The Dixson Library, at the University of New England, has put up an exhibition of works from the Residencies.  

If you're in the area, and want to see what the wonderful illustrators and writers produced while at UNE, please do drop in!  

We'll take some photographs and post them here, and on facebook.

Below are the posters that will accompany the exhibit, which includes original illustrations by Kevin Burgemeestre, Trent Denham, Jules Faber, Clare McFadden, Tina Matthews, Anne Spudvilas, Danny Stanley, and Lisa Stewart.

The exhibit is timed to connect with National Book Week, and the Announcements of the Children's Book Council of Australia's Book of the Year in a number of categories, including Picture Books, Novels, Informational Texts.  








Danny interviewed by Kelly Fuller of ABC New England North West





Anne Interviewed by Kelly Fuller of ABC New England North West


Anne and Danny visited Kingstown Primary School this week to teach the kids how to draw cats and comics.  

A great time was had by all!













Danny Stanley will be arriving this Saturday for his residency!  

Details below.  






Anne Spudvilas will be arriving on Saturday for her residency!  

Details of her public talk below



Tina Matthews: Report from the field 

by Ciara Hadley (Year 10, O'Connor Catholic)

Tina Matthews was the first of the writers and illustrators in residence for 2014 and visited from the 25th of May to the 9th of June.

She ran a range of activities within the community, which included ‘From Puppets to Picture Books: A Conversation with Tina Matthews’ and a minizine-making workshop.

‘From Puppets to Picture Books’ was held on the 29th of May in the Arts Lecture Theatre 3, where she discussed, amongst other things, the process of creating a picture book, her previous jobs, and the challenges of publishing andpromoting her work.

Tina’s website;

‘From Puppets to Picture Books: A Conversation with Tina Matthews.’

On the 29th of May at 4.10pm, Tina Matthews sat with Dr. Elizabeth Hale to discuss her work in the Arts Lecture Theatre 3.

Tina has three books published (Out of the Egg, A Great Cake and Waiting for Later) and one book due to be published in august (So Many Wonderfuls). While in Armidale she was also working on another book based of an old story called ‘The Three Sillies’ about the consequences of worrying too much.

As well as writing, Tina has previously worked as a puppeteer and a musician.  She talked about the way she felt puppetry had influenced the structural nature with which she made the pictures for her books.

She was involved in many children’s shows- such as the Bananas in Pajamas and the movie Labyrinth, but claimed she always found picture books important and had planned her first book, Out of The Egg for a long time.

Tina also discussed the process of making a picture book, especially making pictures out of woodblock and stenciling, which many of her books include.

She talked, with Dr. Elizabeth Hale, about planning one of her books, and how she managed to organize her ideas into the correct format using small paper books called ‘zines’ or ‘minizines’.

Finally, Tina had some words of advice for budding authors, saying you ‘shouldn’t write just to get published’.


Tina also held a minizine-making workshop on Thursday the 5th of June at Gallery 123 where she showed people how to fold an A4 or A3 piece of paper to make a small 8-page book.

She explained how she uses these zines to plan her own books and found them helpful because of the book-like format and the way they could be easily photocopied.

Tina also helped some people make miniature hardback covers for their books and provided magazines for inspiration. It was a fun and interesting workshop.

To create your own minizines, visit:



Danny Stanley (August 2014)

Danny Stanley will also be visiting Armidale from the 2nd of August to the 17th

He is a graphic novelist who has been commissioned to work on a comic discouraging young people to sell inhalants to their friends and a comic for the Tamworth magazine ‘Downtown’. He has also created an eight page comic entitled ‘The Death and Resurrection of Greg Alms’ for the anthology Steampunk Originals and worked with Ray Medhora to create a children’s book called One Rabbit, Different Worlds. While in Armidale, he will be working on another graphic novel, entitled Property Damage that will be aimed at young adults.


Other 2014 residencies: