Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Thursday 01 October
12:45 PM - 1:45 PM
Collaboration can be hard; it takes a special kind of mutual respect, an enormous amount of flexibility and, of course, a lot of trust.
Mem Fox and Judy Horacek – the pairing that brought the world Where Is the Green Sheep? – represent the most fruitful kind of creative team. In a special event tailored for parents, teachers and librarians, they’ll talk about how they make their collaboration work.
From industry gossip (over five years, Possum Magic was rejected by various publishers nine times) to practical advice on how to encourage reading in young children, join Fox and Horacek for a rare glimpse into their creative partnership – and the world of children’s publishing.
Featuring
Mem Fox
Mem Fox has written over 38 books for adults and children including Possum Magic, which has sold over three million copies and is the bestselling picture book ever in Australia. Mem has been presented with many awards including an AM in the 1993 Australia Day Honours for services to the cultural life of Australia; an SA Great Award for Literature in 2001; the Prime Minister's Centenary Medal in 2003; and she was shortlisted for the Australian of the Year in 2004. She worked as an Associate Professor of Literacy Studies in the School of Education at Flinders University, South Australia for twenty-four years and is now an international literacy consultant.
Mem's books with Penguin include Where is the Green Sheep?, Hunwick's Egg, A Particular Cow, Where The Giant Sleeps, Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, Hello Baby!, The Goblin and the Empty Chair, A Giraffe in the Bath and most recently Baby Bedtime. She lives in Adelaide, Australia.
Judy Horacek
Judy Horacek is a freelance cartoonist, illustrator and writer. Her work has appeared in the Age, the Australian and the Canberra Times, and her pointy noised characters can be found on fridges and toilet doors all over the world.
Eight collections of her cartoons have been published. Random Life will be her ninth. Judy also creates children’s picture books – both on her own and in collaboration with Mem Fox. Together, Mem and Judy created the bestselling Where is the Green Sheep? an instant children’s classic. Last year, they released their fourth book together, Ducks Away.
Her cartoons often reflect her interests in feminism, the environment and social justice, and also quite often her interest in funny for funny’s sake.
She is currently published twice weekly in the Age, and has various other gigs and commissions as well. Major retrospective exhibitions of her cartoons have been held at the National Museum of Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria. She has been twice nominated for Walkley Awards for Cartoonist of the Year.
She has a range of greeting cards featuring her cartoons and she also regularly exhibits her limited edition prints and watercolours.