AustLit logo
Clare Atkins Clare Atkins i(A148936 works by)
Born: Established: 1980 Sydney, New South Wales, ;
Gender: Female
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

BiographyHistory

Television script-writer and novelist.

Born and raised in Sydney, Clare Atkins has also lived in Bathurst, where she attended Charles Sturt University and graduated with a teaching degree, La Gomera (Spain), and in Yirrkala (Arnhem Land). In 2017, she was based in Darwin.

Post-university, Atkins was hired by the Home and Away script department (where she had completed work experience) as a script assistant and later as a script-writer. After a couple of years, she spent some time in Europe, including living in the Canary Islands, before returning to Australia and to script-writing. She worked as a script editor on Home and Away and Headland, and then co-ran an independent scriptwriting project called Represent, which focused on young writers from multicultural backgrounds: the pilot and bible for the show that Represent developed, called The Space Between was nominated for the inaugural Kit Denton Dis-fellowship (then the Kit Denton Fellowship). Her other community development work including working with Big hArt.

Atkins won a British Council scholarship to work with in the UK with Jimmy McGovern on series two of The Street, and wrote scripts for All Saints, Winners and Losers, and Wonderland.

Atkins's first novel, Nona & Me, was written while Atkins was living in Arnhem Land, still writing scripts for Wonderland. Her second novel was published in 2018.

Most Referenced Works

Personal Awards

2016 recipient Australia Council Grants, Awards and Fellowships Australia Council Literature Board Grants Literature Arts Projects For Individuals and Groups $45,000.00

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon Egg St Lucia : University of Queensland Press , 2022 24431420 2022 single work picture book children's

'A truly unique picture book about a newcomer arriving to an island inhabited by superstitious eggs. This thought-provoking story raises gentle questions about displacement, environment, xenophobia and climate refugees.

'When something strange washes up on the eggs' island, they are scared. It looks like them. But different. What if it hatches? What if there are more of them?

'Most of the eggs hope the newcomer will float back to where it came from, but one little egg is not afraid.

'Can their friendship prove there is nothing to fear?'  (Publication summary)

2023 honour book KOALA Awards Picture Book
2023 shortlisted Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year Awards Three to 5 Years
2023 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Notable Book Picture Book
y separately published work icon Between Us Collingwood : Black Inc. , 2018 12259282 2018 single work novel young adult

'Is it possible for two very different teenagers to fall in love despite high barbed-wire fences and a political wilderness between them?

'Anahita is passionate, curious and determined. She is also an Iranian asylum seeker who is only allowed out of detention to attend school. On weekdays, during school hours, she can be a ‘regular Australian girl’.

'Jono needs the distraction of an infatuation. In the past year his mum has walked out, he’s been dumped and his sister has moved away. Lost and depressed, Jono feels as if he’s been left behind with his Vietnamese single father, Kenny.

'Kenny is struggling to work out the rules in his new job; he recently started work as a guard at the Wickham Point Detention Centre. He tells Anahita to look out for Jono at school, but quickly comes to regret this, spiraling into suspicion and mistrust. Who is this girl, really? What is her story? Is she a genuine refugee or a queue jumper? As Jono and Anahita grow closer, Kenny starts snooping behind the scenes…'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

2020 shortlisted Festival Awards for Literature (SA) Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature South Australian Literary Awards Young Adult Fiction
2021 shortlisted West Australian Young Readers' Book Award Older Readers
2020 IBBY Honour Diploma Writing
2019 shortlisted Prime Minister's Literary Awards Young Adults' Fiction
2019 winner CBCA Book of the Year Awards Book of the Year: Older Readers
2019 longlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) Australian Book of the Year for Older Children
2019 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Ethel Turner Prize for Young People's Literature
2019 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Notable Book Older Readers
2019 shortlisted Victorian Premier's Literary Awards Prize for Writing for Young Adults
2018 shortlisted Readings Prizes The Readings Young Adult Book Prize
y separately published work icon Nona & Me Collingwood : Black Inc. , 2014 7988693 2014 single work children's fiction children's (taught in 1 units)

'Rosie and Nona are sisters. Yapas. They are also best friends. It doesn’t matter that Rosie is white and Nona is Aboriginal: their family connections tie them together for life.'

'The girls are inseparable until Nona moves away at the age of nine. By the time she returns, they’re in Year 10 and things have changed. Rosie prefers to hang out in the nearby mining town, where she goes to school with the glamorous Selena and her gorgeous older brother, Nick.'

'When a political announcement highlights divisions between the Aboriginal community and the mining town, Rosie is put in a difficult position: will she have to choose between her first love and her oldest friend?' (Source: Publishers website)

2016 joint winner Territory Read Book of the Year Chief Minister's NT Book Awards Chief Minister's Book of the Year Award
2016 shortlisted REAL Awards Fiction for Years 7-9
2015 longlisted Inky Awards Gold Inky
2015 honour book CBCA Book of the Year Awards Book of the Year: Older Readers
2018 shortlisted REAL Awards Fiction for Years 7-9
Last amended 6 Sep 2018 15:31:27
Other mentions of "" in AustLit:
    X