Blue Flower

Sonya Hartnett (Author)

Sonya Hartnett’s work has won numerous Australian and international literary prizes and has been published around the world. Uniquely, she is acclaimed for her stories for adults, young adults and children. Her accolades include the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Of A Boy), The Age Book of the Year (Of A Boy), the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize (Thursday’s Child), the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year for both Older and Younger Readers (Forest, The Silver Donkey, The Ghost’s Child, The Midnight Zoo and The Children of the King), the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award (Surrender), shortlistings for the Miles Franklin Award (for both Of a Boy and Butterfly) and the CILP Carnegie Medal (The Midnight Zoo). Hartnett is also the first Australian recipient of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (2008).

Golden Boys, Sonya’s third novel for adults, was shortlisted for the 2015 Miles Franklin Literary Award. She also published her fourth picture book, Blue Flower, illustrated by Gabriel Evans, in 2021 and it was shortlisted for the CBCA Picture Book of the Year Award.

Gabriel Evans (Illustrator)

Gabriel Evans is a Western Australian children’s book author and illustrator. Working primarily in watercolour and pencil, he creates books from a small studio on a big hill. Gabriel’s books are published internationally in more than twelve countries, have been reviewed in The New York Times, translated into ten languages and read on ABC-TV’s Play School.

Blue Flower by Sonya Hartnett, his first picture book with Penguin Random House, was shortlisted for the CBCA Picture Book of the Year in 2022. His second picture book with Penguin, A Friend for George, was published in 2023, followed by Listen, Hippo! released in 2024.