Leaving the Lyrebird Forest

GARY CREW is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. He has won the Children's Book Council of Australia's Book of the Year four times and his readers have come to expect shadowy, surprising, incredible stories that must be read, and read again. STEVEN WOOLMAN (1969-2004) completed a degree in Design and Illustration at the University of South Australia in 1990 and was always fascinated by bizarre fantasy. For the illustrations in The Watertower, his fifth published book, he used a combination of acrylic paint and chalk and pencil on black paper.

Julian Laffan is an artist, educator and curator. Julian graduated from the School of Art at the Australian National University in Canberra. He is currently a picture book judge for the Children's Book Council of Australia. He specialises in contemporary woodcuts and drawings, using these mediums to create sculptural objects and works on paper that explore themes of history and identity. Julian has produced a series of exhibitions that developed mentorship partnerships between emerging and established artists from across Australia. He is a member of The Culture Kitchen, a Canberra-based cross-cultural collaborative print group. He has worked on inter-cultural print based projects in East Timor, Indonesia and on the Thai-Burma border. His works are in the collection of the Australian Print Council, Canberra Museum and Gallery, and significant private collections. Julian is a primary school teacher, living with Natasha and their son in Braidwood, New South Wales. He draws and sketches and takes background photographs that form a basis for the woodcuts that accompany this monograph. Julian is passionate about children becoming literate through great books, integrating with the importance of the arts. For more about Julian visit julian-laffan.squarespace.com