| Biog: |
LIAN TANNER is a children's fiction writer and playwright. Her first children's novel, Rats!, was published by Lothian Books in 2004. She is currently writing her second children's novel with the help of a grant from the Literature Board of the Australia Council. She has had two radio plays broadcast on Radio National's 'Airplay' - Inquest into the Disappearance of a Sensible Woman (2004), and Underworld (2002). Her puppetry play for adults, Corpus Nullius, was performed at the 1996 International Festival of Puppetry in Budapest, and her plays for children, Heroes, Yolla and I've Got Wind, have been produced by Terrapin Theatre and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. Lian was writer/dramaturg for Windpiece and Invertebrate, two large-scale community performance pieces for the 2004 and 2006 Tasmanian Mountain Festivals. Lian's short stories for children have been regularly published in School Magazine, the NSW Department of Education's literary magazine for children. Her stories for adults have been published in Island and Southerly. Lian has worked as a teacher in Australia and Papua New Guinea, as well as a professional actor, a freelance journalist, a social planning consultant and a tourist bus driver. She has a degree in Earth Sciences and an Associate Diploma in Performing Arts, and lives by the beach in Tasmania. Lian also works as a mansucript assessor of fiction for young people. See below for more biodata. |
| Current Projects: |
WRITING EXPERIENCE: 2006Ø Writer/dramaturg for Windpiece, a community performance for the 2006 Mountain Festival. 2004Ø Children’s novel, Rats!, published by Lothian Books. Ø Writer/dramaturg for Invertebrate, a community performance for the 2004 Mountain Festival.Ø Radio play Inquest Into the Disappearance of a Sensible Woman commissioned and broadcast by ABC Radio National’s ‘Airplay’. Ø Grant of $15,000 from the Literature Board to write the children’s novel Museum of Thieves.Ø Short play Labyrinth read at the 2004 JUTE Conference in Cairns. 2003 Ø Rehearsed reading of radio play Underworld in Perth, WA, as part of Playwrights’ Exchange. 2002Ø Children’s musical theatre piece I’ve Got Wind produced by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra. Ø I Survived, five short scripts based on true experiences of domestic violence, read at a Department of Health/University of Tasmania conference. Ø Radio play Underworld commissioned and broadcast by ABC Radio National’s ‘Airplay’.Ø Short stories Rewind and Heads You Lose published in School Magazine, a children's literary magazine produced by the NSW Department of Education. 2001 Ø Puppet play Corpus Nullius staged by Terrapin as part of the adult show Insatiable. Ø Short play Labyrinth published in Interior Despots, an anthology of Australian writing on repression.Ø Children’s stories Mrs Mickelhoffer Sits Down and Give a Dog a Good Name published in School Magazine. 2000Ø Children’s story Hairy Scary published in School Magazine. 1994 Ø Corpus Nullius, an innovative puppet show for adults, staged by Terrapin Theatre in Hobart’s Peacock Theatre. Corpus Nullius also toured to the 1996 International Festival of Puppetry in Budapest and the Aqueous Festival in Noosa, Queensland. Ø Commissioned by Terrapin Theatre to write Yolla, a puppet play for schools based around the ideas and images of a group of Tasmanian Aboriginal teenagers. WORK HISTORY (cont…) 1993onwn Ø Collaborative visual theatre project Puppets, Androids and Icons, written for Terrapin Theatre. 1992Ø Commissioned by Terrapin Theatre to write Heroes, a play for primary school children. Heroes toured Tasmanian schools, was performed at the 1993 NADIE Conference in Melbourne and had two seasons in Hobart’s Peacock Theatre. 1989 – 1991 Ø Wrote Turtle and Cave Clan for Salamanca Theatre Company, and was part of the group which devised the plays Highest Mountain Fastest River, Thirst and Fossils. TEACHING EXPERIENCE: 2004Ø Creative Writing Tutor in the Clarence Council workshop series A Taste of Things to Come.Ø School workshops in fiction writing at Sacred Heart College, Star of the Sea College, Glen Dhu Primary, Lauderdale Primary, Ulverstone Primary and Elizabeth College. 1992-1995Ø Taught creative writing skills at Risdon Maximum Security Prison, Adult Education and Adult Literacy. EDITING EXPERIENCE: 2001-2006 Ø In-house editor and script assessor for the Australian Script Centre (ongoing). Ø Freelance editor working on material for the Department of Women’s Health, the Cradle Coast Authority and the Southern Regional Natural Resource Management Committee. MENTORING EXPERIENCE (both as mentor and as mentored): 2002Ø Awarded an Australia Council/Australian Society of Authors’ mentorship to work with author Gary Crew on the children’s novel Rats. 2001Ø Mentored Greta Harrison (emerging playwright) for the Tasmanian Writers’ Centre. 1999Ø Awarded one of three Australia-wide mentorships in the AWG/ABC Radio Mentorship Scheme for New Radio Writers to work with playwright Alma de Groen. |
| Writing Interests: |
Writing for the stage, screen or radio;Young Adult / Children |
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