Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Wednesday 16 October
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
Mem Fox is a legend of Australian children's literature. More than 35 years after her first book, Possum Magic, was published, it is still printed in hardback, with its iconic original illustrations by Julie Vivas.
In the intervening years, Fox has somehow managed an academic career as a literacy expert, while writing 40 more books. She’s charmed generations of readers with stories of Australian children and animals, including Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, Baby Bedtime, Wombat Divine and Where is the Green Sheep?
Through her books, Fox has also helped young readers grapple with difficult topics – perhaps most famously with Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge. Her new book, too, broaches a difficult topic with great wisdom and sensitivity. The Tiny Star is about life and death, and it's told in an unmistakably tender and lyrical voice – the singular voice of Mem Fox – with illustrations by the award-winning Freya Blackwood.
At this very special event hosted by Michael Williams in October, Fox will discuss her stories and her career. She'll tell us, too, why encouraging us all to read aloud has been such an important part of her work.
Little Bookroom will be our bookseller for this event.
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.
Michael Williams
Michael Williams is the editor of The Monthly. He was previously the Artistic Director of Sydney Writers’ Festival. He has spent the past decade at the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas in Melbourne as its ...