Jennifer Rowe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jennifer Rowe (born 1948, Sydney, Australia) is an award-winning Australian author. Her crime fiction for adults is published under her own name, while her children's fiction is published under the pseudonym Emily Rodda. She is best known for the children's fantasy series Deltora Quest.
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[edit] Biography
Rowe grew up with her two younger brothers on Sydney's North Shore. She attained her Master of Arts in English Literature at the University of Sydney in 1973. Her first job was assistant editor at Paul Hamlyn publishing. She later worked at Angus and Robertson Publishers where she remained for fourteen years as Editor, Senior Editor, Managing Director, Deputy Publisher and finally Publisher. During this time she began writing children's books under the pseudonym Emily Rodda (her grandmother's name). Her first book, Something Special, was published in 1984 and won the Australian Children's Book Council Book of the Year for Younger Readers Award. She has now won that award a record five times.
From 1984 to 1992 Rowe continued her career in publishing, then as Editor of the Australian Women's Weekly, while writing novels in her 'spare time'. In 1994 Rowe became a full-time writer. She now divides her working day between consultancies for book publishers and her own writing. She lives in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, Australia with her second husband.
Rowe's acclaimed Verity Birdwood murder mysteries for adults, written under her own name are: Grim Pickings (1988) (made into an Australian TV mini-series), Murder by the Book, Death in Store, The Makeover Murders and Strangehold. Later she also wrote about Homicide Detective Tessa Vance in Suspect and Something Wicked, and both books were incorporated as episode story lines in the Australian TV-show Murder Call. Rowe also edited a collection of crime stories Love Lies Bleeding and has contributed to the 1997 Crimes for Summer collection Moonlight Becomes You.
[edit] Emily Rodda
The most notable of her children's works, authored under the pseudonym Emily Rodda, are the two fantasy series Deltora Quest and Rowan of Rin.
Total worldwide sales across all the Deltora Quest series have now exceeded 1 billion. [citation needed] It has been published in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Canada, Japan, Italy, Brazil, China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and the UK. A Deltora anime series is planned for release on Japanese television in 2006.
Among her other successful novels are the science fiction series Finders Keepers which was made into a television series called The Finder, and the Teen Power Inc. series (re-published as The Raven Hill Mysteries), a mystery series involving six teenagers, both of which are written for young adults.
Her successful children's fantasy series Fairy Realm is published by ABC books.
[edit] Select Bibliography
[edit] Jennifer Rowe
- Verity Birdwood series
- Tessa Vance series
[edit] Emily Rodda
- Something Special (1984)
- Pigs might Fly (1986)
- The Best-kept Secret (1988)
- Dog Tales
- Fairy Realm series (1986-ongoing)
- Finders Keepers series (1990- )
- Teen Power Inc. series (re-published as The Raven Hill Mysteries)
- Rowan of Rin series (1994-2003)
- Deltora Quest series (2000-2005)
- Squeak Street series
- "Yasemin's Secret" 2002
[edit] Awards
- 1985 Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA): Junior Book of the Year - Something Special
- 1987 CBCA: Junior Book of the Year - Pigs Might Fly
- 1989 CBCA: Book of the Year for Younger Readers - The Best-kept Secret
- 1991 CBCA: Book of the Year for Younger Readers - Finders Keepers
- 1994 CBCA: Book of the Year for Younger Readers - Rowan of Rin
- 1995 The Dromkeen Medal
- 1997 CBCA: Honour Book for Younger Readers - Rowan and the Keeper of the Crystal
- 1999 CBCA: Honour Book for Younger Readers - Bob the Builder and the Elves
- 1999 Dymock's Children's Choice Awards: Favourite Australian Younger Reader Book - Rowan of Rin Series
- 2003 YABBA award (VIC children's choice) - Deltora Quest 2
- 2002 KOALA award (NSW children's choice) - Deltora Quest Series
- 2002 Aurealis Awards: Peter McNamara Convenors' Award - Deltora Quest Series
- 2002 WA Young Reader's Book Awards: Most Popular Book - Deltora Quest - The Forests of Silence
