Antarctic Closeup – a W-I-P writing diary

  • Hazel Edwards

Abstract

The latest work from Hazel Edwards’ adventure as recipient of the Australian Antarctic Division's Humanities Program 2001 berth is Antarctic Closeup, a young readers’ novel based around the story of John Collinson Close’s Antarctic telescope.  It was commissioned by the Australian National Museum for its Making Tracks series which is based around items from their collection. This W-I-P (work-in-progress) diary explores the process of building that story from the historical facts, but with a little fictional licence.  As 2007 is the International Polar Year, part of the brief was to include a child in the Mawson Expedition of 1911, to enable today’s children to identify with the Antarctic world of that period.

Author Biography

Hazel Edwards
David Beagley is Lecturer in Children's Literature and Literacy at La Trobe University's Bendigo campus, Victoria, Australia, where he teaches units in Genres, History, Australian and Post-colonial children's literature. He has previously taught in secondary schools, and has been a school and university librarian.
Section
Jabberwocky