Melanie La’Brooy

Melanie La’Brooy is an award-winning children’s author who writes funny and action-packed fantasy adventure novels that tackle serious themes. The first two books in her Talismans of Fate series are the multi-award-winning The Wintrish Girl and its sequel The Lost History. Melanie is currently writing the third book in the series.

Melanie previously wrote five books for adults, which were published in Australia and internationally. She has written extensively on politics and social justice issues for the opinion page of The Age. Her work has also been published in The Guardian and Sunday Life magazine.

Melanie weaves her deep interest in politics and history into her middle-grade fantasy novels. Her books delve into issues including colonialism, racism and gender stereotyping and have been highly praised for their layering of complex themes, without ever being heavy-handed. The Wintrish Girl was the winner of the Aurealis Award and the DANZ Children’s Book Award, was shortlisted for the Readings Children’s Prize and longlisted for the CBCA Book of the Year Award.

For fourteen years Melanie travelled the world, living in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. She brings a global perspective to her presentations and workshops and the ability to easily relate to children from many cultures.

Melanie’s surname is pronounced La-Broy, like boy but with an r. It’s confusing, she knows.