Jaclyn Moriarty


Jaclyn Moriarty is an Australian novelist, most known for her young adult literature. She is a recipient of the Davitt Award and the Aurealis Award for Best Children's Fiction.

Biography

Moriarty was raised in the north-west suburbs of Sydney. She has four sisters and one brother. Two of her sisters, Liane and Nicola, are also novelists. Moriarty studied English and Law at the University of Sydney upon graduating from high school. She then complete a Masters in Law at Yale University and a PhD at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
She worked as an entertainment and media lawyer for four years before becoming a full-time writer. The literary agent who picked up her first book, Feeling Sorry for Celia, was Australian author Garth Nix. Moriarty was previously married to Canadian writer Colin McAdam, and they have one young son, Charlie. She currently lives in Sydney.

The Ashbury/Brookfield series

The Ashbury/Brookfield Series is four novels that are not sequels but are linked. They all revolve around various students that attend the exclusive private school, Ashbury High, or the local comprehensive, Brookfield High. Many of the students cross over into more than one novel, but each novel is different and tells a different story. All novels are told through the various character's own writing.
The Ashbury/Brookfield series of novels are :

The Colours of Madeleine trilogy

This trilogy retains some familiar features of Moriarty's style, such as a loosely epistolary form. But it also marks a departure in the direction of fantasy: the premise of the trilogy is, or at least appears to be, the existence of an almost fairyland-like parallel world, sealed off from our world but in connection with it via 'cracks,' through which letters, or even people, can travel.

Kingdoms & Empires series

The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone The Slightly Alarming Tale of the Whispering Wars – winner of the 2019 Griffith University Children's Book Award at the Queensland Literary AwardsThe Stolen Prince of Cloudburst – shortlisted for 2021 Children's Book of the Year Award: Younger Readers and for the 2021 Children's Book Award at the Queensland Literary AwardsThe Astonishing Chronicles of Oscar from Elsewhere The Impossible Secret of Lillian Velvet – winner of the 2024 Children's Indie Book Award and shortlisted for the 2024 Griffith University Children's Book Award, Queensland Literary Awards

Other novels

  • I Have a Bed Made of Buttermilk Pancakes
  • The Spell Book of Listen Taylor a young adult novel that is an adaptation of I Have a Bed Made of Buttermilk Pancakes.
  • ''Gravity is the Thing''

Awards