Julie Bertagna
Website:
www.juliebertagna.comBRAW network:
yesLL funded:
yesBiography:
As a child I was a terrible daydreamer (or terribly good, depending on how you look at it) and from the age of seven I knew I wanted to be a writer - because then, I thought, I could get away with daydreaming all day....though of course it turned out to be a lot harder than that. At last, after a degree in English Language and Literature, editing a small magazine, teaching, and being a freelance journalist - plus a whole lot of daydreaming - my dream came true and nowadays I write fiction, mostly for young people. I live in Glasgow with my husband, my daughter and her extremely spoiled rabbit.
About writer's work:
‘The stories that spark my imagination are often about people on the edge,’ says Julie. ‘I look for the untold stories - something unusual that will fire up my imagination and hopefully yours too. I always begin with a strong sense of a landscape or a place and so my characters and their stories are rooted in, and seem to grow out of, their place in the world. Being Scottish, the places that inspire me are often the landscapes, cityscapes and seascapes of Scotland. Each book is a new voyage of discovery.’
Best-selling Exodus was shortlisted for many awards, including the Whitbread Prize, and won the Lancashire Children’s Book of the Year Award and a Friends of the Earth Eco Prize. It is published in many countries and has provoked a passionate response from readers. A sequel, Zenith, is now published. Soundtrack won a Scottish Arts Council Children’s Book Award. The Opposite of Chocolate was shortlisted for the Booktrust Teenage Fiction Prize. The Ice Cream Machine was made into a popular TV programme for Channel 5. Dolphin Boy was shortlisted for the NASEN special needs award and a Blue Peter book award. All Julie’s older fiction has been nominated for the Carnegie Medal and her books are among the top 5% most borrowed books in UK libraries.
About writer's events and projects:
I like to bring my books alive with strong visual content, soundscapes or music and I encourage audience discussion and Q&A. Currently, my most popular event is a powerpoint presentation for older children, teenagers and adults with dramatic images of climate change and the ideas which sparked Exodus and Zenith, my ‘eco-epic’ novels. I have a wide experience of talks, readings and writing workshops for adults and children of all ages at all kinds of events, throughout the UK and beyond.
Preferred minimum two sessions (one/one-and-a-half hours each) if travelling out with Glasgow area. No limit on numbers but, where appropriate, my books should always be available to buy at the event.
Contact through Clare Rodgers clare.rodgers@scottishbooktrust.com
Links to other websites:
spark-gap.blogspot.com/
">My blog: www.spark-gap.blogspot.com/
www.earth-rise.blogspot.com/
">My ‘Earthspace’ greenblog: www.earth-rise.blogspot.com/
www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/julie-bertagna/
">My Talk Forum: www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/julie-bertagna/
More blogs and stories:
www.blogs.guardian.co.uk/arts/author/julie_bertagna/profile.html
">www.blogs.guardian.co.uk/arts/author/julie_bertagna/profile.html
www.ltscotland.org.uk/connected/articles/13/byteback/theimagineers.asp ">www.ltscotland.org.uk/connected/articles/13/byteback/theimagineers.asp
Language:
EnglishAge groups:
9-12, TeensBooks written
Are you afraid of heights? Adam is terrified of them. So why, then, would he do a bungee jump to earn money for charity?
Are you afraid of high places? Adam is terrified of them. So why then would he do a bungee jump to earn money for charity? It is only after old Mr Haddock tells him his sad story that Adam decides to ...
Poor Beth is a clumsy clumps. She's always dropping things and making a mess. So when Baby Moon hears Beth wishing on a shooting star, he decides to help her. And that's when the fun begins.
A boy who won't speak meets a lost dolphin. Trapped in loneliness, a bond of friendship grows between them that leads the way to happiness and freedom for both the boy and the dolphin.
It is 2099, and land has all but disappeared forever as the ice flows melt and the seas rise. Mara, 15, and her family are packed into tiny boats on a journey to a bizarre city that rises into the ...
Finn Silverweed has never felt he fits into the fishing community of Laggandall Bay. The uneasy truce between the fishermen and the patrolling navy subs is echoed by the tensions between Finn and his ...
Wayne and Wendy's parents are always coming up with crazy business schemes. Having unsuccessfully tried their hand at goat farming they've now bought a bashed up old ice-cream van called Macaroni - ...
Twins Wayne and Wendy have two extraordinary friends - an ice-cream van called Macaroni, and a goat called Gina. Then one day they both disappear! Who would steal a bashed-up ice-cream van, and a ...
It's a long, hot summer - and a climactic one. For 14-year-old Sapphire it brings the awesome, terrifying realisation that she is pregnant - a discovery that catapults her into the eye of a storm as ...
Kerrie feels trapped. She can't spend another day in her chaotic mother's house. Then Kerrie finds an escape. On the rooftop of a nearby tower block live two castaway teenagers, Mauve and Skip. As ...
The world is gradually drowning, as mighty Arctic ice floes melt, the seas rise, and land disappears forever beneath storm-tossed waves...Sixteen-year-old Mara and her ship of refugees are tracking ...
The world is gradually drowning, as mighty Arctic ice floes melt, the seas rise, and land disappears forever beneath storm-tossed waves...Sixteen-year-old Mara and her ship of refugees are tracking ...
