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Kate Mildenhall
Author, Curriculum Specialist, Education Consultant, Podcaster
Kate Mildenhall is an author, writing teacher and podcaster. Her debut novel SKYLARKING was longlisted for Debut Fiction in The Indie Book Awards 2017 and the 2017 Voss Literary Award. Her second novel, THE MOTHER FAULT was longlisted for the 2021 ABIA General Fiction Book of the Year and shortlisted for the 2021 Aurealis Science Fiction Novel of the Year. Her latest novel is THE HUMMINGBIRD EFFECT (2023), shortlisted for the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year and longlisted for the Stella Prize and the Indie Book Awards Fiction, 2024. She has recently published a Children’s picture book titled To Stir With Love (2024).
Kate has been the recipient of residencies at Varuna, the Writers House, Bundanon Trust and the Michael King Writers Centre in Aotearoa. She is a regular guest at writers festivals and in 2023 was runner up in the Blake-Beckett Trust Scholarship for work on her fourth novel.
For the past six years Kate has co-hosted The First Time Podcast where she has spoken with over 200 Australian and international writers including George Saunders, Behrouz Boochani, Helen Garner, Sarah Winman, Tim Winton, Richard Flanagan and Charlotte Wood. Kate is highly regarded as a festival moderator and speaker and has been a guest at many Australian and International Writers Festivals.
Kate is currently undertaking a PhD in creative practice at RMIT University. Her first picture book will be released in 2024. Kate lives in Hurstbridge on Wurundjeri lands, with her partner and two children.
Testimonials
Oh my!! The teachers all loved your book and you!! They’re already talking about how they can incorporate the book into Grandparents week and make the cake with the kids!
It was amazing having Kate run two author workshops at our school. She immediately engaged the group with her warmth and passion for books. Our students were so excited and inspired to meet a real-life author. You could have heard a pin drop as they soaked in Kate’s stories and they were so excited to talk and share their passion for books and reading.
Kate shared some powerful story writing techniques in interactive and fun ways. All our students were highly engaged throughout the session and there was a lot of laughter! They particularly loved the drama activity. Kate ensured everyone was included and involved. We had several neurodivergent students in the group, including a couple who have a lot of anxiety around writing and it was wonderful to see how well they participated and how comfortable they felt sharing their work.
Parents commented afterwards that their kids had come home wanting to write stories afterschool and our students have been very enthusiastically continuing the stories they started with Kate. We’re so delighted that Kate has inspired them to embrace story writing and given them some wonderful tools for their writing journeys. We can’t wait to have her back!
Dear Kate, Thank you for coming to MSPS and reading To Stir With Love. It made my imagination POP! And the book was so great.
The Year 1 students at Montmorency South Primary School were absolutely thrilled to welcome Kate Mildenhall to our school.
Kate read her new children’s book, To Stir With Love, and had both students and teachers
captivated with her storytelling. She connected with everyone on a personal level by sharingher own family experiences and celebrations. Our follow up activity allowed students to share their family traditions and celebrations, and they were excited to share these with Kate as she roved around connecting them.
Thank you so much Kate, for an unforgettable visit that sparked joy, curiosity, and a love for storytelling in our students.
Kate Midenhall was extremely engaging and had an excellent manner with the students. She has enabled the students to develop their plot effectively and incorporated effective strategies to develop expressive writing into her sessions.
The strategies that she used were relevant and engaging and the students thoroughly enjoyed each writing session. Kate even had the reluctant writers writing! By the end of session five I felt that the students were in a perfect position to begin writing their narratives.
I would highly recommend Kate Midenhall for the future.
We loved having Kate Mildenhall visit our school. Kate conducted writing workshops with our four Year 8 classes. She also gave them helpful insights into her novel “Skylarking” which the students have just begun to study in English classes.
Kate was very professional and easy to get along with. She seemed to enjoy the students’ responses and ideas. She was generous with her time and her encouragement to budding writers. The students responded very well to her presentation.