Margaret Wild

Last updated

Margaret Wild
Born1948
Eshowe, South Africa
OccupationWriter for children
LanguageEnglish
NationalityAustralian
Years active1983-
Notable worksFox, The Very Best of Friends
Notable awards2008 Nan Chauncy Award

Margaret Wild (born 1948) is an Australian children's writer. [1]

Contents

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.

Life

Wild was born in Eshowe, South Africa, [1] an early European settlement. 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]

Writer

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, [1] 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.

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.

Works

Picture books

Novels

Awards

Personal

For books

There's a Sea in My Bedroom
The Very Best of Friends
The Midnight Gang
Miss Lily's Fabulous Pink Feather Boa
Jenny Angel
The Pocket Dogs
Fox
Baby Boomsticks
Woolvs in the Sitee
Chatterbox

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Austlit — Margaret Wild". Austlit. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  2. "Wild honoured for Lifetime Achievement in Literature". Books+Publishing. 10 March 2020. Retrieved 11 March 2020.
  3. "Wild, Riddle nominated for 2022 Hans Christian Andersen Awards". Books+Publishing. 10 December 2020. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
  4. "Diary of Megan Moon by Margaret Wild". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  5. "Beast by Margaret Wild". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  6. "Jinx' by Margaret Wild". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  7. "One Night by Margaret Wild". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  8. "The Vanishing Moment by Margaret Wild". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  9. ""CBCA Nan Chauncy Award"". CBCA. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
  10. "2022 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient: Margaret Wild". The Children's Book Council of Australia. Retrieved 23 August 2022.
  11. ""Past Winners (Previous Literary Award winners)"". Archived from the original on 13 October 2007. Retrieved 19 July 2014.{{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.
  12. ""Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis"". Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis. Retrieved 24 April 2024.
July 2014: The primary Note is copied from this page, August 2007 to June 2014.