Tina Matthews

Tina Matthews writes and illustrates books using printing, stencil, pencil, needle, thread and Photoshop to create the pictures. She is a visiting author and artist in schools, libraries and festivals.

Tina’s first book Out of the Egg, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Walker Books Australia, won the Best First Book in NZ Children’s Book Awards 2008 and was listed as a CBCA Notable Book in 2008. Waiting for Later was short-listed for the 2011 Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards and a finalist in NZ Children's Book Awards and the 2012 LIANZA (librarians) Awards. These two titles are included in the NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge. A Great Cake, published in 2012, won the 2013 LIANZA Russell Clark Award for illustration. So Many Wonderfuls, published in 2014, was a finalist in the LIANZA illustration awards and has been reprinted in 2015.

Tina has worked as a puppet maker and writer in children's theatre and television, including for ABC TV's Bananas in Pyjamas and The Ferals, The Upside Down Show and Jim Henson's Labyrinth. She has taught puppetry at NIDA for many years in the Bachelor of Fine Arts course. She designed and produced the bestselling Black and White Baby Mobile for newborn babies which has sold over 30,000 copies.

Tina was Writer in Residence at University of New England in 2014 and has worked with Judith Ridge at WestWords (Western Sydney Young People’s Literature Development Project) as an author and bookmaker.

For more information visit her website.