Australian children's writer
Margaret Wild |
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| Born | 1948
Eshowe, South Africa |
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| Occupation | Writer for children |
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| Language | English |
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| Nationality | Australian |
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| Years active | 1983- |
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| Notable works | Fox, The Very Best of Friends |
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| Notable awards | 2008 Nan Chauncy Award |
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Margaret Wild (born 1948) is an Australian children's writer.[1]
She has written more than 40 books for children. Her work has been published around the world and has won several awards. She was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Children's Book Council of Australia in 2022.
Life
Wild was born in Eshowe, South Africa,[1] an early European settlement. Her bank manager's family moved frequently and she attended state schools in Johannesburg.[1] She came to Australia in 1972, worked as a magazine feature writer, and finished her education at Australian National University in Canberra.[1] In Sydney she raised a family, worked as a freelance writer, worked sixteen years as a book editor in children's publishing—1984 to 2000, finally at ABC Books, Australian Broadcasting Corporation.[1]
Writer
Wild's books explore a diverse range of themes but she is particularly noted for exploring issues of identity, trust, and death. Let the Celebrations Begin (1991) focused on the imminent release of Jewish prisoners from a Nazi concentration camp,[1] while in The Very Best of Friends (1989) the death of a farmer prompts his widowed wife to find the love to care for their respective pets, a cat and dog, equally. Fox (2000), illustrated by Ron Brooks using the colours of the Australian landscape, is a powerful story about trust and betrayal.
In March 2020 Wild was awarded an award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature by the Australia Council.[2] In December 2020 she was nominated as Australia's author candidate for the 2022 Hans Christian Andersen Award.[3]
She now lives in Sydney.
