Children's Book Festival

Bernard Caleo is a comic book teacher, maker, and communicator. He was the editor and publisher of the romance comics anthology Tango, made the feature film Graphic Novels Melbourne with filmmaker Daniel Hayward and is part of the graphic novel publishing enterprise Twelve Panels Press. In 2021 he started a PhD at the University of Melbourne's Creative Writing program, the outcome of which will be a comic book set in Melbourne in 1888, and a written thesis examining how Australian comic books create Australian places.

Andy Griffiths started having adventures the moment he was born, and has been having them (and writing about them) ever since. You can find out more at www.andygriffiths.com.au

Anna Walker is an illustrator and author of picture books based in Naarm/Melbourne. Using traditional mediums, anna creates stories inspired by the quiet and sometimes joyful details of life. Her books include Florette ...

Best known for There's a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake, Hazel Edwards writes across media, for adults and children. She is currently writing her autobiography.

In 2013, she was awarded an OAM for Literature. As a national literary ambassador, Hazel supports various reading organisations. She mentors 'Hazelnuts' and is a director on the Australian Society of Authors' board. She is the recipient of the 2009 ASA Medal awarded by her writing peers.

Hazel has been nominated three times for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. This is the world's largest prize for children's and young adult literature.

Based on her Writing a Non Boring Family History, Hazel runs workshops for genealogists. Her junior history books include Sir Edward 'Weary' Dunlop, Professor Fred Hollows and Edith Cowan; A Quiet Woman of Note  in the Aussie Heroes series.

Apart from going on an Antarctic expedition in 2001, she has co-written adventure memoirs including Trail Magic; Going Walkabout for 2184 Miles on the Appalachian Trail with her son Trevelyan Quest Edwards, originator of the hippo concept. Difficult Personalities with Dr Helen Mc Grath has been translated into Polish, Korean and Russian. 

f2m: the boy within, a YA novel co-written with Ryan Kennedy, tackles coming of age for a youth who transitions gender. 

Pocket Bonfire Production's Hippo film premiered at St Kilda Film festival and screened internationally at Edinburgh Film Festival.

Hazel is married with two adult children and two grandsons, for whom she writes stories each birthday. 

Gabrielle Wang is an author and illustrator born in Melbourne of Chinese heritage and the Australian Children’s Laureate for 2022 and 2023. Her maternal great grandfather came to Victoria during the Gold Rush and ...

Boori Monty Pryor is an indigenous Australian born in Townsville, North Queensland in 1950.

His father is from the Birri-gubba Nation of the Bowen region and his mother’s tribal group from Yarrabah, near Cairns, is the Kunggandji. Boori travels extensively as a performer and public speaker for school students and adult groups throughout Australia and overseas.

Boori has worked in numerous industries including education, film, television, modelling, sport and music. He has played in two World Masters Games in Basketball competition, winning a Silver Medal for Australia in 1994. In 1990 he was awarded the National Aboriginal and Islander Observance Day Committee Award for “outstanding contribution to the promotion of indigenous culture”. He is one of the Victorian Premier’s Reading Ambassadors for 2005.

He has co-written many books with Meme McDonald. Boori and Meme met in Melbourne when they were working for the Wurundjeri people, the traditional custodians of that area. They started talking about writing books. Meme had already written two books and Boori had at least three going around in his head but was busy performing dances, playing didgeridoo and storytelling in schools. Meme and Boori began their writing partnership with Maybe Tomorrow in 1998 (Penguin).

When Meme and Boori speak about their experiences and their books they combine their skills as storytellers to touch on issues of significance for all ages. They talk about healing the past and creating positive visions for the future; issues of finding strength within to deal with the challenges from without; survival, optimism and finding a basis for mutual, and self, respect.

Leigh Hobbs is the Australian Children’s Laureate (2016–2017). He is best known for his children's books featuring his characters Old Tom, Horrible Harriet, Fiona the Pig and Mr Chicken, as well as the Freaks and their teachers in 4F for Freaks and Freaks Ahoy. Old Tom has been adapted into an extremely popular TV series. Leigh has been shortlisted for the CBCA Picture Book of the Year Award three times (for Mr Chicken Goes to Paris, Horrible Harriet and Old Tom's Holiday) and his books have won every major children’s choice award in Australia. Leigh’s books are published by Allen & Unwin.

Leigh was born in Melbourne, grew up in Bairnsdale and has lived and worked in Sydney, Sale and London. He is an artist who works across a wide range of mediums, as well as writing and illustrating his children's books. Many of his cartoons have appeared in the Age.

Sally Rippin is the Australian Children’s Laureate for 2024 – 2025 and has written over 100 books for children and young adults, many of them award-winning, including Come Over to My House, the Billie B Brown, and the ...

Winner of the Crichton Award for Illustration in 1998, Anna Pignataro has created over forty books for children.

Shortlisted by the Childrens Book Council of Australia for Picture Book of the Year and the Young Australian Best Book Awards, many of her books are CBCA Notables. Her bestselling picture books have had international success - published in eleven countries and enjoyed in seven different languages.

When Anna isn’t painting and writing she enjoys old movies, looking at trees, reading and collecting things. She lives near the beach in Melbourne with her husband Mark, their daughter Isabella Rose and a bunny called Nibbles. Often, her back yard is visited by ducks and a very special blackbird she calls Ravencroft May.

Graeme Base is an international award-winning picture book creator and bestselling author.

His books include; My Grandma Lived in Gooligulch, Animalia, Jabberwocky, The Eleventh Hour, The Sign of the Seahorse, The Discovery of Dragons, The Worst Band in The Universe, The Waterhole, TruckDogs, Jungle Drums, Uno’s Garden, Enigma, The Legend of the Golden Snail and The Jewel Fish of Karnak.