STOP PRESS…Announcing the Author Panel

SLAQ 2008 and major sponsor The Book House have secured some of Australia’s best authors of young adult fiction as an exciting new feature to the 2008 conference. The panel of five, will be chaired by Nina Stanyer from the Book House and each month prior to the conference, we will be advertising the latest member to join the panel.

This month we are thrilled to announce that authors J.C. Burke and James Moloney have signed up to inform and entertain you.

J.C. Burke is a brilliant young writer who has created books for teenagers and young adults, including Nine Letters Long, The Story of Tom Brennan and Faking Sweet, and CBCA Notable Books White Lies and The Red Cardigan.

The Story of Tom Brennan won the 2006 CBCA Book of the Year (Older Readers), and the 2006 Australian Family Therapists Award for Children’s Literature. It has recently been added to the NSW HSC syllabus list. Her latest book is Starfish Sisters.

 

James Moloney is a children's author who has written around thirty books including The Book of Lies, Dougy, Crossfire, The House on River Terrace, and A Bridge to Wiseman's Cove, which won the Australian Children's Book Council Book of the Year Award in 1997.

Moloney was born in Sydney and schooled in Brisbane. His two daughters both attended Loreto College, Coorparoo in Brisbane, Australia.

He has stated that his book Black Taxi was based on a conversation he observed of his daughter and some of her friends when she was sixteen. Black Taxi is soon to be produced into a movie in the U.S.

Last updated 20 May 2008

Archived News Items

Keynote Speaker supports Careflight Queensland

The Keynote Address for the conference is being given by Rob Chandler. Rob is the Director of Staff Development, Scots College Sydney. He is the Immediate Past President of the Australian Council for Educational Leaders (NSW). He has donated his fee sponsored by Gale, Cengage to Careflight Queensland.

September’s SLAQ conference is going to be the best conference you will ever attend!

Maxine Mckew is proud as punch of her old school and with good reason. The buildings, the position, the views and the pedagogy are rightly famous. All Hallow’s architecture is stunning from the unbelievably old Adderton Hose (1858), Andrea Stombuco’s Main building, the majestic convent and the gloriously gothic St Anne’s Industrial School (1895). My personal favourite is the small octagonal building with the pyramidal roof that was constructed as an aviary. The senior and junior libraries are superb and there has been a brilliant reuse of nearby commercial buildings.

From all parts of this, the prettiest campus in Queensland, one encounters those splendid views of the river and city that are unique. In addition to all this is the fact that it is only a five minute walk to Fortitude Valley where there are a million eateries large and small.

The conference will begin on Sunday afternoon with a Pre-conference Tour of Literary Brisbane. This will be a wonderful bus trip led by the fabulous novelist Nick Earls to parts of Brisbane celebrated in book and film. Those who book early and grab a place on the tour bus will be happy people. Later in the afternoon, High tea will be served with ABC Local Radio’s Broadcaster of the Year, Kelly Higgins-Devine, launching the SLAQ 2008 Conference in style. The mild spring evening that follows will be the setting for the ”Hit the Town Dinner”. Delegates will be given the chance to dine at nearby restaurants with members of the conference committee led by Judith Russel. The conference dinner will take place on Monday evening at the splendid Oxley’s on the River. One of the highlights of this event will be the presentation of the 2008 Brian Bahnisch Award. On Tuesday early birds will be treated to breakfast with author Kim Wilkins.

On Monday and Tuesday, the keynote speakers will be fantastic and include Rob Chandler from Scots College Sydney, Patricia Carmichael from Concordia College Toowoomba, Belinda Weaver, Manager UQ eSpace digital repository, Stella Axarlis the master of change management, and the prolific Barbara Braxton and well-known author Christine Harris.

The three themes of the Conference “Motivate Innovate Celebrate” will thread through the workshops offered. There will be abundant choice of sessions on topics such as Web 2.0, Wikispaces, Animoto, RSS Feeds, Verse novels, Literacy, resources for Queensland History, comprehending stories, exploring the Web for quality resources, with more to be finalized. It will be quite a challenge for delegates to decide which sessions to attend.

Punctuating the workshops will be the Trade Exhibition and a chance to get a handle on new information products coming into the marketplace. Attending the trade exhibition is worth the conference fee in itself. There will be products available that are scaled to our size and interests and more importantly to library budgets.

All in all, September at All Hallows will be a wonderful occasion. Registration forms have been sent to all those you have registered an Expression of Interest, so they should be arriving soon. By all means book accommodation and flights early. It would be a huge disappointment to miss out.