she won The Children's Book of the Year – Early Childhood, with her book Annie's Chair.
Gus Gordon is a children's book illustrator and writer based in Sydney, Australia.
Nike Sulway is an Australian novelist.
Sally Murphy is an Australian children’s author and poet, who has had thirty books published, including verse novels, picture books, and educational titles.
Ann Catherine Stewart James is an Australian illustrator of more than 60 children's books, some of which she also wrote. She was born in Melbourne, Victoria. James has been illustrating books since the 1980s and has become a significant contributor towards the development and appreciation of children's literature in Australia. In 2000 she was awarded the Pixie O'Harris Award as a formal acknowledgment of this contribution and was also the 2002 recipient of the national Dromkeen Medal for services towards children's literature. Ann James still lives and works in Melbourne, where she runs the Books Illustrated gallery and studio that she co-founded with Ann Haddon in 1988.
Hitler's Daughter is a children's novel by Australian children's author Jackie French. It was first published in 1999, and is one of French's most critically acclaimed books.
Diary of a Wombat is a 2002 award-winning picture book written by Jackie French and illustrated by Bruce Whatley. It is the first in the Shaggy Gully books, and is one of the most popular of French's works.
Margaret Dawn Hamilton was an Australian children’s literature publisher who served as the National President of the Children’s Book Council of Australia from 1991 to 1992 and as a National Board Member until April 2017 when she formally retired. She also published seven books.
Fiona Anna Wood is an Australian writer of young adult fiction. She is a three-time winner of the Children's Book of the Year Award: Older Readers award.
Zana Fraillon is an Australian writer of fiction for children and young adults based in Melbourne, Australia. Fraillon is known for allowing young readers to examine human rights abuses within fiction and in 2017 she won an Amnesty CILIP Honour for her book The Bone Sparrow which highlights the plight of the Rohingya people. The Bone Sparrow has been translated to stage and is set to premier in the York Theatre Royal, York, UK, from 25 February 2022.
Noela Young (1930–2018) was an Australian illustrator and author of children's books. She is best known for her illustrations for The Muddle-Headed Wombat by Ruth Park.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). Queensland Premier's Literary Awards. 26 June 2007. Archived 31 October 2007. Retrieved 2014-07-19.
