Writers, Young Writer, Writing Courses, Creative Writing

Author John Marsden is Express Media’s patron. John’s books, which include the immensely popular Tomorrow, When The War Began series, have been acclaimed by readers and critics around the world.

Since 2005 John has generously funded and supported Express Media to run a prize to encourage creative literary work by young people. The annual John Marsden Prize for Young Australian Writers is launched in May each year, with entries closing in August.

“I’ve had a good look at the many activities that Express Media offers,” John says. “It’s an extraordinary range, and very contemporary. They cover areas that didn’t even exist ten or twenty years ago. They are allowing young people to express their creative visions. In an ocean of gluggy stuff like television and video games, Express Media is offering the chance for authentic and lively artistic activity. I was very happy to be asked to be their patron, and hope I can be of some use.”

About John Marsden

John Marsden has been writing almost all his life, since first tasting publishing success in the grade 4 classroom at Devonport Primary School. As an avid reader, he absorbed many principles of good writing while curled up in an armchair with a book. Achieving success in the big wide world proved much harder than it had been at Devonport Primary however, and it was not until 1987 that John’s first novel, So Much to Tell You, was published.

For about 20 years John continued to write, mostly novels, and mostly for teenagers. Books like Letters from the Inside, Checkers, Winter, Dear Miffy, and Everything I Know about Writing found ready markets. But it was the Tomorrow series, followed by the Ellie Chronicles, which proved to be the most popular. They have helped John become one of the few writers to have sold more than 2 million books in Australia.

As he continued to write, John also toured nationally and internationally, giving talks and taking writing workshops. In 1996 he purchased the Tye Estate, a large bush property just to the north of Melbourne, where he ran writing camps for young people and for adults. In 2006 the Tye Estate became the home of a new school, Candlebark, which John founded to enable him to put into practice the beliefs and theories he had formed about education. The school’s emphasis on innovation and adventure has attracted much attention.

John and his partner live in Lancefield Victoria, with six sons.