In the first decade of the twentieth century, the Alice Mitchell murder trial gripped the city of Perth and the Australian nation. Stella Budrikis’s book, The Edward Street Baby Farm, retraces this infamous tragedy – a tragedy that ultimately led to legislative changes in order to better protect children's welfare. In this interview, Fremantle Press Publisher Georgia Richter asks the author to take us through the writing process and research methods behind this book.
In this interview Rebecca talks about the histories behind the history and how these might be used to stimulate classroom discussions, research and writing activities.
Aussie director Nicholas Verso and producer Tania Chambers optioned the film and television rights to Holden Sheppard’s YA novel Invisible Boys this week. Invisible Boyshas already won the 2018 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award, the 2019 Kathleen Mitchell Award and the 2019 Western Australian Premier’s Award for an Emerging Writer, and was shortlisted for a 2020 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award and the Readings Prize.
Young adult novelist Holden Sheppard was one of four Fremantle Press authors to be acknowledged in the 2019 Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards ceremony at the State Library of Western Australia on Friday 7 August 2020. Holden took home the The Premier's Prize for an Emerging Writer worth $15,000 for his debut novel, Invisible Boys.
Head down to the City of Perth Library from now until 18 October for an amazing exhibition by our children’s and YA authors. The exhibit will showcase the inspiration, draft notes and illustrations, artworks and more behind their books.
We were lucky to chat with dystopian aficionado Brendan Ritchie about his chapter in the newly released book Beyond the Dark: Dystopian Texts in the Secondary English Classroom (edited by Patricia Dowsett, Ellen Rees and Alex Wharton, and published by the Australian Association for the Teaching of English). Brendan is well positioned to discuss dystopian fiction, with his Gold Inky Award longlisted debut novel, Carousel, exploring a dystopian Perth. The sequel, Beyond Carousel, continues to explore a post-apocalyptic world while raising pertinent questions about our own reality.
Write a microstory that is exactly 100 words. This writing competition is open to children in years 3–8 during each school term. You can submit up to three stories for one competition, and you can enter all or just a few of the competitions run each year.
