Q&A with the 2023 Readings Children's Prize shortlist authors
With the upcoming announcement of this year’s winner, our Children’s Prize shortlist authors talk about their inspiration, the creative process, their perfect reader, their favourite writing advice and what they hope readers take away from their books.
Want to know more about each shortlisted title? Explore the shortlist here.
What was the initial inspiration for your story?
Neridah McMullin (Evie and Rhino): I love reading about shipwrecks. Not only reference books, but online through the State Library of Victoria and the National Library of Australia. Through these sites you can find not just news articles, but witness accounts from shipwrecks. For insurance purposes, when there was a shipwreck off the Victorian coastline, the Maritime Board of Melbourne, would send a representative out to investigate. They would interview survivors such as the captain, the crew, it’s passengers and the people involved in rescue and salvage. These first hand, primary source, witness accounts gave me an incredible insight into shipwrecks. One day, I was reading about a particular shipwreck that took my breath away ... From this moment, I knew I had to write about it.
Maryam Master (No Words): This one was deeply personal. It’s based on my own family’s escape from the brutal Iranian regime in the 1980s. I have always been in awe of my parents and the courage it took for them to flee their homeland with two small kids. I wanted to share a glimpse of my refugee experience through the eyes of a child. It’s a story I’ve wanted to write for a long time. Decades, in fact. Much like the protagonist, Aria, I finally found my voice in this novel.
Melanie La'Brooy (The Wintrish Girl): The story I originally had in mind was much simpler and intended for beginner readers. At the time, my daughter was around five years old and we were living amidst a fairy infestation. They were everywhere: in books and on lunch boxes, stickers and clothing. I love all things pink and sparkling but I must have reached my limits because a character came into my mind and wouldn’t leave: a fairy who preferred to wear black and was miserable because she didn’t fit into the glittering, magical world around her.
Can you tell us about the creative process?
Ash Harrier (The Eerie Excavation): I tend to move from concept to writing pretty rapidly, but there is an initial phase of daydreaming and scribbling down copious ideas, many of which don’t make it into the book. The painful bit is the actual writing, which can range from a steady flow to torturous stagnation. I regularly pause to do some plotting and reset the characters on their arcs. The editing is my favourite stage – it's as if I have all the sand in the sandpit and can finally make the castles.
Amelia Mellor (The Bookseller's Apprentice): I suppose where my creative process differs from most writers’ is that I like to do quite a lot of research, especially for this series. I say I like to do it because I choose not to be perfectly faithful to history; if I wanted to do that, I’d write nonfiction. When I research, I’m looking for details to drive the plot and colour in the world, more than trying to get things right, but it’s fun when I can weave both together. I find that researching thoroughly also takes me away from culturally-ingrained myths and assumptions about the world I’ve chosen as a setting. Middle-grade fantasy is full of Victorian-esque settings, so I’ve got to make mine stand out!
Maryam Master (No Words): My creative process differs from project to project. This particular one was cathartic in ways I hadn’t imagined. I cried. Went for many long walks. Came up with plot points and character ideas in the strangest of places – I resolved one very sticky story knot while I was in the shower!
Melanie La’Brooy (The Wintrish Girl): I write in fragments. I begin with disjointed scenes, snatches of dialogue, a joke that I’ll try to find a place for later or an idea for a fun element like the Librarynth (it’s a cross between a library and a labyrinth). I then try to work out where the through-line of the story is and weave it all together. It’s probably a very inefficient way to work but I’m not a trained writer, I’ve never done a creative writing course, so it’s the only way I know how to write. Luckily for me, I have an amazing publisher and editors at UQP. Many people think of a book’s editing stage as a predominantly technical process but, for me, it’s as creatively important as working alone on the initial drafts.
Who is the ideal reader for your book and/or what do you hope readers take away from it?
Rebecca Fraser (Sea Glass): While it runs at fewer words than a traditional middle grade book, I believe Sea Glass sits in a good space. There seems to be a lot of chatter at the moment about a lack of books that bridge the junior to middle grade readership. From the reviews I’ve seen it seems Sea Glass is sitting in that space where it can be accessible to reluctant readers, while remaining satisfying for confident readers. This makes me happy!
I hope first and foremost readers enjoy Sea Glass purely for the love of story. But like any book, I also hope it makes them feel something. Or take away something: whether it’s a new perspective or emotional awareness, a new word or phrase, maybe an interest in beachcombing and sea glass, or perhaps even curiosity about Treasure Island (which is mentioned in the story) and discovering different styles of literature.
Neridah McMullin (Evie and Rhino): My ideal reader is aged 8-12 years, but it’s a book for all ages. I’ve had fan mail from a 90-year-old lady who loved it. I hope readers take away the importance of kindness in our world, especially to animals. Great and small, big and ugly. Animals are a great comfort to us. My best friends are animals and I believe they can communicate, not necessarily in words, but in body language. Licking, blinking, the position of the ears, a swish of a tail are all telling us something. People who are in tune with their pets will understand what I’m saying. Animals understand us better than we’ll ever know.
I also hope that my readers are encouraged to be more observant. Insects crawling, beetles clicking, birds hovering in flight, sea sponges washed up on the shore. There’s wonder all around us, just stop and breathe, find your stillness and look closely at the world. Evie notices everything in the natural world and it’s a comfort to her, knowing her place in the universe, where she fits in.
Melanie La’Brooy (The Wintrish Girl): I might be a bit free-range when it comes to my storytelling approach but when it comes to the themes of The Wintrish Girl, I always had a very clear idea of what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it.
The best fantasy books (the work of Sir Terry Pratchett being my favourite example) always reflect our own world in some way. So while The Wintrish Girl is a funny, action-packed adventure, it also tackles real world issues like racism, fractured families, unjust systems of power and gender stereotypes. In the Empire of Arylia, words have lost their power and meaning, the after-effects of a history of injustice are still rippling through society, borders are closed and the line between good and evil isn’t always clearly drawn.
Ash Harrier (The Eerie Excavation): Because Alice is all the things about me that I was too self-conscious to reveal as a child, the ideal reader is someone who feels and dislikes the pressure to conform. I wish I'd had Alice’s solid belief in herself and understanding that social rules and others’ judgments about what’s ‘cool’ don’t matter. I hope the book makes kids and their parents laugh, sparks their curiosity, and empowers them to be themselves, try new things, and ignore those who judge and criticise.
What is the best writing advice you’ve ever received?
Amelia Mellor (The Bookseller's Apprentice): When I was in primary school, my favourite book was Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights, and he reckons ‘the most useful quality you can have as a writer is stubbornness.’ A lot of people tell me they dream of being writers, or even writing one book – but it takes stubbornness to finish a project, rewrite it several times, send it out to dozens of agents and publishers, watch them all reject it, then sticky-tape your heart back together, mutter ‘I’ll show them,’ and write a better one!
Maryam Master (No Words): To show up! Elizabeth Gilbert expands on this concept beautifully but the crux of it is this – show up and do the work. There’s no shortcut or easy route. It’s hard, hard work and it won’t happen unless you’re sitting at that desk, tearing your hair out and wrestling with that dreaded blank screen.
Ash Harrier (The Eerie Excavation): I was told to ‘write something new’ after years of writing, editing and revising some early books I wrote. I had been submitting for over a decade and getting rejections, until I finally wrote something new and submitted it. That was my first published novel.
Neridah McMullin (Evie and Rhino): Read the best sellers from the genre you wish to write, and learn from the best.
Rebecca Fraser (Sea Glass): 'You don’t need to write every day to be a "real" writer.' This came from one of my earliest mentors, award-winning fantasy writer, Lousie Cusack, who I met on the Gold Coast when I was the recipient of a Regional Arts Development Fund for aspiring authors that Louise was heading.
Melanie La’Brooy (The Wintrish Girl): I have never forgotten my very first editor, the wonderful Kirsten Abbott, telling me that what you leave out is as important as what you leave in. I have always been a very wordy writer and it was such a revelation.
Why do you write for children?
Rebecca Fraser (Sea Glass): I love writing books with heart on issues that matter, and I love the broad scope there is in children’s and YA literature to tackle big themes and allow kids to see themselves represented no matter their family structure, their ability, ethnicity, spirituality, gender or sexuality. I believe there’s never been a better time for healthy and inclusive approaches to literature. The current middle grade landscape in Australia is alive with wonderful fiction that explores these very issues. Kids are not only seeing themselves reflected in stories, they’re also learning from thier own voiced experience of marginalised cultures, or alternate generational viewpoints, and it’s a wonderful thing.
Ash Harrier (The Eerie Excavation): Kids read for fun rather than some kind of nebulous objective of ‘improvement’. Somehow knowing your reader is just seeking enjoyment makes the writing process fun, too. I remember the escapist immersion of reading as a child and how life-changing books could be. I love to think there’s a possibility my books could offer that to a child.
Neridah McMullin (Evie and Rhino): It’s by far the most joyful, uplifting and comforting genre. It makes me truly happy.
Maryam Master (No Words): Kids are the most curious, open-hearted, optimistic people in society. They’re deep thinkers who see the world with all its flaws but haven’t yet been jaded by it. They’re hopeful. Joyful. Despite great odds. I like being in their company (through my writing) and seeing the world through their eyes. That critical yet altruistic lens.
Amelia Mellor (The Bookseller's Apprentice): I want my readers to have the best, richest, most unique adventure I can come up with. It’s funny how adults often approach my books as if I set out to teach kids about history, with fantasy as the sugar around the pill of the educational bit. But they’ve got it backwards! All the inspiration I draw from real life is included primarily because it adds richness and dimension to the story. If readers happen to learn something along the way, that’s great, but enjoyment and entertainment are important in their own right.
What does being chosen for a prize judged by booksellers mean to you?
Maryam Master (No Words): Everything! I have such love and admiration for booksellers and have, over the years, completely relied on them for recommendations – not just for my own reading but for my family, friends and even for which books I should adapt for the stage. Booksellers read almost everything that hits the shelves, and so for them to single out my book for this prestigious prize is truly a great honour. Thank you!
Amelia Mellor (The Bookseller's Apprentice): Does writing about booksellers count as cheating? To be serious though, booksellers know the industry. They’re big readers, they’re usually broad readers, they see all the new releases come and go, and if one book succeeds where another just won’t budge from the shelves, they usually know why. They’re like book sommeliers. I trust booksellers to know what’s good! So it’s a huge compliment that they’ve endorsed The Bookseller’s Apprentice through their nomination.
Rebecca Fraser (Sea Glass): Honestly, it is a total heart-swelling honour. It makes me feel my work and words matter. To be selected for the shortlist of the Readings Prize is a writer’s bucket list moment for me. While I’ve hitched myself to the writing wagon for the long haul, working towards traditional publication is sometimes not for the faint hearted! You have to love what you do—it helps you roll with the highs and lows of the publishing world, so recognition of this nature is so uplifting.
Booksellers reinforce my belief that not all heroes wear capes! They are the ones that put the right book into the hand of the right reader at the right time, connecting the dots to deliver quality reading material to their customers. Booksellers and our indie bookstores enrich and expand our literary landscape, and champion books they love.
Melanie La’Brooy (The Wintrish Girl): Readings and I go waaaay back. You know when there’s an indie band that you love before everyone else discovers them and they become huge? That’s how I feel about Readings. I loved Readings when it was one bookstore in Carlton and I was a student at Melbourne University, looking longingly at glossy art books that I couldn’t afford and discovering writers such as Roberto Calasso, Donna Tartt and Michael Cunningham, whose books remain some of my favourites to this day. I knew the original band line-up: I remember when my local bookstore, Cosmos Books became Readings St Kilda. Twenty (argh!) years ago I had my very first book launch at Readings St Kilda, which made the launch of the The Wintrish Girl at Readings Kids last year even more special for me.
So to have my debut children’s novel shortlisted for The Readings Children’s Prize means the world to me. I’m so very glad I kept going until I made it out of that abyss.
