Libby Hathorn: biography

Libby Hathorn is an award-winning Australian author of more than fifty books for children. Her stories have been translated into several languages and adapted for stage and screen. Her work has won honours in Australia as well as in the United States, United Kingdom and Holland. She was awarded a Centenary Medal in 2003.

Hallmark Hall of Fame has made a movie of her best-selling young adult novel, Thunderwith, re-titled The Echo of Thunder. It starred Judy Davis, who was nominated for an EMMY award in the US for her performance as Gladwyn. In 2004, Libby's children's picture storybook, Sky Sash So Blue, published in the United States, was performed as an opera in Birmingham, Alabama. Previously, Grandmas Shoes was performed as an opera by Opera Australia and Theatre of Image. Libby was awarded an AWGIE for the libretto based on this picture storybook, in 2001.

Her CDROM series Weirdstop won the AIMIA Award, 2004 (Australian Interactive Media Industry Awards) as Best Children's Product; and in 2005 the NSW Society of Women Writer's Bi-annual Award for Older Readers. Wonderstop won the Energy Australia National Trust Heritage Award (Education) 2007.

Libby lectures part-time in Creative Writing (Children's Literature) at Sydney University. Libby's latest novels include Letters to a Princess (ABC Books, 2007); Georgiana Woman of Flowers (Hachette Livre, 2008); the play The Tram to Bondi Beach (Currency Press, 2008) and Fire Song, due for release in 2009. As an Australia Day Ambassador, she travels to country towns each year where she talks about the importance of Australian literature.

Her documentary; 100 Views Kathmandu is screening on several community channels in 2009.

Libby is currently working on a special arts project entitled 100 Views in several schools, both here and internationally. 100 Views celebrates community through poetry, artwork and a festival. Her anthology of poetry All Along the River is in development with the ABC.

See full booklist and awards www.libbyhathorn.com