We are thrilled to announce the talented authors and illustrators that will be judging the Young Writers’ Competition this year.
Kindergarten to Year 2 category
We are thrilled to welcome picture book author and freelance journalist Ashling Kwok.
She might be scared of rollercoasters and be a terrible skier, but she certainly has a way with words! Ashling has released four picture books: Lola and Grandpa, The Battle, Where’s my Dinosaur and A star for Mama, in which she tackles difficult themes such as loss, love and fear in beautiful and playful ways that resonate with her young readers.
Ashling describes her writing style as ‘sometimes, emotional, sometimes funny but always straight from the heart’ and feels there’s nothing more satisfying than finding the right combination of words to bring her stories to life.
Year 3 - 4 category
We are excited to welcome the fun and creative duo Beck & Robin Feiner.
Beck Feiner is an illustrator and author, who released her first book Aussie Legends Alphabet in 2018. Since then, Beck and her advertising creative husband, Robin, have co-written several picture books including If I Was Prime Minister, My Folks Grew Up In The 80s, The Polar Bear in Sydney Harbour, My Favourite Teachers and Clyde the Greyhound.
Beck and Robin’s bold and creative stories and illustrations shine a spotlight on social issues and aim to promote harmony and diversity.
Year 5 – 6 category
Deborah Abela has won awards for her writing, but mostly hopes to be as brave as her characters and we are thrilled to have her judging our years 5 – 6 category.
Deborah trained as a teacher before becoming writer/producer of a national children’s TV show at Network TEN. She then went to Africa where she was harassed by monkeys, got caught in a desert sandstorm and was thrown in jail twice. Since then, she’s become an internationally published and awarded author of 28 books including her climate change trilogy, Grimsdon, New City and Final Storm, as well as The Stupendously Spectacular Spelling Bee and The Most Marvellous Spelling Bee Mystery.
Her latest book is the CBCA 2023 Notable The Book of Wondrous Possibilities, which is her love letter to books, booksellers and librarians and how they save us when we feel lost.
Year 7 - 8 category
Judging years 7-8 is award winning Jeremy Lachlan, who once aspired to be an actor but soon realised he wanted to be the one creating the stories, not acting in them.
It was while lost in Cairo Museum that Jeremy came up with the idea for the Jane Doe Chronicles, a fantasy series about the world between worlds. His debut novel Jane Doe and The Cradle of All Worlds was the 2019 Australian Book Industry Award winner for Book of the Year for Older Children; and his second book Jane Doe and the Key of All Souls, was shortlisted for the same award in 2021. He also won $100 in a karaoke competition once and is equally as proud of this accomplishment!
Book three in the series, Jane Doe and the Quill of All Tales has just hit the shelves in March 2023.
Year 9 - 10 category
We are thrilled to introduce Leanne Yong as the judge for our Year 9-10 category.
Leanne is an Asian-Australian author of Singaporean and Malaysian heritage who loves writing the diaspora experience into contemporary and fantasy fiction. She started her career as an IT business analyst (boring) and is now an escape room creator (much more interesting) and has designed internationally recognised games with her partner that weave unique puzzle mechanics with narrative.
Now also a YA novelist (most interesting!), Leanne’s ‘gloriously nerdy’ debut novel Two Can Play That Game was released in January 2023. Her advice to aspiring writers: “Keep going, keep going, keep going. The world needs your stories”
Year 11 - 12 category
We are proud to welcome YA novelist Gary Lonesborough.
A Yuin man, growing up on the Far South Coast of NSW as part of a large and proud Aboriginal family, Gary was always writing as a child and continued his creative journey when he moved to Sydney to study at film school. He was Bega Valley Shire Council Young Citizen of the Year, won the Patrick White Young Indigenous Writers' Award, and has received a Copyright Agency First Nations Fellowship.
The Boy from the Mish, published in 2021 is Gary's debut YA novel – a remarkable love story between two aboriginal boys. It was re-released in 2022 in America titled Ready When You Are. Gary’s highly anticipated second YA novel We Didn’t Think It Through is set to come out mid 2023.