Melina Marchetta
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Melina Marchetta is an Australian author and high school teacher at St Mary's Cathedral College, Sydney
Marchetta was born in Sydney in 1965. She attended business college and became a commercial consultant in a large travel company and spent some time travelling the world. Following that, she decided to pursue a career as a high school teacher, studying at Mt Saint Mary Teacher's college, now the Strathfield campus of Australian Catholic University. She is currently the English co-ordinator at St Mary's Cathedral College.
Ever since her debut novel, Looking For Alibrandi, burst onto the scene in 1992, the character of Josephine Alibrandi has had a huge following among teenage and adult readers alike. Winner of the CBC Book of the Year for Older Readers in 1993, Melina Marchetta's only novel at the time has remained on the bestseller lists ever since. Looking for Alibrandi has won numerous other awards and is one of the most popular texts on Australian high school English syllabis.
Looking for Alibrandi was released as a major feature film in 2000. Starring Greta Scacchi, Pia Miranda and Anthony La Paglia, it received rave reviews and was a huge box office success. Marchetta's screenplay was the winner of the Premier's Literary Award and she also won the AFI Award for the Best Adapted Screenplay, one of five awards received by the film.
In 2003 Marchetta's much anticipated second novel, Saving Francesca, was released to critical acclaim. Her third novel, On The Jellicoe Road, was published in 2006.
