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Welcome to the irrePRESSible Press author's page

 
CAROLINE AMBRUS was born in 1938 in Kyogle, NSW. She became a single mother in the 1960s and consequently worked as a librarian in the Commonwealth Public Service. During the seventies she studied art  and completed a Bachelor of Education. 

She has periodically taught Art in Canberra's schools and colleges. In 1975 she received a grant from the International Women's Year Committee to research the history and bibliography of Women Artists in Australia. "The Ladies Picture Show" was published by Hale and Iremonger in 1984. She established her imprint of IrrePRESSible Press and published Australian Women Artists, First Fleet to 1945 in 1992 and The Unseen Art Scene in 1995. 

Concurrently with her writing and publishing career, she has also worked as a practising and exhibiting artist with solo shows at Barry Stern's Gallery, Sydney in 1982 and Profile Gallery, Melbourne in 1984, plus participating in many group shows. 

She has recently written and illustrated her own children’s stories as well as co-authoring and illustrating the work of other writers. Her book, The Year of the Mean Queen, co-authored with Graeme Hume, won the ACT Writers’ Centre, Children’s Book of the Year Award for 2005.

 Her books and her art are inspired by her passion for equity and social justice. When her ex-partner, John Fleischinger, was being pursued by the ACT Planning and Land Authority, social justice issues very quickly became personal issues. This book is the result of her search to right some of the wrongs committed against him and against others whom she has discovered in the process of conducting research. She hopes to contribute to the political debate in the ACT and to ‘keep the bastards honest’. 

 

 
MARIANNE DEL GIGANTEtrained as an industrial and graphic designer. She has worked as a gallery director and a curator in art galleries in Europe, America and Australia.  She has been involved in museum education with the publication of her Guide to the Smithsonian Institution's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC and through workshops in Philosophy for Children at the Hirsshorn and at the National Gallery of Australia. 

 Maryanne  is in contact with her literary peers from all over the world, corrosponding via email.   When she was doing a web search on Hindustani classical music she encountered the Atlanta Poets Group and has since become a member and a regular contributor to the Group’s publications.  She met another of her peers and mentors, Jamie Brown  in the same manner, ten years ago.  She first contacted Caroline Ambrus also through an email.  These exchanges with her peers had a seminal influence on her writing and on the direction of her life. Consequently her latest new poetry has appeared  in two prestigious Americal poetry journals,  Situation and in  Gestalten.

Currently  Maryanne is working towards the completing  two children’s books in collaboration with Caroline Ambrus. These are to be published by irrePRESSible Press in the future.  She  is also working with the artist George Gittoes on a publication that traces the effects of world wide conflicts on ordinary people. 

 
MARK TAYLOR grew up in Brisbane. At the age of 19, he postponed his studies at the University of Queensland and trained to become an Army Officer at the now defunct Officer Cadet School in Portsea, Victoria. Nine years and several postings later, he retired as an acting Major.

While travelling through Norway in 1995, Mark wrote "Dogs Are Barking".

He lives in Canberra with his wife, Sandra, and their German Shepherd, Sam.

 
 GRAEME HUME is infected with the writing disease. He’s been writing and drawing since the age of ten, is well-travelled and has lived in Singapore and South Korea.

In 1976, Graeme did a year at university where he majored in snooker. Zoe is his first novel and prior to that he wrote a lot of short stories. Graeme is a folk musician and singer and he performs in a trio called "Divided by Three" with his sister and brother "out-law". Graeme also does stand-up comic performances and storytelling at folk festivals around New South Wales. 

Graeme is also co-author and performer of "Flight of the Fat Fairy", a children’s book that appeals to adults and children alike because of its message and humour. He lives in Oaks Estate in Canberra but prefers spending his time living in more interesting worlds conjured in his mind.

 
KAAREN SUTCLIFFE The illusive eighth chronicle of Narnia first fired Kaaren Sutcliffe’s desire to write as a teenager. Kaaren entered her story, "Fever Pitch", in the inaugural Canberra Times Short Story competition and won the 6th form section. She has since studied at university, obtained a scholarship to live and work in Japan and then pursued a career in Canberra in the Department of Immigration. 

In 1998, Kaaren finished "The Pegasus Touch". Kaaren has also written several other books including: "Samarkand’s Road", "Shimmer" and "Restitution" (the last being co-authored with Kevin Summers). 

Kaaren’s biggest interest is horses, but others include distance running, reading and watching good movies. She lives just outside Canberra with her husband, Andrew, and two daughters, Elena and Mara. Kaaren also has a horse, a pony, three cats, a goose (that lives on the property next door) and six guinea pigs.

 
ROBERT VERDON  (also known as Auntie Rhoberta) has been a writer since the fall of Constantinople. He (sic) came close to winning the Anutech Prize in 1992 and was a finalist in 1994 and 1998. 
He has had many poems, short stories, articles and reviews published in Australia and abroad, and boasts a number of books to his credit, including The Well-Scrubbed Desert (Polonius, 1994), Her Brilliant Career (Aberrant Genotype Press, 1998), and My Cat Eats Spaghetti (Ginninderra Press).

Robert was a member of the layout and editing team at Aberrant Genotype Press, Canberra‚ which was a scurrilously numinous radical publisher. He has an Honours degree in English which wouldn’t get him a job at McDonald‚ even if he wasn’t pushing fifty.

the photograph (left) is Robert (right), Caroline (centre) and Maureen (left) at a Corn and Capers performance at the Erindale Library, Canberra

 
NICK GRAY  lived in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales. He wrote five plays: Vivian Crusoe, Fashions for a Nuclear Winter, Tomorrow the World..., First Aids, and Goulburn: the Musical. Exit Points (Brolga Press) was his first novel and Barking Up the Wrong Dog his second. 

 
ANNETTE SCHNEIDER is an artist who lives in the country near Queanbeyan with her partner Kate and her children Lee and Sigi. They live in a house built by Annette which has a mosaic floor with portraits of their cats. 

The family runs a riding school and they spend most weekends riding their horses at agricultural shows throughout New South Wales, and sleeping in their big Hino truck.

Annette lived in Sydney and did a Graphic Design Certificate when she left school. She has also completed a four year Fine Arts Degree and a Diploma of Education. 

Her work has been included  in Sydney Mardi Gras exhibitions,  in group exhibitions at the Canberra Museum and Art Gallery, Goulburn Regional Art Gallery, Canberra Contemporary Art Space and Bungendore Woodworks Gallery. She has had several solo exhibitions of bird masks and paintings. She has also designed several book covers. 

 
MAUREEN BURDETT A writer on the run is how Maureen describes herself. Mother of five children born between 1964 and 1989 and working full time, meant inspiration came at strange times.

Added to the years raising her children, the nine years she has worked as CEO of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, expresses her lifelong interest in young people.

A poet and author  as well as editor and historian, Maureen has performed her work at numerous venues, including schools, on radio, in cafes and at the National Folk Festival. Her own children are her biggest critics of her poetry for children.  Their all too honest opinions at the various stages of their lives have been invaluable.

Maureen plans to continue to grasp inspiration to write for children, as the young people around her provide it.