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Cristy Burne

Cristy Burne is an award-winning internationally published children’s author working on the intersection of story, science, technology and creativity.

Cristy has worked at CERN (home of the Large Hadron Collider!), at Questacon (as part of a science circus!), and in a ute (as a rubbish collector!). She has also bungee-jumped, sky-dived, back-packed, and exploded sewage on her neighbour.

Cristy’s books have been shortlisted for the WA Premier’s Book Awards and the Wilderness Society’s Environment Award for Children’s Literature, won the WA Young Readers Book Awards, and been recognised as Notable Books in the Children’s Book Council of the Australia awards.

Cristy is passionate about science, creativity and adventure. 
Visit www.cristyburne.com for more information.

 

Long-rambling-random-facts

– Before I became an Incredibly Famous children’s author, I was a science circus performer, garbage analyst, Santa’s pixie, magazine editor and atom-smashing reporter (at CERN in Switzerland). I was working at CERN when they turned on the atom-smashing Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Below is a picture of me walking to work through sunflower fields on the way to work (for real).

– I’ve slept out (alone) on the Great Wall of China, travelled the Southern Silk Road in an ancient 4WD with no spare tire, and paddled for five days down the Whanganui River with my husband and two kids.

– My best-selling children’s book Takeshita Demons won the 2009 Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Book Award and was selected as part of the UK’s Booktrust Booked Up program. The book was inspired by my time in Japan, where I lived for three years, working as a teacher, editor and translator. I also learned to scuba dive in Japan (sugoi desu ne!).

–  I also work as a science journalist and have written about giant wetas, DNA technology, women’s boxing, Japanese paragliding and jellyfish swarms (just to name a few). My first published magazine article was about the science of ear wax. You can read it here.

–  I have a Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology, a Graduate Diploma in Science Communication, and a Masters in Professional Communication. I have taught at Curtin University for several years (I taught Writing for Children and Communicating With Asia For Engineers at Curtin University, but never at the same time ;-)).

–  My first children’s manuscript, One Weekend with Killiecrankie, won a Young and Emerging Writer fellowship at Australia’s Varuna House and went on to win the 2008 Voices on the Coast writing competition.

– You can follow me on Twitter, or on Facebook, or Instagram, but be careful with the spelling (people always spell my name wrong: I get Christie Bern, Chris Burns, Christy Burns, Christie Burne, Kristy Burns…you name it!)

– I grew up on a kiwifruit orchard in New Zealand and spent my childhood climbing trees, jumping drains, herding cows and inventing stories.

– I volunteered for six years with SCBWI Australia West, including three years as Assistant Regional Advisor. I’ve also worked as Curator of WA’s biennial HeARTlines Children’s Literature and Book Illustration Festival from 2013 – 2018.

– I love dark chocolate, hiking, energetic people, dogs, bicycles, opportunities and good luck.

–  I dislike queues, banks, cats, and having cold feet.

–  I think I was a cute kid 🙂