Ursula Dubosarsky


Ursula Dubosarsky is an Australian writer of fiction and non-fiction for children and young adults, whose work is characterised by a child's vision and comic voice of both clarity and ambiguity. She has won nine national literary prizes, including five New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, more than any other writer in the Awards' 30-year history. She was appointed the Australian Children's Laureate for 2020–2021.
She is the author of illustrated books and novels, and also three works of non-fiction about the English language, grammar and etymology for children, featuring a character known as "The Word Spy". These "Word Spy" books, illustrated by Tohby Riddle, have won the New South Wales Premier's Literary Award, the Children's Book Council of Australia Junior Judges' Award and Book of the Year Award. In the United States and Canada "The Word Spy" is published under the title "The Word Snoop."
Her novel "The Red Shoe" is included in 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up and is one of 200 significant works of Australian literature in the Copyright Agency's Reading Australia program.
Three of her books have been adapted for theatre - "The Red Shoe", "The Terrible Plop" and "Too Many Elephants In This House".
In 2014, the annual Christmas Windows of the department store David Jones were based on her story "Reindeer's Christmas Surprise." In 2018 the National Library of Australia published "Midnight At the Library", illustrated by Ron Brooks, to help celebrate the Library's 50-year anniversary.
She is the third child of Peter Coleman and Verna Susannah Coleman. Her name was suggested by the character of Ursula Brangwen in the 1915 novel The Rainbow by D.H. Lawrence. She attended SCEGGS Darlinghurst and Sydney University and later Macquarie University. She is an Honorary Associate in the Department of English at Macquarie University and has taught courses in children's literature at Sydney University and the University of Technology, Sydney.

Awards

International
Hans Christian Andersen Award Nominee 2015
Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award Nominee 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
Luchs Award for Children's Literature July 2012 for The Golden Day
International Board on Books for Young People Honour Book List 2014 for The Golden Day
YALSA Excellence in Non-fiction for Young Adults Nominee 2010 for Word Snoop
White Ravens International Catalogue 2007 for The Red Shoe and 1996 for The First Book of Samuel
Australian