About Me

Fiona Burrows is the author/illustrator of Violet and Nothing (Fremantle Press 2019), a picturebook about a little girl with lots of big ideas, which was shortlisted for the 2019 WA Premier’s Award for Writing for Children. She is also the illustrator of picturebooks The Day We Built the Bridge (written by Samantha Tidy, MidnightSun Publishing 2019), Twelve Days of Kindness (written by Cori Brooke, New Frontier Books 2019), and The Friendly Games (written by Kaye Baillie, MidnightSun Publishing, June 2020). She has also illustrated an educational picturebook, ‘Footprints of Faith: The Life of Mary Ward’ as part of a national project commissioned by the Australian Loreto Schools Advisory Council.

Fiona has a BA(Hons) and a PhD in Literature and has taught writing at university for a number of years. She has experience in public speaking and loves talking to kids and adults of all ages about writing, drawing, reading, and creativity. Fiona and her books have appeared at the Sydney Writers’ Festival, the Adelaide Writers’ Festival, the Margaret River Writers’ Festival, the Awesome Arts Festival, and the Scribblers Festival. Original artwork, prints and drafts from her book Violet and Nothing were exclusively exhibited at the State Library of WA’s Story Place in 2019.

Fiona wrote her first picturebook at six years old, and she has been in love with making books ever since. Her favourite part about being an author-illustrator is visiting schools and speaking to kids about how they can use their imagination to write stories, make art, and create their own books. She is available for workshops, author/illustrator talks, PD sessions, panels, and small or large group presentations on all aspects of writing, illustrating and being an author/illustrator. She is happy to build a workshop around a requested theme or outcome, or work with you to create a targeted session to suit your audience.

She is also interested in looking at children’s literature from a research perspective, particularly in relation to multisensory perception, metaphor, visual literacy, fairytales, motherhood and gender in picturebooks, and creativity. Her PhD thesis was interdisciplinary with an arts/science crossover, and looked at the links between poetry, metaphor and synaesthesia in the early twentieth century. She has taught writing, literature, poetry, creative writing, research skills and communication at university level, and loves teaching and working with adults just as much as with kids.

School Visits: Fiona is a member of the Paper Bird Speaker’s Agency, and you can book a school visit, workshop or event through her profile on their website: https://www.paperbird.com.au/star/speakers/fiona-burrows/

Contact: hello@fionaburrows.com

HIGHLIGHTS

2021: ‘Twelve Days of Kindness’ shortlisted for the 2021 WA Young Readers Book Awards (WAYRBA)

2020: ‘Violet and Nothing’ shortlisted for the 2019 WA Premier’s Award for Writing for Children

2020: ‘Violet and Nothing’ performed by StoryTrove at the Adelaide Writer’s Festival Family Day

2019: ‘Violet and Nothing’ original artwork, prints and drafts exhibited at The State Library of Western Australia, September 2019 - January 2020

2019: ‘The Day We Built the Bridge’ listed in ‘Readings 100 Great Reads from Australian Women & Gender Diverse Authors in 2019’

2019: Appeared at the Perth 2019 Awesome Arts Festival

2019: Appeared at the Sydney Writers’ Festival Storytime Clubhouse

2019: Appeared at the Margaret River Writers’ Festival (Schools Program)

2017: 'Silent Night, 1974' published in Westerly

2016: 2nd Prize in the CYA Writing and Illustrating Competition, Aspiring: Picture Book, Primary School category

2015: Highly Commended in the ASA Ray Koppe Young Writers' Residency Award

2015-2018: Exhibited in various exhibitions at Paper Bird Children's Books & Arts

2015: Portfolio accepted on The Style File (view it here)

2015: 'Wentworth Falls' published in Australian Poetry Journal 4.2

2015: 'Out the Back' published in Writ Poetry Review, Issue 1

2009: Highly Commended, Town of Mosman Park Open Art Awards

2008: 'Ophelia' published in DotDotDash, Issue 1

2002: 1st Prize, Town of Mosman Park Youth Art Awards

2001: 2nd Prize, Town of Mosman Park Photography Awards

2001/2002: Iona Presentation College Prize for Art

My Favourite Things

I love picturebooks as much now as I did when I was a child. There is something in that magical interplay between words and images – between what is said and unsaid, what is real and imagined – that just doesn’t exist in any other form.

I’m attracted to picturebooks which take slightly difficult subjects and give them imagination, depth and ambiguity – I think children can understand a lot more than we give them credit for. Like Sendak, I see the parallels between picturebook and poem, in their immediacy, their visuality, and their unique way of capturing so much within so little.

THINGS I LOVE: musical words; poetic ideas; strangeness; characters who show you something you didn’t know about yourself; imaginary worlds; childhood comforts; creative ways of looking.

I am especially smitten with picturebook illustration — contemporary, vintage, Australian, international, classic, whimiscal ... my collection grows faster than I can find shelf space! I am drawn to illustration that surprises me, moves me, or causes me to catch my breath. I love detail, intricacy, rampant colour, delicate line, graphic simplicity. I don’t believe children's illustration needs to fit into a certain style or aesthetic, and I love illustrators who break the rules and push the boundaries of what we think picturebooks should be.

To see more about my picturebook collection, check out Little Dogeared Books — a new series I am writing for the creativity website Make Your Own Rabbit Hole.

www.makeyourownrabbithole.com

Or follow me on Instagram: fiona_burrows_illustration