Brigid Lowry
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
LOWRY, Brigid (1953 - ) is a children's and young adult writer as well as a poet and short story writer. She teaches creative writing and has long been involved with arts projects.
Brigid Lowry was born and raised in Auckland. She completed her Diploma of Teaching at Auckland Teachers College in 1973 and set out for Australia. While living in Australia, Lowry completed a Bachelor's in English at Curtin University, a Post-Graduate Diploma of English Literature, and an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Western Australia.
Lowry's career includes work as a waitress, a software tutor, a librarian and a primary school teacher as well as being a wife and mother. Since 1985, Lowry has worked as a professional writer and creative writing teacher.
Lowry’s first book for young adults, Fizz, Max & Me (1993) was followed by Guitar Highway Rose (1996) and Follow the Blue (2001). Next came Spacecamp in 2002 which was co-authored by her son, Sam Field. In 2005, With Lots of Love from Georgia was published and went on to win Best in Young Adult Fiction at the 2006 New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, in addition to making the 2006 Storylines Notable Young Adult Fiction Book list. Tomorrow All Will be Beautiful was published in 2007 and Juicy Writing was released in March 2008.
As a poet and short story writer, Lowry’s work has appeared in Western Word, Far & Wide, Southern Review, Imago, Western Word Magazine, Mind Moon Circle, Fremantle Arts Review, Speculum Magazine, Naked Eye, Westerly Magazine and Australian Book Review. Her short stories have been anthologised in Summer Shorts, The Wild Fictions Anthology, The Summer Shorts Anthology (Fremantle Arts Centre Press), and In Perspective (Society of Women Writers). Much of this work has been broadcast on Radio National in Australia.
Lowry’s literary prizes include the Hoffman Readers’ Choice Award, Books & Writing Radio National Short Story Competition, the Imago Short Story Competition, the Jolly Good Fiction Award (Curtin University) and the Canning Literary Award.
Brigid Lowry participated in the 2004 Book Council WOW (Words on Wheels) tour of the deep South. In the same year, she was the Children's Writer in Residence at the University of Otago College of Education.
Guitar Highway Rose was re-issued by Allen & Unwin in 2004.
In 2006, she was awarded a residency at Ledig House in upstate New York. For three weeks in September, Lowry took part in the Ledig House International Writers Residency with writers from all over the world.
In 2008, she spent five months in Auckland as the Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellow. She was nominated for the 2008 New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults, for Tomorrow All Will be Beautiful (Allen & Unwin, 2007). It also won the Young Adult category of the prestigious Victoria Premier’s Awards in 2008.
Juicy Writing: Inspiration and Techniques for Young Writers (Allen & Unwin, 2008) speaks directly to young people and inspires them to have courage, be themselves and explore their creativity. The work was listed as a 2009 Storylines Notable Non-Fiction Book.
In 2011 she published Triple, Ripple: A Fabulous Fairytale (Allen & Unwin).
WRITERS IN SCHOOLS INFORMATION
Lowry is available to talk to high school students. Topics she is prepared to discuss are writing, her books, creativity, writing for young adults, journal writing and memoir/life writing. She would prefer to talk to 20 or fewer and is able to run workshops by prior arrangement. Lowry is able to travel outside her region.
