Sonya Hartnett

Sonya Hartnett is the award-winning, internationally-acclaimed author of several novels for adults and younger readers.

Sonya authored Thursday’s Child, winner of the 2002 Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, and Forest, winner of the 2002 Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year: Older Readers. In 2000 and again in 2003, she was named one of The Sydney Morning Herald Young Novelists of the Year. Her work has been published internationally with editions available in the UK, US, Canada, Germany, Italy, Norway and Denmark.

In 2003, her adult novel, Of a Boy, won The Age Book of the Year and was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. In 2004, The Silver Donkey was published to great critical acclaim. It has won the 2005 Brisbane Courier Mail award for young readers and was CBC Book of the Year (Young readers) in 2005.

Surrender was published in 2005. It was shortlisted for The Age Book of the Year Award and the Aurealis Award – Fantasy Division in 2005.

In 2008 Sonya was the recipient of The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. The prize is awarded to authors, illustrators, narrators and/or promoters of reading whose work reflects the spirit of Astrid Lindgren. It was the first time this award was given to an Australian.