2025 Fellows
Judith Rossell
novelty board book Play with your Plate, published by Abrams Books in New York, and the picture books Bogtrotter and Pink! both written by Margaret Wild.
Julia Wakefield
Julia Wakefield was born and educated in the UK, but her parents were Australian. She began her career illustrating readers and educational publications for UK publishers, and continued to freelance as a writer/illustrator for educational publishers when she moved to Melbourne. She is also a visual artist and printmaker.
After returning to live in the UK for an extended period, Julia finally settled with her family in South Australia, where her father’s ancestors arrived in the 1850s. During the last twenty years she has had many poems for adults published in national journals, online journals and local anthologies. Her own collection, Shifting Viewpoints, was one of three collections published in one volume by Friendly Street Poets Inc. in 2019. She now specialises in writing and teaching haiku and other Japanese art forms.
In 2009 Littlefox Press in Melbourne published A Disastrous Honeymoon, Julia’s illustrated sequel to Edward Lear’s poem, The Owl and the Pussycat. Julia’s first middle grade novel, The Magpie’s Song, unpublished as yet, was one of twelve shortlisted projects for the Queensland Writers’ Centre 2022 Publishable award. She won second prize in the 2022 NSW Writers Unleashed competition for a picture book manuscript, and in 2020 she was awarded a mentorship with US writer/illustrator Brian Lies. Julia is currently working on the illustrations for two of her own picture book manuscripts.
Julia will use the time granted to her for the Ian Wilson Memorial Fellowship to undertake further research and complete a working draft of a middle grade novel that describes, among many other things, the historical meeting between Matthew
Flinders and Nicolas Baudin in Encounter Bay.
Sher Rill Ng
Coral Vass
(re-scheduled from 2023)
Coral Vass is an award-winning Australian Children’s Author who has over 25 books published.
Her book, Sorry Day won the 2018 Speech Pathology Awards Book of the Year for Language and Literacy Development Indigenous Children and the 2019 CBCA Book of the Year - Eve Pownall Award. Coral also won the Caleb Book of the Year Award in 2021 for Grandma’s Treasured Shoes and has also been shortlisted for the REAL AWARDS (CROC, KOALA and YABBA Awards) voted by the children of Australia, as well as the Environmental Awards for Children’s Literature in 2023/24, the CBCA Book of the Year Awards 2023/24 and the Speech Pathology Awards 2023.
Coral loves to visit schools, often running writing workshops and inspiring young people with a love for literature. She is an ambassador for Reading Out of Poverty and is passionate about giving all children an equal opportunity to read. With a background in Media, Coral has always had a passion for telling stories and inspiring children with a love for literature.
Born in Sydney, Coral spent her early years in Bangladesh. She has also lived in Queensland, Japan and currently resides by the beach in Melbourne, Victoria with her husband and four children.
Tania McCartney
Tania McCartney is an author, illustrator, designer, editor and book obsessive. The founder of Kids’ Book Review and The Happy Book podcast, she has over 65 books in print or production, and is published in more than 20 countries. Tania’s career in magazines and publishing spans more than 35 years, but her greatest joy is in crafting books for children, specialising in picture books, non-fiction and junior fiction.
A juvenile literacy ambassador, her shortlistings and awards include the NSW Premier’s Literary Award, the World Illustration Awards, the Wilderness Society’s Environment Award, the Australian Book Design Awards, the SCBWI Crystal Kite Award for Australia/New Zealand, and the CBCA Laurie Copping Award for Distinguished Service to Children’s Literature.
Notable titles include Flora: Australia’s Most Curious Plants, Wildlife Compendium of the World, the Plume series of travel picture books, the Evie and Pog junior fiction series, Dorrie, I Heart the World, Mamie, and Fauna: Australia’s Most Curious Creatures.
Tania has lived in France, England and China, and currently lives in Canberra with a forest of artwork and a mountain of books.
Emma Quay
Emma Quay (pronounced kway) grew up in a village near Cambridge, England and has wanted to illustrate children's books for as long as she can remember. She drew voraciously as a child, and eventually graduated with an Honours degree in Graphic Design from Newcastle upon Tyne Polytechnic, specialising in illustration and printmaking. Shortly after leaving college a selection of Emma's illustrative work was purchased by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London for its permanent collection of prints and drawings.
Since moving to Sydney in 1993, Emma has illustrated a wide range of award-winning children’s picture books for young children, including the bestselling ABIA Award winning and CBCA short-
listed Rudie Nudie — a joyous celebration of those nudie moments between bath time and bed, voted into Australia’s Top 50 Favourite Books in 2016. Emma has been short listed four times for
the CBCA Book of the Year Awards, with Bear and Chook by the Sea (written by Lisa Shanahan) winning the Early Childhood section in 2010. Her books have been short listed in the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, the Western Australian Premier's Book of the Year Awards, the Children's Peace Literature Awards, the Western Australian Young Readers' Book Awards, the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards, the BILBY Awards and her picture book with writer Meredith Hooper, Emily and Alfie, won a Royal Zoological Society of NSW Whitley Award. Emma painted three hundred babies in her title for the very young, My Sunbeam Baby… then just two familiar children in Rudie Nudie Christmas. Her much-anticipated new picture book, Happy All Over, was released in April 2024.
Emma has toured Korea speaking about her books, and regularly presents at literary festivals and children’s book conferences around Australia. In 2021 she was appointed a mentorship role with the Australian Society of Authors.
Picture books are never far from her mind, but when she’s not at her desk Emma enjoys practising yoga, sketching, playing the flute, travelling, laughing with friends and watching her daughters dance.
Emma lives in Sydney and works from a studio in her home.
Jedda Robaard
Jedda Robaard is an Australian author, illustrator and designer, based in Southern Tasmania, Australia. She is known internationally for her sweet and whimsical style of illustration.
Jedda studied as a commercial artist in 1992 and after an initial career in graphic design moved her focus to illustration. She has been illustrating and writing children’s books since 2011 and has over 50 books published.
Her books are sold internationally and have been published in many languages.
Sue Whiting
Sue Whiting is an award-winning children’s and YA author, editor and former primary school teacher. Sue writes for many age groups, from picture books through to YA, including the bestselling Missing, the acclaimed The Book of Chance and several CBCA Notable Books.
Sue’s latest books include the third book in her middle grade fiction series, Pearly and Pig and the Island of Secrets and The Wheelbarrow Express, illustrated by Cate James.
As a storyteller and schools’ performer, Sue has informed and inspired thousands of kids across the country. Sue is passionate about the power of story and is an advocate for reading and writing for pleasure.