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2013 Literature Festival

 

Melina Marchetta is one of Australia's most successful young-adult novelists and is a best-selling and critically acclaimed author in more than 20 countries and in 18 languages. In 2009 Marchetta won the prestigious Michael L. Printz Award from the American Library Association for On the Jellicoe Road, and Melina's screenplay for this book is set to be made into a major film in 2013 with an international cast to be directed by Looking for Alibrandi director Kate Woods. Melina is also developing a television series with writer/director Cathy Randall (Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger) and is a writer for ABC-TV's Dance Academy. Finnikin of the Rock was first published in Australia in 2008 followed in 2010 by the companion novel to her award-winning book Saving Francesca, The Piper's Son, long-listed for the Miles Franklin Award and short-listed for many other literary awards in Australia and internationally. Melina is also the author of The Gorgon in the Gully for younger readers. Book Two in the Lumatere Chronicles, Froi of the Exiles, was published in 2011. This year marks the twenty-year anniversary of Melina Marchetta's first novel Looking for Alibrandi, the much-loved Australian classic, which was made into a major motion picture and has sold more than half a million copies in Australia. In her latest books in the Lumatere Chronicles Marchetta continues to explore the politics and emotion of exile from homeland that has characterised all of her novels.

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Kirsty Eagar grew up on a cattle property in central Queensland. After studying economics, she worked on trading desks in Sydney and London before changing careers so she could surf every day. She travelled around Australia in a four-wheel drive, worked as a cook and personal trainer, and began writing fiction. Her first novel Raw Blue won the 2010 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for young adult fiction and her second novel, Saltwater Vampires, was shortlisted for the Ethel Turner Prize in the 2011 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards. Kirsty's third book, Night Beach, was released in 2012. Kirsty is married with two daughters and lives on Sydney's northern beaches. Her website is www.kirstyeagar.com.

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Sarah Davis grew up in New Zealand, wearing gumboots and falling in rivers. She worked as a secondary school teacher before moving to Sydney. Sarah is a very busy, award-winning illustrator who has collaborated with a number of leading authors in Australia, New Zealand and America. Sarah won the 2009 Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Crichton Award for Best New Illustrator, and  illustrated the title Fearless, written by Colin Thompson, which was short-listed for the 2010 Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards. Violet Mackerel's Brilliant Plot was Honour Book for the 2011 CBCA Book of the Year Award - Younger Reader’s Category.

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Tohby Riddle is the creator of numerous well-loved picture books, two cartoon collections and a novel, The Lucky Ones. He is also the illustrator of the multi-award-winning Word Spy books and the artist and co-writer of the cult comic Ernest the Carrot. His latest book, released in 2012, is an ambitious 128-page picture book titled Unforgotten. Tohby has won awards for literature and design and held recent residencies at the Edinburgh International Book Festival; Arthur Boyd's estate, Bundanon; and The University of Melbourne. His picture book The Great Escape from City Zoo is featured in 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up, and feature film rights for it were sold in Hollywood. For nearly 10 years Tohby was the cartoonist for Good Weekend magazine (the Saturday magazine of the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age) and he is also a former editor of the The School Magazine, a literary magazine for children published continuously since 1916. For more information visit www.tohby.com

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