Lian Tanner

www.liantanner.com.au

Lian Tanner has worked as a teacher, a tourist bus driver, a juggler, an editor and a professional actor. She has been dynamited while scuba diving and arrested while busking. She once spent a week in the jungles of Papua New Guinea, hunting for a Japanese soldier left over from the Second World War. It took her a while to realise that all this was preparation for becoming a writer.

Lian was inspired by an over-protected boy (and her own wild childhood) to write her best-selling Keepers Trilogy, which has been translated into eleven languages and won two consecutive Aurealis Awards for Best Australian Children’s Fantasy. A story about her uncle running away from home started her thinking about the Hidden series, which was shortlisted for two Aurealis Awards and received three starred reviews from School Library Journal (USA). And a conman she once met in Madrid was the inspiration for the Rogues trilogy, which was also shortlisted for two Aurealis Awards.

Her first picture book, Ella and the Ocean, illustrated by Jonathan Bentley, won the 2020 NSW Premier’s Award for Children’s Literature. Her latest novel, A Clue for Clara, is a hilarious mystery involving a small chook and a big crime.

Lian held her audience in the palm of her hand for the entire time.

Librarian, Kambala School, Sydney

Lian was absolutely marvellous, leaving staff and students most inspired to write.

Teacher, Bellerive Primary School, Hobart

The whole Year 5 level was buzzing after Lian’s visit, with many students coming to me at lunch the next day with more plot twists. 

Librarian, Haileybury College, Brighton