Tina Matthews

On Not Giving Up

Saturday 1 July, 2:30pm

Tina Matthews is a writer and illustrator. She has worked as a puppet maker, musician, teacher and a designer. Born in Wellington, she is currently a puppetry teacher at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts in Sydney and a self-employed artist and designer.

Tina’s picture books have been shortlisted and won numerous awards. In 2014, she was the Writer-in-Residence at the University of New England. We are lucky to have her with us from Sydney, where she now lives.

The Session

Tina will share stories of feeling depleted and defeated, but not giving up in the world of children’s book publishing. She will explain her creative process, including making gorgeous illustrations using wood carvings and stencils, and the interweaving of text and pictures that underlies any successful picture book.

We will be treated to excerpts from Tina’s current works in progress, and insights into the surprising turns a picture book takes, seemingly of its own volition!

The Books

Tina’s first book for children, Out of the Egg (Walker Books and Houghton Mifflin Books, 2007) was published in New Zealand, Australia and the USA, and has been translated into Hebrew and French. Out of the Egg was nominated in the Picture Book section of the 2008 New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, where it won the award for Best First Book, and was listed as a Children’s Book Council of Australia Notable Australian Children’s Books in 2008.

Her second picture book, Waiting for Later (Walker Books, 2011) was shortlisted for the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards, was a finalist in the Best Picture Book category of the 2012 New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, and was shortlisted for LIANZA’s Russell Clark Illustration Award.

Her third picture book, A Great Cake (Walker Books, 2012) was a finalist in the 2013 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards in the Picture Book category, and won the Russell Clark Medal for Illustration at the 2013 LIANZA Children’s Book Awards.

Tina’s fourth book, So Many Wonderfuls, was published by Walker Books in 2014. Her latest book, Do What You’re Doing is a read aloud, sing along story for young and old – about the perils of overdoing it and the pleasures of undivided attention.

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See next speakers: Maria Gill and Fiona Mackie > >
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