AustLit

Hartnett comments on the difference in treatment of Australian writers for children compared with those who write for adults. She recounts her experience at a literary festival to illustrate her view that children's writers are 'expected to be clown-like entertainers' while writers for adults are treated with far greater regard. As the writers who 'keep children and teenagers reading', Hartnett argues that children's writers 'should be treated with the utmost, rather than the very least, respect.'

Hartnett further highlights disparity in treatment in the area of awards' prizemoney. She points out that some major awards (for instance the Miles Franklin and The Age Book of the Year) specifically exclude writing for children; in other awards the prizemoney offered to children's writers is considerably less than that offered to writers of adult fiction. However, it is writing for children 'that is carried in the reader's heart for a lifetime; it is writing that speaks to the future.'