Children’s Book Festival 2015

Oliver is a young Thai-Australian writer for children. He has featured on panels at the Sydney Writers’ Festival among many other appearances at festivals and writing events, as well as in blogs. He has worked as a primary school teacher and now spends his time writing – and sharing his pas... Read more

Tristan Bancks is a children’s and teen author with a background in acting and filmmaking. His books include Two Wolves – a crime mystery novel for middle-graders, Mac Slater Coolhunter, and the My Life series of weird-funny-gross short stories. His short films as writer and director have won a ... Read more

Andy Griffiths is one of Australia’s most popular children’s authors. He and illustrator Terry Denton have collaborated on more than 33 bestselling books since their first title, Just Tricking, was published in 1997.In Australia, Andy and Terry’s books have sold over 10 million copies, won... Read more

Best known for There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake, Hazel Edwards writes across media, for adults and children. She is currently writing her autobiography. In 2013, she was awarded an OAM for Literature. As a national literary ambassador, Hazel supports various reading org... Read more

Gabrielle Wang is an author and illustrator born in Melbourne of Chinese heritage and the Australian Children’s Laureate for 2022 and 2023. Her maternal great grandfather came to Victoria during the Gold Rush and her father from Shanghai. Her stories are a blend of Chinese and Western culture with... Read more

Shaun Tan grew up in Perth and works as an artist, writer and film-maker in Melbourne, best known for illustrated books that deal with social, political and historical subjects through dream-like imagery. The Rabbits, The Red Tree, Tales from Outer Suburbia and the graphic novel The Arrival have bee... Read more

Terry Denton has been creating children’s books for over 30 years. He has worked with many of Australia’s top authors, written much-loved picture books and junior fiction novels, won more than 40 children’s choice awards and been shortlisted many times in the Children’s Book Council of ... Read more

Bernard Caleo is a comic book teacher, maker, and communicator. He was the editor and publisher of the romance comics anthology Tango, made the feature film Graphic Novels Melbourne with filmmaker Daniel Hayward and is part of the graphic novel publishing enterprise Twelve Panels Press. In 2021 he s... Read more

Josh Earl is a comedian with a very weird family. His latest show for children is called My Family is Weider Than Your Family. And believe us, he’s not lying.

Marc Martin is an illustrator, artist and book maker based in Melbourne, Australia. His illustrations have been commissioned by clients such as Monocle, Wired, the Financial Review, Capital, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and various festivals.  He is also the author and illustrator... Read more

Nicki Greenberg is a writer and illustrator based in Melbourne, Australia. Her first books, The Digits series, were published when she was fifteen years old. They sold more than 380,000 copies in Australia and New Zealand. In 2008 Nicki’s innovative graphic adaptation of The Great Gatsby was selec... Read more

Ron Murray is a Wamba Wamba man (Swan Hill area) living at Yapeen, near Castlemaine, in central Victoria on Jaara country. He is a cultural educator, storyteller, musician, didgeridoo maker and wood sculptor. He has made beautiful art pieces for Muhammad Ali, Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), Sir Bob Geldo... Read more

‘Uptown’ Brown is a man who has worn many hats in his colourful life – inventor, musician, aviator and adventurer, to name but a few. Without a doubt, his crowning glory is the patented “Goodtimes Gyratorscope”, a musical machine which permits an athletic fellow to play multiple instrument... Read more

Ursula Dubosarsky is the Australian Children’s Laureate for 2020–2021. She was born in Sydney wanted to be a writer from the age of six. She is now the author of over 60 books for children and young adults. She has won many national prizes, including the NSW, Victorian, South Australian and Q... Read more

Allison Colpoys is an award-winning designer and illustrator, and the Associate Art Director at Scribe Publications. Her picture books include The Underwater Fancy-dress Parade, Under the Love Umbrella, If All the World Were… and All the Ways To Be Smart. As well as receiving numerous Au... Read more

Alex Papps is a Greek Australian actor and television host. He has been a presenter on Play School since 2005.

Andrew Joyner is an internationally published illustrator and author. His books include The Terrible Plop, written by Ursula Dubosarsky (shortlisted for the CBCA awards and the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards), and the Boris series. He lives in Strathalbyn, South Australia. Boris Gets a ... Read more

Davina Bell is a writer from Western Australia. She is the author of the award-winning picture book The Underwater Fancy-Dress Parade, which won the 2016 Australian Book Industry Award for Best Children’s Book from a Small Publisher, and Under the Love Umbrella, which was shortlisted for the sam... Read more

Ben Target is a comedian.

After completing a degree in International Development, Becky has come to the world of circus arts over 11 years ago, with a sincere curiosity for circus arts and a deep desire to make people laugh.  She now has a wide variety of performing experience, from corporate events, under the big top, ... Read more

Mitch Vane has had a long career working as an illustrator and artist. She works in a variety of media, but is at her happiest drawing with a good old-fashioned dip pen and Indian ink.  Mitch particularly loves inventing quirky, humorous characters that have a bit of attitude. She has illustrat... Read more

Peter Combe is a children’s singer/songwriter. Having sold over one million CDs and DVDs througout his career – including seven Gold and two Platinum albums, and one Gold DVD – he was inducted into the South Australian Music Hall of Fame in November 2014. He has been awarded 3 ARIAs for Be... Read more

The Hoodangers are a six-piece band from Melbourne who draw on a rich jazz tradition, embracing it, and morphing it into something completely their own. Their influences are as diverse as their musical moods, from turn of the century New Orleans jazz to post 2000 genre-mix-match pop. Since the late ... Read more