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Danielle Clode

Author

Danielle Clode is a zoologist and natural history writer. She also teaches professional and creative writing.

Where were you born?

I grew up in the coastal town of Port Lincoln in South Australia where my parents built a boat. We spent the rest of my childhood sailing around the south and east coast of Australia to far north Queensland.

What other jobs have you had?

I’ve worked as a zookeeper, in an underwater observatory, as a scientific interpreter and as a researcher.

What themes are recurring in your work?

Natural history and the environment.

What have been the highlights of your career?

I’m still surprised that I won a Rhodes Scholarship, but I think my biggest career highlight was winning the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Non-fiction in 2007 and being short-listed for a Children’s Book Council Award in 2010.

Haven’t I seen you before?

There’s an ABC documentary based on my book Killers in Eden, which re-screens regularly and I recently produced and narrated a documentary on French voyages of discovery to Australia that screens on SBS. You might also hear me on RN Conversations where I’ve talked about a few of my recent books.

Testimonials

Danielle spent the day at our school & spoke with 4 separate groups of students ranging from years 3-6. The students were very interested to learn about her amazing childhood & how she developed an interest in science which led to her researching & writing books. Danielle adjusted her presentations according to the year levels. Would recommend.

—Sharon Priest, Reynella Primary School, 2018

Danielle Clode is both very professional and very easy going. The students were extremely engaged with her presentations, which she expertly tailored to their ages. She was great at taking questions and communicating with the students. Many parents have approached me and told me of how their children came home talking about the fossil and dinosaur lady! We even managed to convince Danielle to do an extra little presentation to an additional class regarding bushfires, which was very generous of her. Danielle made an excellent presentation to the small group who attended the evening session, and it was fascinating to better understand our (lack of) preparedness for bushfires.

— C. Thompson, Keith Area School, September 2018

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