2024 Fellows
Glenda Millard
Glenda commenced writing children’s fiction in 1997 and had her first work of fiction, a picture book, published in 1999. In 2004 she ceased paid employment and has been self-employed as a children’s author since then.
Her published works now total 30 and include picture books, books for younger readers and novels for teenagers. Most have been published internationally as well as in Australia and have been widely acclaimed.
Glenda’s most recent novel, ‘The Stars at Oktober Bend’, was shortlisted for 4 major awards including the prestigious Carnegie Medal in the UK and, in Australia, the Prime Minister’s Literary Award.
In 2018 her picture book ‘Pea Pod Lullaby’ won the Prime Minister’s Award for children’s literature.
Andrea Rowe
Andrea’s best-selling children’s book JETTY JUMPING (Hardie Grant. Illustrated by Hannah Sommerville) is the Winner of the 2022 CBCA Picture Book of the Year – Early Childhood and the 2023 Australian Speech Pathology Book of the Year Awards (5 – 8 year olds), and is featured in Story Box Library as an AUSLAN translation story. Her much anticipated follow-up, SUNDAY SKATING has been released in Australia and internationally in 2023 (Hardie Grant. Illustrated by Hannah Sommerville).
The first of her LITTLE WORLDS board-book series, IN THE ROCKPOOL (Hardie Grant. Illustrated by Hannah Sommerville) is out in November 2023, and her manuscript THE EVERYDAY TUTU has been announced as the 2023 Little Hare Prize text, to inspire new work from unpublished and emerging artists.
Andrea has 4 more books currently in production with Hardie Grant, in addition to a picture book re-imagining the story of a cultural icon with Midnight Sun Publishing.
She loves to write books for children, young adults and grown-ups too. Andrea combines her nostalgic celebration of culture and the environment in our everyday lives with the questions and reflections that draw us together. Her writing absorbs the themes and issues encouraging collective discussions and conversations. Andrea believes in the power of stories and reading out loud and in secret. Several of her short stories, magazine features and micro fictions have been published and long-listed in literary magazines and Australian awards.
An award-winning short story writer, Andrea’s the winner of the 2020 Hal Porter Short Story Award, 2nd place in the Mulga Bill Writing Award 2023, and Highly Commended for the 2022 Newcastle Short Story Award and her writing features in the recent Teacher, Teacher anthology with Affirm Press.
As a passionate regional advocate for Australian literature and landscape, and own voices narratives, Andrea is invested in a connected storytelling community. She is the Founding President of the Peninsula Writers’ Club, Founder of the Mornington Peninsula Shire Mayor’s Writing Award, and the co-host of the Words After Dark author interviews with Antipodes Book Store, Sorrento. She is also a Writers Victoria Writeability graduate exploring her own voice living with chronic illness.
Professionally, Andrea is a former writer for national parks, not-for-profits and government. She has been the Kids Club newsletter editor for the Royal Flying Doctors Association, Junior Rangers programs, Kids Teaching Kids, and the Indigenous Reading Project.
Andrea writes from her home on Bunurong Country, on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria.
Judy Watson
(re-scheduled from 2023)
Claire Saxby
Claire Saxby writes fiction, non-fiction and poetry for young people. Her work is published both nationally and internationally. ‘Iceberg’, illustrated by Jess Racklyeft was awarded CBCA Picture Book of the Year 2022. Her middle grade historical novel, ‘The Wearing of the Green’ was shortlisted in the ARA HNSA Historical Novel Prize 2022, Book Links Children's Historical Fiction Award 2023, NSW Premiers History Award 2023 and is a CBCA Older Readers Notable Book 2023.‘Great White Shark’, illustrated by Cindy Lane was awarded RZSNSW Whitley Awards Best Children's Book 2022. Tasmanian Devil, illustrated by Max Hamilton was awarded RZSNSW Whitley Awards Children's Natural History Book. ‘Whisper on the Wind’, illustrated by Jess Rackyleft is a CBCA Notable Picture Book 2023.
Her latest book is ‘Secrets of the Saltmarsh’, ill Alicia Rogerson CSIRO Publishing. 'Tree', ill Jess Racklyeft Allen&Unwin and ‘Wedge-tailed Eagle, ill Christina Booth Walker Books Australia, will both be released in 2024.
Kathryn Apel
Jenny Ruge
Originally from a small NSW country town, Jenny Ruge spent all of her working life in Sydney and the Blue Mountains, where she had a long career in education. She is a former teacher, researcher, academic and primary school principal, and retired to Queensland nine years ago. She now lives in sunny Redcliffe with her husband, and travels regularly to Melbourne to visit her daughters and grandsons.
In 2018, Jenny took up writing for children for the first time and has subsequently completed several creative writing courses. In 2020, she was shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards Glendower Emerging Writer Award for her contemporary YA unpublished manuscript Without A Word. Her short story A Cautionary Tale, was published in the Queensland Writers Centre Right Left Write Anthology (2019-2020). Since that time, she has completed her second manuscript, an historical time-slip novel for middle grade readers. Jenny is currently working on revising both of her novel manuscripts with a view to submitting to publishers in the near future. Her project for the 2024 Ian Wilson Memorial Fellowship is a new historical time-slip novel set in South Australia, working title Unsinkable!.
Jenny is a member of the Queensland Writers Centre, SCBWI, Book Links Qld Inc., and Write Links: Queensland’s Children’s Writers and Illustrators Group. When she’s not writing, Jenny loves reading, researching family history, and going down the rabbit-hole of historical research.