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 and English Teacher and previous Year and English co-ordinator at St Mary's Cathedral College, Sydney
Marchetta's debut novel was Looking For Alibrandi, published in 1992. Winner of the CBC Book of the Year for Older Readers in 1993, the novel has remained on the bestseller lists ever since.[citation needed] Looking for Alibrandi has won numerous other awards and is one of the most popular texts on Australian high school English syllabi.
Looking for Alibrandi was released as a major feature film in 2000 starring Greta Scacchi, Pia Miranda and Anthony La Paglia. 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 second novel, Saving Francesca, was released to critical acclaim.[citation needed] Her third novel, On The Jellicoe Road, was published in 2006.
