On Saturday, 6th April we were delighted to attend the Fitzroy Writers Festival where Booked Out speakers Maxine Beneba Clarke, Carly Findlay, Abdi Aden and Justin Heazlewood each made an appearance.

Thank you to Yarra Libraries, who invited Booked Out to set up an information stall in the beautiful, historical ballroom at Fitzroy Town Hall.

Highlights of the day included catching up with our friends from The Little Bookroom and Yarra Libraries, as well as a very special visit to the Booked Out stall from Abdi Aden!

Check out @bookedoutagency on Instagram for more highlights.

Last week the much anticipated CBCA Shortlist was announced for 2019!

We were so happy to see many Booked Out authors represented on the shortlist: including Clare Atkins, nominated for Between Us, the gorgeous picture book Brindabella by Ursula Dubosarsky and Andrew Joyner, Girl on Wire, illustrated by the lovely Elise Hurst, the fantastic The Dress Up Box by Patrick Guest and more.

Congratulations to all the talented authors and illustrators on the list, and to all those who didn’t get nominated too. We are in awe of your creativity, hard work and dedication to your craft.

We are eagerly anticipating the announcement of the winning titles later in the year.

What a wonderful and inspiring evening we had at the State Library of Victoria last night, listening to award-winning author Cate Kennedy speak on her short story collection Like a House on Fire to an enthusiastic bunch of VCE English students and teachers.

Cate also shared a wealth of creative writing tips and tricks with us – from creating characters, to building tension, to metaphor and imagery, there was no stone Cate left unturned.

Cate left us with this fascinating insight into the curiosity that drives her writing: ‘When writing, I explore different experiences as an act of radical empathy.’

Thank you to the wonderful VCE students and teachers who came along, and watch this space for more events later in the year!

We are delighted to say that our VCE twilight seminar with Maxine Beneba Clarke at the State Library of Victoria was a roaring success.

Maxine’s detailed and thoughtful presentation on Foreign Soil elevated students’ understanding of the text, and attendees were full of fantastic and well-considered questions.

Some fantastic feedback we have received:

“Thank you very much for offering the Maxine Beneba Clarke lecture, both myself and the students found it to be excellent. The students loved that she took the time at the end for a meet and greet and a book signing. The content was excellent, and geared towards her teenage audience – so accessible and useful for their SAC’s. I wouldn’t hesitate to bring the girls again next year, should it run again.”

Thank you to the 16 different schools who came along – it was wonderful to meet such passionate students and teachers.

Watch this space for our next twilight seminar coming up this Thursday evening for Cate Kennedy, who will be speaking on Like a House on Fire to a sold out audience.

We are delighted to be featured in Books+Publishing who interviewed our company director Lauris (pictured right, with Andy Griffiths) for an article on speakers agencies, published this week. You can read the full article over at Books+Publishing, but here is a snippet of Lauris’ comments:

‘Unlike many other agencies, we operate nationally. We provide writers and illustrators to schools throughout Australia as well as several international schools,’ she says.

The agency also works with ‘more high-profile authors’, says Pandolfini. Booked Out’s list boasts Andy Griffiths, Jackie French, Morris Gleitzman, John Marsden and Sally Rippin, among others, and clients browsing the agency’s website can search for speakers with specialties as diverse as spoken word, animation, mindfulness and the school curriculum.

Read the full article here.

We are proud again today to see so many students today protesting climate change. “It’s a collective endeavour, it’s a collective accountability and it may not be too late.” – Christine Lagarde.

Happy International Women’s Day everyone! We’re taking this moment to reflect on women’s achievements and successes. Last night we celebrated with Maxine Beneba Clarke at the Molly Hadfield Social Justice Oration, where she spoke on feminism, equality and intersectionality with Lorraine Ngwenya ⭐😁✊💖🌻

A hearty congratulations to our represented authors included in the 2019 #inkyawards longlist announced yesterday! Well done Erin Gough, Lili Wilkinson, Ellie Marney and Amanda Betts – four fantastic titles, who are very well deserved.

One person who knows the grave dangers that bushfires can bring is author Ella Holcombe who lost her family in the 2009 Kinglake blaze.

This experience led Ella to create the sensitive and uplifting title, The House on the Mountain, ill. by David Cox and published by Allen and Unwin. This title gently introduces primary-aged children to the concept of serious bushfires and mass evacuation in a non-confrontational and moving manner.

As always, Booked Out thanks the hard-working firefighters who battle these blazes so we can stay safe.

If you listened closely on Monday night, you might have heard a cheer echoing in Prahran! We are thrilled to see our authors so strongly represented in the @cbca_vic Book of the Year notable longlist.

Fantastic talks from Fiona Wood, Jo Stanley and Alex Rance reminded us of how childhood reading sets important lifelong habits.

Fiona Wood summed up the night perfectly with her comment on the 2019 Book Week theme of ‘Reading is my Secret Power’. “Reading fosters empathy, and empathy will help us save the world.” – we couldn’t say it better ourselves.

Well done all. 🌟😊👌💛