We’re all familiar with school sports carnivals but how familiar are you with writing competitions? This guest post by author Melinda Tognini discusses writing competitions for young people. It is a great resource for teachers who have talented young writers in their classrooms. A downloadable poster is also available.

What difference does it make if the characters in young adult novels swear? From time to time, publishers are contacted by parents or schools who are concerned by the appearance in YA fiction of (to quote an editor of T. S. Eliot) words ending in ‘uck’ or ‘ugger’.

Children’s publisher Cate Sutherland discusses the trials and the triumphs of publishing children’s picture books. The most common misconception about picture books is that because they are short and written for children they must be easy to write.

Dropping In author Geoff Havel discusses why political correctness and children’s fiction shouldn’t always go hand in hand.

West Australian teachers may already know Jen from the serialisation of Mystery at Riddle Gully in the Ed! Section of The West Australian. Her latest book Riddle Gully Runaway can be read as a follow-up to Mystery at Riddle Gully or as a stand-alone book.

Classified variously as young adult, ‘new adult’ and adult, Whisky Charlie Foxtrot is a great read for senior secondary students. In this post, we invite you to listen to author Annabel Smith as she reads from the novel. A student activity and comprehensive teaching notes are available below.

Debut author Zoe Thurner discusses Dress Rehearsal her novel for young adults …

A student poetry workshop organised by Fremantle Press and hosted by Fremantle Children’s Literature Centre has inspired students from Applecross Senior High School to keep writing.

This is your second novel for young adults. What was easier, and what was harder this time around? I wish my second novel had been easier! Both were challenging and rewarding in different ways.

90 Packets of Instant Noodles author, Deb Fitzpatrick, was starstruck when Elizabeth Jolley marked her creative writing thesis. Years of hard writing and a stint living in a Costa Rican shack later, she’s releasing her first novel for young adults.

Best selling young adult novelist Kate McCaffrey won over readers with her cyber bullying novel Destroying Avalon before reaching the North American market with her hard hitting second novel In Ecstasy. In Beautiful Monster she’s writing about eating disorders. Kate tells us why.

With foreign rights sales to Hachette in France and Scholastic in India, the popular Jake series is on the cusp of going global.

How far back does your interest in picture books stretch? I went to an exhibition of artwork from a picture book when I was in Year 2 at primary school. I loved seeing all of the artwork displayed. We spent a lot of time that year making our own picture books: planning them on huge […]