October 15, 2018

Event: Workshop at Brimbank Writers’ and Readers’ Festival 2018

I’m looking forward to running a workshop with forty lucky kids as part of the Brimbank Writers’ and Readers’ Festival 2018 in Victoria. It’ll be happening on Saturday, 10 Nov 2018 starting at 2pm.

Here’s the gist:

Matt Shanks presenting a workshop

Do you want your own personal letter from Matt’s CBCA Notable award-winning character, Eric the Postie? Matt will spend this session guiding children and parents in the lost art of letter writing (one of Eric’s favourite activities ever!)

Kids will end the session by ‘posting’ their own letter to Eric. Then, a few weeks later, Eric will send individual letters out with a personal reply! All replies include a Wattleford Post letterhead, a signature of Eric, all hand-typed on a typewriter. Parents and children will be notified when they can collect their letters from Deer Park library a week or so after the event.

For more information and to reserve your place, visit the Brimbank Writers’ and Readers’ Festival website.

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My deep gratitude to our traditional custodians

I have lived and worked my whole life in Gadigal and Boon Wurrung Country in what we now call Australia. I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which I do my work and I pay my respects to elders past and present. I acknowledge the sorrow of the stolen generations and the impacts of colonisation on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. I also recognise the resilience, strength and pride of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and through my work, aim to help as much as I can to empower and help them thrive.

About the author

Matt Shanks is an internationally-published and critically-acclaimed author/illustrator of over twenty picture books. Eric the Postie (2018) and Queen Celine (2019) were both awarded Notables by the CBCA for Picture Book of The Year. Rosie the Rhinoceros, written by Australian rock legend Jimmy Barnes, and Herman Crab, written by one of Australia’s favourite comedians, Peter Helliar, is available now. Matt is a two-time fellow of the May Gibbs’ Children’s Literature Trust, an Australian Literary and Numeracy Foundation ambassador, co-editor of Words Like This, and works primarily in watercolour. He lives in Melbourne, Victoria, with his partner and cat.

Learn more at www.mattshanks.com.au