Penni Russon (born 27 December 1974) is an Australian writer of

children's literature Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

and

young adult fiction Young adult literature (YA) is typically written for readers aged 12 to 18 and includes most of the themes found in adult fiction, such as family dysfunction, substance abuse, alcoholism, and sexuality. It is characterized by simpler world build ...

Biography

Russon was born in 1974 in

Tasmania, Australia Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

. Russon studied children's literature at

Monash University Monash University () is a public university, public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. Named after World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the ...

and professional writing and editing at

RMIT University The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (abbreviated as RMIT University) is a public research university located in the city of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia., section 4(b) Established in 1887 by Francis Ormond, it is the seventh-o ...

. She is a freelance editor and originally wrote poems. In 2004, her first novel was published by

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

, entitled ''Undine''. ''Undine'' was a finalist in the 2004 Aurealis Award for best young-adult novel but lost to

Scott Westerfeld Scott David Westerfeld (born May 5, 1963) is an American writer of young adult fiction, best known as the author of the ''Uglies series, Uglies'' and the ''Leviathan (Westerfeld novel), Leviathan'' series. Early life Westerfeld was born in Dal ...

's '' The Secret Hour''. In 2005, she released the sequel to ''Undine'', entitled ''Breathe'', which was published by Random House, and in 2007 she concluded the ''Undine'' trilogy with ''Drift''. ''Breathe'' received a note of high commendation at the 2005

Aurealis Awards The Aurealis Award for Excellence in Speculative Fiction is an annual literary award for Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror fiction. Only Australians are eligible for the award. History The Aurealis Award was established in 1995 by ...

. Russon has written three novels in the ''Girlfriend Fiction'' series, one in collaboration with Kate Constable, and in 2007 she released ''Josie and the Michael Street Kids'', which was a finalist for the 2009

Children's Peace Literature Award Children's Peace Literature Award is an Australian literary prize awarded every other year by the South Australian Psychologists for Peace, an interest group of the Australian Psychological Society. The Children's Peace Literature Award was inau ...

. In 2020, she completed a PhD in comics as therapy in youth mental health, titled ''Seeing feeling, feeling seen: a reparative poetics of youth mental health in graphic medicine''.

Bibliography

''Undine trilogy'' *''Undine'' (2004) *''Breathe'' (2005) *''Drift'' (2007) Other novels *''Josie and the Michael Street Kids'' (2007, part of the '' Aussie Chomps'' series) *''Indigo Girls'' (2008, book 2 in the ''Girlfriend Fiction'' series) *''Little Bird'' (2009, book 13 in the ''Girlfriend Fiction'' series) *''Dear Swoosie'' (2010, with

Kate Constable Kate Constable (born 1966) is an Australian author. Her first novel was '' The Singer of All Songs'', the first in the ''Chanters of Tremaris'' trilogy. It was later followed by '' The Waterless Sea'' and ''The Tenth Power''. Biography Constabl ...

, book 17 in the ''Girlfriend Fiction'' series) *''Only Ever Always'' (2011) *''The Endsister'' (2018)

Awards and nominations

Aurealis Awards * Best young-adult novel **2004: Nomination: ''Undine'' *Best children's fiction **2018: Winner: ''The Endsister'' Children's Peace Literature Award *2009: Nomination: ''Josie and the Michael Street Kids''

References

External links

Eglantine's Cake – Penni Russon's blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Russon, Penni 1974 births Living people Australian children's writers Writers from Tasmania Australian women children's writers