* As published in Good Gabble Newzine July 2010
Sherryl Clark
Australian Author and Poet
Australian Author and Poet
If you have children you may of heard of Sherryl Clark, a successful Australian author and poet. If you read a lot of poetry you are sure to have come across some of Sherry's work over time.
Born in New Zealand in 1956, Sherryl first came to Australia in 1978. In 1981 she moved to Melbourne and attended a creative writing class at the Footscray Women's Learning Centre. This lead to a study of an Arts Degree at Deakin University.
Sherryl then moved into the area of community writing. She became an active member of Victorian Community Writers and taught writing workshops, whilst also becoming the writing and publishing officer at Footscray Community Arts Centre for 6 years. Her first writing class soon developed into an ongoing women's writing group, Western Women's Writers, who still today continue to produce the only women's poetry magazine, Poetrix.
In 1996 Sherryl began writing for children. Her first book 'The Too-Tight Tutu' was published by Penguin in 1997 as one of the first Aussie Bites. She has since had titles published within the Aussie Nibbles and Aussie Chomps series. Her book series 'The little Pirate' and 'Tracey Binns' both have their own websites.
Sherryl has had over 40 children's and YA books published in Australia and several in the US and UK.
Poetry can also be added to Sherryl's list of achievements, having written a vast amount over the years. She has two collections published by Pariach Press – 'Edge' and 'Thicker Than Water'. This has lead to her expanding into writing poetry for children, with her first poetry collection 'Farm Kids' being published by Penguin in 2004. Farm Kids went on to win the 2005 NSW Premier Award for Children's Writing. Since Farm Kids Sherryl has written two more verse novels – 'Sixth Grade Style Queen (Not!)', honour book in the 2008 CBA Awards and 'Motormouth', published March this year.
Today Sherryl's time is spent between teaching, speaking at conferences, visiting schools and participating in events such as the MS Readathon and children's book events. Sherryl does hope to eventually write full time but can't imagine giving up teaching altogether.
To find out more about Sherryl, her books, Poetrix Magazine or to link to 'The Littlest Pirate' and 'Tracey Binns' websites visit: www.sherrylclark.com
article Jennifer Deaves
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