Australian children’s author Cristy Burne will feature at two Geelong events this May in her capacity as Deakin University/Copyright Agency Cultural Fund 2023 Children’s Writer-in-Residence.
Ms Burne will take part in the Authors in Conversation: Writing for Children event at Deakin’s Waurn Ponds campus Imaginarium on May 8, where she and Australian Children’s Laureate Gabrielle Wang will discuss all aspects of writing children’s books.
She will also run a workshop for young readers and writers at Waurn Ponds Library on May 9.
The award-winning children’s author began her career as a science communicator, presenting as part of the Australian National University’s Science Circus and working as a journalist at CERN, home of the Large Hadron Collider.
She said stepping out of her comfort zone to try writing children’s books had been difficult but very rewarding.
“I always secretly wanted to be a writer, but the trouble with being a writer is that you might not be very good, so you think, oh, I won’t even try in case I’m terrible,” she said.
“If you write something, it’s going to be rejected because it won’t be very good the first time.
“Even now I still get rejected. But then sometimes you make something that really resonates and it takes off, but that’s not why you make it. You make it for yourself.”
Having been writing children’s books for over a decade now and with 11 books published, Ms Burne said she loved writing for and working with children.
“It’s so much fun, I love it,” she said.
“My kids are now 13 and 11 and I’ve been writing on and off for that time. It’s just a wonderful way to stay in touch with that energy that kids have.”
