Catherine Bateson Biography (1960-) - Sidelights

Award winning Australian author Catherine Bateson credits a childhood spent in a used bookstore with sparking her career as a poet and author of young-adult fiction. A published poet, Bateson made the transition to fiction by creating A Dangerous Girl and its sequel, The Year It All Happened, verse novels that reflect the concerns and speech of modern Australian teens. In Painted Love Letters she tells the story of Chrissie, a teen who must deal with the death of her mother to lung cancer and the tragedy's effect on other family members, while Rain May and Captain Daniel finds an inner-city mother and daughter adapting to platypus, fruit bats, and other quirks of life in rural Australia. In addition to writing novels and poetry, Bateston has worked as a creative writing teacher for over a decade. In her spare time she hosts writing workshops for students and appears at poetry and writing festivals.