A guest post by children’s book author Andrew Daddo This was meant to be a blog post along the lines of ‘5 reasons funny books are great for kids’. I think we all know the main reason, and that’s to make kids laugh. There’s a healthy by-product, another compelling reason
Sue Whiting is one of the most prolific and best-loved Australian writers for children and young adults. She’s also one of our popular presenters at the Australian Writers’ Centre. Sue’s 2018 novel for kids, Missing, was a smash hit and she has followed it up with her latest novel, The
Reading aloud with your kids is one of life’s most precious moments. It’s a special time to connect with your children or grandchildren, nieces, nephews and neighbours. There’s nothing like sitting down together to share storytime. If it’s been a while since you last had the chance to read with
Not one but two people in the AWC family have made the shortlist for the CBCA Book of the Year Awards 2020 with both Lesley Gibbes and Astrid Scholte making it on the list. AWC presenter Lesley Gibbes has been shortlisted for her gorgeous picture book Searching for Cicadas. Featuring
An exciting opportunity for children’s book authors – Berbay Publishing has opened its doors to submissions. They’re accepting chapter book and junior fiction manuscripts for consideration. According to their media release: We’d like to see contemporary narratives, with or without a touch of whimsy, and stories that inspire the imagination.
Attention picture book writers. If you have an original picture book manuscript burning a hole in your proverbial drafts’ drawer, now’s the time to pick it up and dust it off. The 2020 Writers Unleashed Picture Book Writing Competition is now open and is offering some sweet prizes. First prize
It’s a celebration of children’s books this week as the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) announced their list of Notable Books for the 2020 CBCA Book of the Year Awards. We’ll find out which books are selected for the shortlist later this year. But for now, we’re jumping for
We’re absolutely thrilled that our amazing presenter Lesley Gibbes has published another children’s book. Three Little Mermaids, which is beautifully illustrated by Lisa Stewart, is out now with Scholastic Australia. Lesley is the award-winning author of more than a dozen books for children. Her chapter book series Fizz has been
We already knew that AWC presenter Pamela Freeman was amazing but now we think she’s stratospheric! She currently has not one, not two, not five, but NINE books under contract! Incredible. We were so impressed by this feat that we had to ask Pamela just what it means to have
If you’re a lover of words, at some point you might decide to explore writing fiction. Perhaps you’ve been scribbling out short stories for years, or you may have suddenly developed an itch to tell tales. In any case, taking a course is a great way to start you off
It was a hot weekend in November when we held our Writing Picture Books course in Perth, the last for 2019. Five students from across the city got together to spend two days learning about the craft of picture books with award-winning author Judith Rossell. In fact, one particularly eager
Our Brisbane classroom was buzzing earlier this month, with children’s author Zanni Louise leading the weekend Writing Picture Books course. “The course went really well,” Zanni told us. “There was a very warm, positive energy, and heaps of great story ideas.” A typical Writing Picture Books classroom course will have
Do you write middle grade or young adult fiction? We are excited to share with you this new competition. The Matilda Literature Prize is a brand new inaugural prize from the folks at HarperCollins. The winner of this prize will receive a publishing deal and a $10,000 advance against royalties.
AWC courses completed:
Writing Picture Books
Fiction Essentials: Characters
Above: Lesley Gibbes with her book Searching for Cicadas AWC presenter Lesley Gibbes is no stranger to cicadas. “They are the soundtrack of my childhood,” she says. “My own summertime garden is full of cicadas.” So Lesley didn’t have to reach far for inspiration for her latest picture book Searching
Guest post by Pamela Freeman If you’re planning out your structure, it can be overwhelming. All the graphs of three-act structures, all the pacing advice, all the ‘do I have a midpoint reversal’ panics… But there is a simpler way to consider if your structure is solid. And that is:
Applications are now open for the May Gibbs Children’s Literature Trust 2020 Creative Time Residential Fellowships for published authors and illustrators of books for young people. To be eligible to apply for a Fellowship you must have had at least one title for children or young adults published by a
AWC presenter of How to Write for Children and Young Adults, Sue Whiting has had two books published this year, Beware the Deep Dark Forest for 3-6-year-olds and Missing, a middle-grade contemporary mystery novel, both published by Walker Books Australia. Sue is author of more than 60 children’s non-fiction, picture books,
We are thrilled to announce that Judith’s long-awaited thrilling and magical conclusion to her multi-award-winning Stella Montgomery Intrigue series is here. Wakestone Hall (published by ABC Books) is Book 3 in Judith’s trilogy of Victorian fantasy-adventure novels for young readers from eight years old. In this book, Stella Montgomery is in
Pamela Freeman, Director of Creative Writing Faculty at AWC has been busy and published another book this year, a children’s book, Amazing Australian Women (Hachette Australia). This bright and colourful book looks at 12 incredible Australian women who have helped shape our country, from politics and the arts, to Indigenous
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