Writers Day
15th October
Auchendarroch, Adelaide Rd. Mt Barker

Four writers will discuss their work.

Chris Daniels

Chris Daniels is Professor of Urban Ecology in the Division of Information Technology, Engineering and Environment at the University of South Australia. He is Director of the Barbara Hardy Institute which is a major research Institute with a large research agenda focused on creating sustainable communities. He facilitates and conducts research into the relationship between humans, the communities we build and the natural environment. Chris is also the presiding member of the Adelaide and Mt Lofty Ranges Natural Resource Management Board.

Chris was educated in zoology at the University of Adelaide and the University of New England. Chris has held academic positions at the University of California, Flinders University and the University of Adelaide before accepting the chair of Urban Ecology at UniSA. He is married with 2 children and lives in Adelaide.

He is a prolific publisher, with 8 books published and over 120 scientific publications. In 2005 Chris, with Catherine Tait edited the Book Adelaide Nature of a City. The second book in this series, Adelaide Water of a City was published in 2010. Both books have won numerous awards including the Whitley Award, and awards from the Planning Institute of Australia, Stormwater Industry and Australian Institute of Landscape Architects.Other books published by Chris include The Possum-tail Tree, The Ferocious Fluteplayers, A Guide to Urban Wildlife and several edited volumes on the evolution of air breathing.

Chris teaches undergraduate and postgraduate zoology and supervises a large number of research students each year. He is a member of several journal editorial boards and zoological societies including the Royal Society of SA. He holds honorary positions at ZoosSA and the SA Museum.

Chris has always had an abiding interest in reptiles, particularly lizards, and is a passionate communicator to the general community, about science and the environment. Chris has held regular sessions on 891 ABC Radio and from this relationship Chris conducted field trips with ABC listeners “into the backyard” and has run “Operation” surveys over the past 4 years.

He won the South Australian Premiers Science award for communication and education excellence in 2007 and received the medal for his contributions to natural history and conservation from the Field Naturalists Society of South Australia in 2010. He is Patron of the Unley City Council Adopt a Tree Program and Patron of the South Australian Junior Field Naturalists Society.

Carl Hancock
Born in Aberdare South Wales, Carl took Degrees in Classics and English and became a teacher. His career took him to secondary schools in Britain, Cyprus, Malta and Pembroke House in Kenya. He now lives in the Adelaide Hills. His book, Girl with the Golden Voice is set in Kenya. Other books by Carl include Black Mischief and Boss Takes All. He has recently completed a trilogy which is to be released soon.

Lolo Houbein
Author of One Magic Square, the easy, organic way to grow your own food on a 3 foot square. Lolo declares that the words flow best with a pen in her hand, yet her interests go well beyond the written word.

She tells budding writers to focus on the ‘good news’ but has also created some spectacularly good news of her own over the years. An auto-biography of race and identity, entitled Wrong Face in the Mirror, earned her the Dirk Hartog Literary Award for a work of migrant literature. Lolo has just completed the sequel to One Magic Square , titled Outside The Magic Square it is to be launched soon.

Lydia Laube
who believes that to travel hopefully is better than to arrive - and she sometimes almost doesn't - is one of Australia's favourite travel writers. Lydia can never resist a challenge, and her best-sellers, Behind the Veil : An Australian Nurse in Saudi Arabia, Llama for Lunch,The long Way Home,Slow Boat to to Mongolia, and Bound for
Vietnam, tell of her sometimes alarming adventures in far- flung corners of the globe.