Children’s Authors

Maura is Canberra based writer who has a PhD in Philosophy. Her full length play about young adult themes, Fragments, enjoyed a sell out season at the Street Theatre in October 2019. Maura is also writes YA fiction and Picture Storybook texts.

Praise for Fragments and Pierlot:

"Fragments…. gives audiences a multi-sensory, embodied experience of what it’s like to be a teenager in distress….. It’s an effective exploration of not quite being able to communicate effectively, and what happens when those around you can’t quite see your reality under fake smiles and photoshopped selfies…..And despite the angst, the script also contains moments of genuine humour, of wit, and of hope. The tragedy isn’t so much the pain the characters feel, but the fact that they’re so consumed by it that they don’t notice that everyone else feels it too. And by pointing this out, Fragments opens up the vital possibility of connection."

Erin Stewart, Review in Arts Hub

Di Walker’s second novel Everything We Keep was published by Scholastic Australia in 2021. It is a 60,000 word length story aimed at the 11+ market, and is contemporary fiction with a strong female protagonist.  Agatha has been in and out of foster care for several years, having been removed from her parents because they are hoarders. When the story begins she is about to be returned yet again to her parents. The foster carers are a retired nurse and her naval husband, who is currently away on a ship.

Agatha has a growing realisation that if she stays with her parents she will be consumed by the stuff; she sees herself becoming like her mother. As much as she loves them she knows, to survive, she needs to be away from her parents. As the story unfolds she discovers that it is through friendship and courage the struggle to both save herself and love her parents is a possibility.

Helen Edwards is an author of children’s and young adult fiction, and non-fiction for adults. The research for her Psychology PhD thesis was about supporting pregnancy for women with type 1 diabetes. She is an award-winning health and sustainability writer and advocate, and has been blogging since 2001, after founding an online counselling service for people with diabetes, which she ran for 16 years. There are over 140,000 people following her on social media where her platforms are all about inspiring action for people and planet, with kindness and hope. In particular, focusing on our children's future. She has won a number of awards for her work, including being a South Australian State Finalist for Australian of the Year and Telstra Business Woman of the Year in 2016; the bronze award winner for Sustainability in the 2018 AusMumpreneur awards; and the winner of the ZestFest short story competition in Adelaide in 2018.

As a freelance writer, she has written for numerous print and digital magazines, journals, blogs and websites. She is also an experienced speaker. With her background in health, mental health and sustainability, she is able to speak across a range of topics, to a variety of audiences, including schools, community groups, workplaces and conferences.

Jayne McIntyre is a writer and journalist living in Brisbane, Queensland. 

She is currently working on The Sleep Swimmers: a story for nine to twelve year olds, which blends myth and reality in a storm-washed island setting. The ticking-clock narrative follows the story of Bravo Bray, a 12-year-old boy on the verge of a rite of passage where he will become a Sleep Swimmer; a guardian of the island. Yet Bravo has much more to worry about than reading the tides, sketching the stars, and deciphering animal prints, after a villager is attacked while on duty. The Sleep Swimmers offers magical realism with a nautical twist.

Samantha Tidy has published in a range of fiction genres – adult, young adult and children's fiction. Currently she is focused on historical children’s writing and young adult ‘cli-fi’ (climate-fiction). In addition to her creative writing, she writes educational content for national institutions such as the National Library of Australia. Originally a high school English and French teacher, she has also enjoyed a passionate career in museums and libraries sharing cultural heritage with young people.

Her most recent illustrated children’s picture book, The Day We Built the Bridge (February 2019, MidnightSun Publishing) was featured in Scholastic Australia’s Teacher Essential Bookclub, and sold 4,500 copies (the whole of the first print run) in 3 days, requiring a reprint in its first week of release.

In 2019-2020 she is the recipient of funding from ArtsACT, to work on a historical children’s fiction about the 1934 Macrobertson AirRace.

Children’s Author

Alan Sunderland is married with three sons and lives in Sydney. He is a retired, award winning journalist who now consults and writes and talks about children’s books and journalism. 

He won a Walkley Awards for covering an attack on the Iranian Embassy in Canberra in 1992, and for a series of exclusive reports from East Timor. He has also won the prestigious Council of the Deans of Education Award for education journalism three times in two years, which constitutes something of a record. Alan is an entertaining presenter for schools and libraries. See our Speakers section and Alan's web site at www.alansunderland.com for more information.

Alan writes children’s books for 8-12 year olds. His latest book Six Seconds was pubished in March 2021 and is part of the Scholastic My Australian Story Series. Growing up by the beach in Newcastle in 1989 means footy, sandcastle competitions and school. Michael's dad's a journalist and his small world gets bigger as he starts to pay attention to the news. His interest turns into anxiety and obsession as Michael begins to see the world as a dangerous place that is fast collapsing around him. When the Berlin Wall comes down, most see it as a sign of change and freedom but Michael isn't convinced. But when an earthquake hits his home down, Michael discovers that the worst that can happen is not always as bad as your fears. 

Children’s Author

Wendy Orr is an internationally published and award-winning author of more than thirty books, ranging from picture books to adult ficiton. She was born in Canada, and grew up in France, Canada and USA. After high school she studied occupational therapy in England, married an Australian farmer, and moved to Australia. They had a son and daughter, and now live on five acres of bush on the Mornington Peninsula, south of Melbourne. Her books have been translated into twenty-seven languages.

When Wendy was nine, she wrote a story about an orphan girl living on an island. Many years later, she remembered the feeling of writing that story, and started writing Nim’s Island. In 2008 the book became the first Australian children’s book to become a Hollywood feature film. In 2020, to celebrate 21 years since the publication of the first Nim book, Allen & Unwin have published The Complete Adventures on Nim's Island, including all three Nim stories.

Children’s Author

Jayne Lyons is married and a full time working mother, with one daughter. She was born and raised in the UK. In 2004, while living in Aberdeen, she became very bored one day and applied for a job in Perth, Australia and four months later she was there. She has been living in Perth since January 2005. Jayne works for a major Australian corporation offsetting carbon emissions. She has also worked in the developing world and seen first hand the challenges faced by children there. She is passionate about children being given the opportuity to achieve their dreams.  Jayne loves talking about books and writing to students and adults of all ages and is available as a speaker.

Adult and children’s non-fiction author

Vicki Bennett is a public speaker, training consultant to business, salesperson and author. Her Brisbane based consultancy, Vicki Bennett Training, has an impressive clientele which includes Government authorities and top corporations. She believes that success on a business level must first begin with success on a personal level.

Young Adult Author

Robyn Bavati has taught dance and English and worked as a shiatsu therapist. She is an award winning fiction and short-story writer who grew up in Melbourne and as an adult has lived in both Australia and Israel. She is the author of four novels.

Her latest book, A Weekend with Oscar, will be published in July 2021.