The Laureate

Ursula Dubosarsky is the Australian Children’s Laureate for 2020–2021. Ursula was born in Sydney and has wanted to be a writer from the age of six. She is now the author of over 60 books for children and young adults. She has won many national prizes, including the NSW, Victorian, South Australian and Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards, the Children’s Book Council Book of the Year Award, and has been nominated for the international Hans Christian Anderson and Astrid Lindgren awards for children’s literature. Her books have been published widely across the world and translated into fourteen different languages.

After leaving school Ursula studied classical languages and English literature at Sydney University and then travelled overseas. She married in London, returned to Sydney and had three children. She pursued her writing career while working in various jobs, including some years at the NSW Department of Education’s School Magazine. She completed a PhD from Macquarie University in children’s literature at this time.

Her award-winning work includes picture books, such as The Terrible Plop; novels for older children, including The Blue Cat; and the non-fiction ‘Word Spy’ books about the English language. Three of her works have been adapted for theatre, and her book Too Many Elephants in This House was chosen for National Simultaneous Story-time. Ursula is a frequent visitor in libraries, schools and festivals around the world, talking about books and reading, and teaching children and adults the art of creative writing. She is currently a member of the Library Council of the State Library of NSW.

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