Libby Hathorn – September 8 2019

Are You OK Day – September 12 2019

Libby is an award-winning writer of poetry, picture books, drama, novels, short stories and non-fiction for children, young adults, and adults. She holds a Master of Arts from Macquarie University and has worked as a laboratory assistant, teacher, teacher-librarian, senior education officer and university lecturer. Libby has been an Australia Day Ambassador, a National Ambassador for Reading, writer-in-residence at the Ku-ring-gai campus of the University of Technology, Sydney, and is a frequent speaker at conferences and festivals. Her poetry collections include Heard Singing and Vietnam Reflections. Libby has compiled The ABC Book of Australian Poetry: A Treasury for Young People, artwork by Cassandra Allen, and co-edited Women’s Work, A collection of contemporary women’s poetry with Rachael Baily. Songs with my Skateboard is a booklet of 10 poems from Talks with My Skateboard set to music by composer Stephen Lalor. In 2017, A Soldier, A Dog, A Boy, illustrator Phil Lesnie, became the first picture book to win the Asher Literary Award. Several of Libby’s other books have been adapted for stage performance or as libretti for operas and she has also written three films. Libby has received a Centenary Medal for her contribution to children’s theatre and has won the Alice Award for her contribution to Australian literature.

Volcano Boy [Verse novel]
Lothian Books, 2001; ISBN 9780734402493
Young adult
Having moved from Brisbane to volcano-circled Rabaul, the dark powers of the rumbling volcano call to Alexander as irresistibly as the dark eyes of Alice, his newfound love. He records his experiences in a moving, candid journal that surfaces many years after the volcano’s fury has settled to ash.
“Volcano Boy, a verse novel by Libby Hathorn is the private journal of an assumed dead boy’s confusion and experiences in life. When his sister commits suicide and his mother dies of grief, the boy is sent to live with his uncle in Papua New Guinea. Libby Hathorn’s powerful prose poem describes her young hero’s journey of discovery from despair to fresh hope.” – Annie, Year 10, Canberra

Talks with My Skateboard: A Collection of Poems – Illustrated by Matt Mawson
ABC Enterprises, 1991; ISBN 9780733301544
Poems for children
These poems capture the world of children, the ordinary and the extraordinary, the schemes and the dreams. “This is a collection of my poems for young people under headings such as Out and About, School, At Home, Mostly Cats and Nature. The lively cartoons of Matt Mawson really add to the look of the collection. I’ve written these poems about things that interest or have touched me in some way – the ordinary (The Teacher Took My Tennis Ball) and the extraordinary (Amy Sleeps at My House) – hoping to inspire young writers to try writing their own poems.” – Libby Hathorn