CBCA Judges Talk - OR, YR, EP 2022
About
Join us online to chat with three judges from across Australia and ask them questions about the CBCA Book of the Year Awards, the process and the books. We focus on Older Readers, Younger Readers and Eve Pownall Categories. We hope that you will submit questions in advance, but questions can also be asked via the ZOOM chat room function.
Our judges will be:
MICHAEL EARP - Older Reader category
Michael Earp is a writer and bookseller living in Melbourne, Australia. He is the contributing editor of Kindred: 12 Queer #LoveOzYA Stories (2019) and contributor to Underdog: #LoveOzYA Short Stories (2019). He has a Masters in Children’s Literature and an undergraduate degree in Early Childhood Teaching. For over seventeen years he has worked between bookselling and publishing as a children’s and young adult specialist, currently managing The Little Bookroom. His writing has also appeared in The Victorian Writer and Aurealis. A passionate advocate for LGBTQIA+ literature for young people, he established the #AusQueerYA Tumblr to catalogue all Australian young adult fiction containing queer content and characters. He was previously volunteer committee chair for the #LoveOzYA campaign, a ‘Read Local’ initiative to raise the profile of young adult fiction written by Australians.
DANIELLE MILLER – Younger Reader category
Danielle is a Teacher Librarian at a P-12 college in Brisbane and has a Bachelor of Primary Education and a Master of Education Teacher Librarianship through Queensland University of Technology. 2021 will be her second year as a member of the Queensland CBCA Branch committee. She is an avid reader of everything from picture books through to adult books but finds her place in middle years and young adult fiction. Danielle is an advocate for Australian literature and enjoys helping students develop a lifelong love of reading. Book Week is her favourite week of the school calendar and she thoroughly enjoys the challenge of dressing up.
SHERYL COOTES – Eve Pownall category
Sheryl Cootes has been teaching for over thirty years in schools in the Blue Mountains and western Sydney areas. She has been Teacher, Assistant Principal and Relieving Principal at Department of Education schools, most recently in the role of Assistant Principal at Bidwill PS, mentoring inexperienced teachers in the use of literature in the classroom and establishing a culture of ‘reading for pleasure’ among students. She is a recipient of the Minister’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Australian College of Education Award for Outstanding Achievement. Sheryl is passionate about engaging students with children’s literature, conducting Book Clubs for senior students and challenging them to read forty books within a school year. Sheryl is currently President of the Blue Mountains sub-branch of the Children’s Book Council of Australia (NSW branch), a position she has held since 2015. She has established Little Free Libraries at ten locations in the middle and upper mountains, providing access to quality children’s literature for the broader community. Sheryl has recently been appointed School Programs Manager for WestWords, a significant provider of programs promoting literature development for young people in Western Sydney and the Blue Mountains.
Location
Online event access details will be provided by the event organiser