Liz Ledden is a Sydney-based kids’ book author of quirky, fun and warm-hearted stories. Liz’s latest release is Everyone Wants an Octopus Book!, published by Hardie Grant’s Bright Light imprint. Her other published picture books are Walking Your Human and Tulip and Brutus, and she’s had short stories for kids featured in The School Magazine and Youkie magazine.
~
LONGER BIO
Liz Ledden is a Sydney-based children’s author, freelance writer, book reviewer and podcaster. She lives and writes on Gadigal land.
Liz’s latest release is Everyone Wants an Octopus Book!, a thought-provoking picture book about how everyone deserves to see themselves in stories. It’s illustrated by Makoto Koji and published by Hardie Grant Children’s Books (Bright Light). It stars an octopus named Inky who can’t find any book characters like them. Her picture book Walking Your Human is about the best things to do on a walk, according to some cheeky and slightly delusional dogs! It’s available in hardcover, paperback, board book and ‘big book’ form, and was released in the UK and US, plus translated into Korean. It was also read on Sarah Ferguson’s Youtube channel, Storytime with Fergie and Friends. Liz’s earlier picture book Tulip and Brutus celebrates bugs and unlikely friends, and was a CYA Conference ‘Success Story’. It was also included in the NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge.
In addition to children’s books, Liz’s stories have been published in The School Magazine, distributed in primary schools around Australia, and Youkie (previously known as Kookie), an intelligent, ad-free magazine aimed at the tween market.
Liz co-hosted and produced the popular kidlit podcast, One More Page for its five year duration, interviewing authors and other book industry guests, plus reviewing the latest kids’ book releases.
Previously, Liz was a Deputy Editor of a magazine, a copywriter, a travel columnist for an in-flight magazine, worked in marketing and helped research a travel guidebook. Amongst the mix, she studied an MA in Writing and Literature via Deakin University.
Liz is represented by Sarah McKenzie Literary Management.
~
FURTHER DETAILS
Publications, Courses & Awards
In addition to writing children’s book manuscripts, Liz has had several short stories for kids published in The School Magazine plus tween magazine Youkie. Other projects include writing a play with her One More Page podcast co-hosts for the CBCA anthology Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds, and writing numerous short stories as course materials for author Tim Harris’s Primary Writers business.
Liz holds an MA in Writing and Literature via Deakin University, majoring in Children’s Literature, plus a BA in Media Communications. She has completed writing workshops via Writing NSW and the Australian Writers’ Centre, and the Scribbles course run by author Jen Storer. Liz has won numerous awards for her picture book manuscripts through the CYA Conference (two 2nds and a 3rd) and Writers’ Unleashed (2nd and 3rd place). She also won the Junior Fiction category of the 2020 Scribbles Creative Writing Awards.
Liz is a member of SCBWI, CBCA and Writing NSW, plus a writing critique group.
Podcast Hosting
One More Page is an Australian kids’ book podcast featuring interviews, book reviews and a kids-led segment. It ran from 2018 to 2022, and is still available to listen to via Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all the usual podcast apps. It was a finalist in the Best Newcomer category of the 2018 Australian Podcast Awards. On the show, Liz interviewed many kids’ book creators including Jane Godwin and Anna Walker, Gus Gordon, Yvette Poshoglian, James Foley, Julianne Negri, Gavin Aung Than and Isadora Moon creator Harriet Muncaster, plus publishers, librarians and booksellers. The podcast team was interviewed in industry publications including Books + Publishing and the Writing NSW magazine, Newswrite.
Presenting
Liz has run workshops and presented at a range of kids’ book industry events, including Words on the Waves festival (primary schools day), WestWords, SCBWI ACT Conference and the CBCA Eastern Suburbs sub-branch. Liz has also run a picture writing workshop for adults via Inner West Council Libraries. She also participated in panel talks with the One More Page podcast team at various SCBWI and CBCA events. She was on the 2020 CYA Conference Success Panel, speaking about her path to publication.
Other highlights include sharing her picture books as a guest author at the CBCA Northern Sydney ‘Lunch with the Stars’ events for primary schools from 2022-2024. Liz has enjoyed sharing her books in preschools and primary school classrooms, particularly for Book Week. For school bookings in NSW, please contact CKT Speakers’ Agency.
Travel Writing
Before delving into the world of kids’ books, Liz held a range of corporate and writing roles, from Deputy Editor and writer for AsiaLIFE Cambodia magazine (based in Phnom Penh), to researcher for LUXE City Guides and travel columnist for Tiger Airways’ in-flight magazine. She’s written freelance articles for a range of print and online publications including Travel Wire Asia, AsiaLIFE Vietnam and Child magazine, and her travel tips were featured in MamaMia and Cleo magazine. In 2019, Liz had a travel non-fiction piece longlisted in the Lane Cove Literary Awards.
Liz has written and edited marketing copy with a travel focus for companies including Insider Journeys, Raffles Hotels & Resorts and content agency Web Salad. She often dreams of technicolour Asian markets and is always plotting future trips.
~
Follow Liz on socials:
Subscribe to my Substack newsletter, Lemongrass Letters – here or here:
