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  • Nadia WheatleyAustralia ⋆ Author
  • Samantha Christensen

Nadia Wheatley, born in 1949, grew up in Sydney, Australia, where she began her writing career. She began an English degree at Sydney University in 1988, but switched to a major in History and graduated in 1976. She went on to earn an MA Honours degree from Macquarie University. Her first children's book, Five Times Dizzy, published in 1982, was loosely based on her experiences living in Greece and later Newtown, and its success launched her career in children's books. Since then, she has collaborated with many illustrators, creating profound works of fiction and non-fiction for young readers. She collaborates, often through workshops, with Indigenous, multicultural, and disabled communities in order to produce literature that is accessible to individuals from all walks of life. For over thirty years, Wheatley has dedicated herself to literature for young people, and her passion for history, culture, and inclusivity permeates her literary oeuvre.

Wheatley's work has earned various awards in a number of categories, ranging from personal achievement awards to international children's book awards. In 1988, My Place won the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year for Young Readers award, along with the Inaugural Eve Pownall Award for Non-Fiction. Wheatley also won the NSW Premier's History Award for Papunya School Book of Country and History in 2002, and the 2008 Speech Pathology Book of the Year Award for Going Bush. Her books have also been translated into French, German, and Korean, allowing her works to transcend geographical boundaries just as they do cultural ones.

Wheatley's texts often focus on the marginalized and silenced voices of history, and she works to retell historical narratives from the perspective of poor or dispossessed children. History and social conscience fuels her work, and she is deeply devoted to representing multicultural voices in her storybooks. Books such as The Papunya School Book of Country and History and Playground engage with Indigenous experience in Australia, and, as Margaret Dunkle notes in her review in Viewpoint 9.3, function as "a blueprint for […] a culturally sensitive, racially reconciled Australia" (32). Wheatley's work takes on difficult and oftentimes emotional subject matter, but the grace, sensitivity, and inventiveness of her writing allows her to deal with these issues in a manner relatable to children. Her works are tremendously important, and her passion for historical, inclusive, and genuinely exciting literature continues to inspire and educate her readers.

Selected Bibliography

Australians All: A History of Growing Up from the Ice Age to the Apology. Illus. Ken Searle. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2013. Print.
The House that Was Eureka. New York: Viking, 1985. Print.
Luke's Way of Looking. 1999. Illus. Matt Ottley. Sydney: Walker, 2012. Print.
My Place. 1987. Illus. Donna Rawlins. Sydney: Walker, 2008. Print.
Papunya School Book of Country and History. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2001. Print. [End Page 3]
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