Jan Ormerod (1946-2013) was an award-winning author who grew up in Western Australia. As a child Jan drew constantly, and she eventually went on to attend art school and study drawing, painting, and sculpture.

During her career Jan published more than fifty books, including Sunshine, Moonlight, Lizzie Nonsense, Water Witcher, Shake a Leg, and Maudie and Bear. Her work, which resonated with young children and adults alike, won many prestigious awards and received much acclaim.

Jane Godwin is the author of many award-winning stories for young people, including her bestselling picture books with Anna Walker, What Do You Wish For?, Starting School, Today We Have No Plans, All Through the Year and Little Cat and the Big Red Bus.

Jane has also collaborated with Andrew Joyner on the delightful picture books How Big Is Too Small? and Bear Make Den, with Freya Blackwood on Hattie Helps Out, and with Freya and Davina Bell on Birthday Baby.

Andrew Joyner is an Australian illustrator and cartoonist. In 2009 his first picture book was published, The Terrible Plop, written by Ursula Dubosarsky. The book has been shortlisted for many awards (including the CBCA Book of the Year 2010 and the PM’s Literary Awards 2010), and has been made into an acclaimed play - Plop! - by South Australia’s Windmill Theatre.

In 2011, Andrew released his own series of books, All About Boris, a loveable and adventurous warthog. Along with his children’s book work, Andrew illustrates regularly for newspapers and magazines, both locally and internationally, and in 2010 he illustrated Your Place or Mine? a cookbook by Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris of Masterchef. He lives in Strathalbyn, South Australia, with his family and nineteen pets.

Jedda Robaard grew up in a small town on the island of Tasmania and now lives on the coast of Victoria with her husband, children and a variety of pets.

Jedda trained as a graphic designer, the manual cut and paste way, and ran children's art and craft workshops for many years. The interaction with her young students, a passion for her craft as well as family life and a discerning eye for the innocuous but evocative little moments in life all contribute to her page-turning, whimsical and imaginative illustrations and stories for children.

Jedda's books have been published in many languages including English, French, Dutch, Greek, Italian, Korean and Chinese.

Award-winning and best-selling author and illustrator, Anna Pignataro, has created more than fifty books for children. Her most popular picture books have had international success and are published in seventeen countries and enjoyed in eleven different languages.

Her work always evolving, Anna is also the author of a junior fiction series and has a diverse and quirky range of greeting cards. Through her work Anna hopes to connect with children and encourage children to follow their hearts, to be inspired by the natural world and their dreams and to always believe that anything is possible.

Anna lives with her husband and daughter near the beach in Melbourne, Australia. Her home is often visited by a family of ducks and a very special blackbird.

Sara Acton is an award-winning author and illustrator. Sara grew up in the Cotswolds in England and always loved drawing, especially people and other strange creatures.

She studied BA Hons Fine Art and trained as an Art Teacher in London. After teaching and practicing art in England and New Zealand Sara moved with her family to Australia.

Sara now lives in a small seaside village on the New South Wales coast, where she enjoys writing and illustrating for children in her studio, whilst drinking tea and eating far too many biscuits.

Her first picture book Ben and Duck won the 2012 Children's Book Council of Australia Crichton Award for new illustrators.