John Marsden (writer) facts for kids

John Marsden (27 September 1950 – December 2024) was an Australian writer and alternative school principal. He wrote more than 40 books in his career and his books have been translated into many languages. He is especially known for his young adult novel Tomorrow, When the War Began, which began a series of seven books.

Marsden began writing for children while working as a teacher, and had his first book, So Much to Tell You, published in 1987. In 2006, he started an alternative school, Candlebark School, and reduced his writing to focus on teaching and running the school. In 2016, he opened the arts-focused secondary school, Alice Miller School. Both schools are in the Macedon Ranges.

Early life and education

John Marsden was born on 27 September 1950 in Melbourne, Victoria. He had three siblings. He spent the first 10 years of his life living in the country towns of Kyneton, Victoria, and Devonport, Tasmania. He was a great-great-great-great nephew of colonial Anglican clergyman and magistrate Rev. Samuel Marsden.

When Marsden was 10 years old, he moved to Sydney and attended The King's School, Parramatta. He was accepted into Sydney University to study a double degree in law and arts, but eventually dropped out. He worked at different jobs, including an abattoir, working in a mortuary, delivering pizzas, working as a motorbike courier, working as a nightwatchman, selling encyclopaedias, and working with chickens.

Writing career

Early career

While working at Geelong Grammar School's Timbertop campus as an English teacher, Marsden made the decision to write for teenagers, following his dissatisfaction with his students' apathy towards reading, or the observation that teenagers simply were not reading anymore. Marsden then wrote So Much to Tell You in only three weeks, and the book was published in 1987. The book sold record numbers and won numerous awards including "Book of the Year" as awarded by the Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA).

In the five years following the publication of So Much To Tell You, Marsden published six more books. Notable works from this period are Out of Time, which was nominated by the CBCA as a notable book for older readers, and Letters From the Inside and a sequel to So Much to Tell You called Take My Word For It, which were both shortlisted for the CBCA's Children's Book of the Year: Older Readers award. Upon publication in the United States, Letters From the Inside received accolades from The Horn Book Magazine and the American Library Association. American novelist Robert Cormier found the novel "unforgettable" and described Marsden as a "major writer deserving of world-wide acclaim".

Later career

In 1993, Marsden published Tomorrow, When the War Began, the first book in the Tomorrow series and his most acclaimed and best-selling work. Marsden went on to write seven books in the Tomorrow series, together with a follow-up trilogy, The Ellie Chronicles, despite originally intending the series to only consist of a trilogy.

At the same time as writing the Tomorrow series, Marsden wrote several other novels such as Checkers, edited works such as This I Believe, wrote children's picture books such as The Rabbits, poetry such as Prayer for the Twenty-First Century, and non-fiction works such as Everything I Know About Writing and Secret Men's Business. He wrote more than 40 books in his career.

Recognition and accolades

In 1996, Marsden's books took the top six places on the Teenage Fiction best-seller lists for Australia. Also in 1996, he was named "Australia's most popular author today in any literary field" by The Australian. In 1997, Australian readers voted three of his books into Australia's 100 most-loved books of all time. His books have also been translated into many languages.

Marsden won every major writing award in Australia for young people's fiction, including what he described as one of the highlights of his career, the 2006 Lloyd O'Neil Award for contributions to Australian publishing. This award means that Marsden is one of only five authors to be honoured for lifelong services to the Australian book industry.

He was twice named among Best Books of the Year by the American Library Association and once by Publishers Weekly, has been runner-up for Dutch Children's Book of the Year and short-listed for the German Young Readers' Award, won the Grand Jury Prize as Austria's Most Popular Writer for Teenagers, and won the coveted Buxtehude Bull in Germany.

In 2008 he was nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, the world's largest children's and youth literature award and the second largest literature prize in the world.

In 2014, Lyndon Terracini announced that Opera Australia had co-commissioned Kate Miller-Heidke to write an opera based on Marsden's The Rabbits. The work, The Rabbits, premiered in 2015 in Perth, and was staged in Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane, winning several awards.

In December 2018, Marsden was awarded the Dromkeen Medal, in recognition of his outstanding achievement in children's and young adult literature.

Schools

In 2006, Marsden started an alternative school, Candlebark School, catering for years R-12, in the Macedon Ranges. He reduced his writing to focus on teaching and running the school. In 2016, he opened the arts-focused secondary school, Alice Miller School, also in the Macedon Ranges.

Personal life, death and legacy

Marsden was married to Kristin, and had six stepsons. He died in December 2024, at the age of 74. Alice Miller School wrote a letter to parents, stating that he had died while writing at his desk at home.

Marsden was patron of Express Media, a youth arts organisation, which has awarded the annual John Marsden Prize for Young Australian Writers since 2005.

Published works

Tomorrow series

Other works