Lili Wilkinson


Lili Wilkinson is an Australian author. She has also written for several publications, including The Age, and managed insideadog.com.au, a website for teenagers about books, as part of her role at the Centre For Youth Literature at the State Library of Victoria until January 2011.

Early life

Wilkinson was born in Melbourne, the daughter of children's author, Carole Wilkinson, and film and television sound recordist, John Wilkinson. She attended Spensley Street Primary School and Mac.Robertson Girls' High School, and has referred to her high school self as "a bit of a nerd". Heavily involved in drama, in Year 7 she played Aphrodite in a musical version of the Greek epic Odyssey.

Influences

Wilkinson has spoken of her love for the work of Diana Wynne Jones, David Almond and Lewis Carroll in interviews. She has also revealed that Shaun Tan is her favourite illustrator. She has been quoted as saying: "My favourite books would be Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones and Through the Looking-Glass and [What Alice Found There] by Lewis Carroll. Oh, and Love That Dog by Sharon Creech. And The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt. Do I have to stop there?"

Doctoral thesis

In 2015, Wilkinson completed a PhD in Writing which examined the influence of young adult fiction on the politicisation of teenagers.

Works

Novels