Occupation Writer Name Pamela Freeman | Role Author | |
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Genre Fantasy, children's literature Education University of Technology Sydney Awards Aurealis Award for best children's fiction Books Victor's Quest, Blood Ties, Mary's Australia, Ember and Ash, The Castings Trilogy Similar People Margo Lanagan, Paul Collins, Isobelle Carmody, Gary Crew, Justin D'Ath | ||
TKC Author's Talk, Pamela Hart, Berkleouw(Leichhardt), with the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts
Pamela Freeman is an Australian author of books for both adults and children. Most of her work is fantasy but she has also written mystery stories, science fiction, family dramas and non-fiction. Her first adult series, the Castings Trilogy (Blood Ties, Deep Water and Full Circle) is published globally by Orbit books. She is best known in Australia for the junior novel Victor’s Quest and an associated series, the Floramonde books, and for The Black Dress: Mary MacKillop’s Early Years, which won the NSW Premier’s History Prize in 2006.
Contents
- TKC Authors Talk Pamela Hart BerkleouwLeichhardt with the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts
- Biography
- Awards and nominations
- References
Biography
Freeman was born in Sydney, Australia and grew up near Parramatta. She attended the University of Technology, Sydney from 1978–1980 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications, majoring in film and television and psychology. After working in public relations in the petroleum exploration and engineering fields, she left Australia for London and spent some time there working in a variety of jobs, including a stint as a clerk for the scenery construction department of the BBC. She returned to Australia in 1984 and worked as a scriptwriter for the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, moving from there to ABC TV’s Children’s and Education Department in 1987. She was researcher and scriptwriter on a number of the department’s programs and first wrote prose stories for children for the series Watch! Your Language. Her first children’s stories were published in the NSW School Magazine and one of these became the last chapter of her first book, The Willow Tree’s Daughter.
After leaving the ABC in late 1989, Freeman began work as a consultant in organisational communications, educational designer and trainer. She also completed a Masters degree in writing at the University of Technology, Sydney in 1996. Freeman developed a speciality in the area of corruption prevention in law enforcement, particularly the support of 'internal witnesses' (people who come forward to report misconduct or corruption). She was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 1998 to study this issue in North America.
After the birth of her son in 2001, Freeman concentrated on writing and took the opportunity to complete a doctorate in creative arts at UTS. Debra Adelaide, author of The Household Guide to Dying, was her supervisor. Her thesis, Blood Ties, was her first book for adults, and is Book 1 in the Castings Trilogy, published globally by Orbit Books.
Victor's Challenge, a sequel to Victor's Quest, won the 2009 Aurealis Award for Best Children s Short Fiction/Illustrated Work/Picture Book and was a Notable Book in the Younger Readers Category, Children's Book Council of Australia Awards, 2010.
Freeman re-wrote stories from her first book, The Willow Tree's Daughter, to be suitable for much younger children. Princess Betony and the Unicorn (2012), Princess Betony and the Thunder Egg (2013) and Princess Betony and the Rule of Wishing (20103) were published in small hardback gift format by Walker Books Australia. In 2015, her non-fiction title Mary's Australia, about Australia in the time of Saint Mary Mackillop, was shortlisted for the Eve Pownall Award by the Children's Book Council of Australia.
In 2015, Freeman published a historical novel for adults, The Soldier's Wife, under the pen name Pamela Hart. (Hart is Freeman's husband's surname.) The novel draws on family stories of her grandfather's service in WWI and tells the story of a young woman living and working in a timber yard in Sydney while her husband of just a few weeks serves in the Gallipoli campaign. A companion novel, The War Bride, set in Sydney in the years after the war ends, is due for publication in 2016. Both books are published by Hachette Australia.
Freeman is Director of Creative Writing at the Australian Writer's Centre.
Freeman lives in Sydney with her husband and son.