Danielle Binks

Where were you born?

Frankston, Victoria

What other jobs have you had?

My first-ever job was working in a bookshop. Throughout high-school and university I worked in a post-office! And after studying journalism at Monash and writing & editing at RMIT, I became a book-publicist for a number of independent Melbourne publishers. Now I’m a full-time literary agent with Jacinta di Mase Management, and an author in my own right.

What themes are recurring in your work?

- Family and different amalgamations thereof – I’ve written about families that teens create for themselves with their friendships, adopted and non-nuclear families, the role grandparents play in raising children etc.

- Child activists; children finding their own voice on political and societal matters, and given my background with journalism – children engaging with the News and unfolding events is a big factor too.

What have been the highlights of your career?

Begin, End, Begin: A #LoveOzYA Anthology was voted No. 3 in ABC Book Club’s ‘Five of the Best’ 2017, their finale show.

Begin, End, Begin: A #LoveOzYA Anthology also won the 2018 ABIA for Book of the Year in the Young Adult category.

Where have your works been published?

Harper Collins Publishers and Hachette Australia.

Begin, End, Begin is available through ‘Harper 360’ in the United States!

What are you passionate about?

• Student activism and young people finding their community conscience
• All representations of family in fiction
• Supporting Australia’s national youth literature and advancing our national culture generally
• ‘Teens to the Front’ – young adult literature for young adults
• Refugees and asylum-seeker issues, and Australians becoming a more tolerant society

Haven’t I seen you before?

Hey! – were you Team Jacob or Team Edward? Because I was *big* into the FanFiction writing community for a time there …

I wrote FanFic steadily from 2002 to 2009; for Buffy, Once & Again, Mercy Thompson and Twilight especially. Twenty-four stories amounted to 391, 522 words all up. My longest FF piece ran to 184,402-words, with 112 chapters. I wrote FanFiction from age 15 to 22 and it was how I found a way to my own voice and the stories that mattered to me.

Anything else you'd like to share?

I’ve been running my book review blog ‘Alpha Reader’ since 2009? If you want further proof that I’m an open book, it’s a running-catalogue of my “solo book club” of bookish thoughts; http://alphareader.blogspot.com/

Maps, Geography and History with Danielle Binks

As an extra resource and to kickstart discussion or provide additional context, Danielle Binks has offered a complimentary 20-min video-talk explaining the themes of Maps, Geography and History as discussed in her novel, 'The Year the Maps Changed.' This can be accessed at any time before or after her school-talk, and should encourage lively and robust conversation amongst students.

The Year the Maps Changed is also now available as an audiobook read by Tamala Shelton.