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Sheahan-Bright wins 2014 Johnno Award

Editor, writer and academic Robyn Sheahan-Bright has won the 2014 Johnno Award for outstanding contribution to writing in Queensland.

The award, which was presented by the Queensland Writers Centre (QWC) on 11 December, recognises Sheahan-Bright’s ‘significant contributions to the development of Queensland’s writing community’, QWC said in a statement.

Sheahan-Bright teaches courses on writing for children and young adolescents at Griffith University and on publishing and technology at the University of Southern Queensland, and manages the Australian Publishers Association’s Residential Editorial Program. She has edited a number of anthologies of Australian writing and books on Australia’s publishing history, including Paper Empires: A History of the Book in Australia 1946-2005 (UQP) with co-editor Craig Munro.

Sheahan-Bright has also been ‘a champion for Australian children’s and young adult writing through her research and editorial work’, and was awarded the CBCA Nan Chauncy Award for outstanding contribution to Australian children’s literature in 2012. She is currently ‘activating the literary sector in regional Queensland, promoting writing by young people with her involvement in the Curtis Coast Literary Carnivale Committee’.

QWC chair Kevin Gillespie said in the statement: ‘Robyn Sheahan-Bright’s significant service spans many decades and regions. Her inspiring work in support of Queensland writers and children’s writers helps shape Australian literature, and touches the lives of thousands of Queensland writers and readers.’

The Johnno Award was established in 2001 and is named after the David Malouf novel. Past winners include writer, lecturer and book industry figure Stuart Glover; author Nick Earls; Avid Reader co-owner and former Australian Booksellers Association president Fiona Stager; former publishing manager at University of Queensland Press and founding chair of the QWC Craig Munro; and author and convenor of the Bundaberg WriteFest Sandy Curtis.

 

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Category: Local news