Q&A with children's author, Andrea Rowe!

Andrea Rowe is an internationally-published, acclaimed author of three picture books (and more on the way!) and many short stories. A recipient of CBCA Picture Book of the Year - Early Childhood, Australian Speech Pathology Book of the Year, Hal Porter Short Story Award, and many more, Andrea is also a 2024 May Gibbs Children's Literature Trust Fellowship recipient. She lives and writes on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula. Find Andrea online at andrearowe.com.au/

Thank you for stopping by to chat, Andrea!

1. Your latest picture board book 'In the Rockpool', illustrated by incredible Hannah Sommerville has really resonated with readers! It's been a smash hit, is reprinting, was a CBCA Notable, and was chosen to be the representative artwork for Australia's catalogue of books at Bologna Book Fair! Can you please share how this story originated and became published? 
I am so excited for In the Rockpool, it’s having a fabulous time splashing about! It’s the first in our Little World’s series,  a collection of early concept board-books aimed to inspire wide-eyed kids to become wild treasuring grown-ups. In the Rockpool was inspired by my own love of rockpool rambling with my children and the intertidal and rockpool coastal discoveries I loved discovering as a kid too.
 
I wrote it during lockdown where we were limited to 5kms in Victoria. Lucky for me that meant ocean swells and tidal rockpools! I rediscovered the joys of taking our time to peer into miniature
 
It was a small step to combine my  love of storytelling for children with my expertise in  environmental writing to create books that parents and educators can reach for to ignite conversations and inspire interactions with nature. There’s been incredible interest from bush kindergartens, outdoor playgroups and early educators to include books that reinforce respect for and curiosity with the environment.
 
Rockpools are incredible marine biomes that nurture fascinating and at-risk marine animals, and hasn’t Hannah Somerville depicted this environment so beautifully?
 
Along with our publisher Hardie Grant, I think we’ve created a series that treasures our wild places and invites families to explore them on the page, and afterwards together.
 
2.You have published two other gorgeous, evocative picture books with themes of bravery, courage, friendship and jetties and skating! Was jetty jumping and Sunday skating a part of your childhood? How much of your own life informs your writing?
While I grew to become  a seasoned jetty jumper with my brothers, in my early childhood I was the Milla of the story, scared of shadows that move and darks shapes lurking below.  Which was a problem because for much of my life, and most of my holidays were coastal, and involved a tonne of jetty jumping adventures!
 
Fortunately, now I leap with glee, and my own kids have no hesitation either.
 
But I’ll never forget that hesitation and worry, that desire to join in the fun, but fear of what lies beneath. Sometimes it takes us a while to build up our bravery. So, it was helpful to recall that feeling and steps towards confidence when I was writing Jetty Jumping. The act of leaping from jetties is such a rite of passage for so many children’s growing up in Australia, and around the world.
 
I was a big roller skater like most kids who grew up in the 1970’s./ My best friend, Flea, and I were the champion roller-skaters of my street (we were the only roller skaters on our street, but let’s not let facts get in the way of a good story!). I was particularly good at scissor skating though and when I was writing Sunday Skating, I loved recalling all the moves we created and practised after school and on weekends. I have such great memories of that time, and I equally love how skate boarding and roller-skating enables kids to build their skills, and practice on their own terms, and move as a pack though the streets. It’s such a  time of freedom!
 
I often draw on my own memories from childhood, thew transitional moments and the accomplishments when we mastered new skills, as well as that connections with friends in the outdoors. But equally, my own children have had similar experiences. I’ve witnessed them leap, slide, crash, and cry, trying again and egging each other on.
 
Those small steps and big moments in life seem to come around with the next generations, and I’m watchful for the inspiration! 
 
 
3. Jetty Jumping was your debut picture book. What was the process of having the original idea to having it published?
For me it was a fast-paced idea to manuscript writing.  I had a fully formed plot in a day. From there it was a 2-week  process re-writing and editing. But the pitching to publishers was a little longer. I was fortunate that Hardie Grant’s then commissioning editor  Margrete Lamond, accepted the book as soon as she read it. From there, I had the most minimal of edits. I recall when Margrete emailed me to offer the contracts she started with the lines ‘Congratulations on a near-perfect manuscript.’  Quite the acceptance! (I just wish all my manuscripts felt so effortless! ) 
 
It was a 5-year process from contract to publication though which isn’t always the norm. Sometimes things get derailed slightly in picture book production, but luckily, I’m a patient person! It came out in lockdown when we had the smallest of windows for a little book launch. It was all worth the wait though as Jetty Jumping has continued to resonate with booksellers, librarians and educators and readers.
 
 
4. Jetty Jumping won CBCA Early Childhood Picture Book of the Year and the 2023 Aust Speech Pathology Book of the Year. You have also won short-story contests writing adult fiction, like Mulga Bill Award and Hal Porter Short Story Award. How important are awards and that kind of peer recognition? 
Awards are so validating, they’re like a gentle nudge, and sometimes a hearty big shove that says ‘Keep going. We like what you’re doing’. Awards can feel highly personal, a reward for all the things you miss out on, turn away from and shut out when you are writing. They’re also incredibly motivating – certainly the short story awards I’ve achieved have been goals that I work towards, and prompts that I have enjoyed writing to.  I also love knowing that entering awards  gives you direct access to judges who analyse how you tackle a story. It all helps me refine my own writing craft. 
 
For picture book awards, it’s been incredibly humbling to learn how these awards inform educators and specialists in working with children, and inform decisions parents  make too in what books to reach for. It’s a privilege when awards for books have happened and I don’t take it for granted. But,  I don’t sit down to write a story thinking ‘this will be the award winner’. It’s all about the story. The awards, when they have happened, have been a wonderful surprise. And equally, I read my peers award-winning books and marvel at their skill and creativity. I respect how they’ve evolved a story, and I am inspired by their thinking.
 
 
5.What things have you now learned in your writing and publishing experience, compared to when you first began? 
I think I’m constantly learning.
The biggest thing is acceptance. I’ve learnt personally to accept that there are stages of writing a book for me  – excitement, creative inspiration, curiosity, self-questioning, doubt, frustration, anxiety. I regularly experience this cycle so I’ve learnt to lean into the emptions and accept it’s how I roll with writing. I don’t let these emotions talk me out of writing a story.
 
And I’ve also learnt that feedback and rejection makes you a better writer, or helps you refine a better story. Feedback from an experienced editor or publisher is a wonderful way of getting the balance write in a book, and reinforces that you are part of a collective, producing something  that a reader better connect with. I’ve come to get really excited about feedback now, I like where it can lead me.

One thing I am often sharing with others is how your first draft is you telling yourself the story, and to accept that there may be several evolutions of a story before it feels right for publisher, illustrator, and editor, as well as yourself.
 
One other thing that I have loved learning, is how your work as an author doesn’t stop when  book is out there in the world. It’s a new stage if you’re open to it.  Publicity, promotions, social media, author visit, book signings, library workshops – there’s ample scope to build on your presence as a writer and to keep your book current and connected with others. It’s something that I’ve found incredibly enjoyable.
 
6. Your manuscript The Everyday Tutu was the story for the Little Hare Illustration Prize. You also have a companion book to In the Rockpool with Hannah Sommerville coming out in December.  Can you share a little teaser about what to expect from what is coming up for you? 
Hannah and I are so in love with this book. I cannot wait for you to see the cover! Amid the Sand Dunes is a rousing chant in tribute to the sounds the dunes make. Sand dunes actually sing, and there’s such a symphony of sound in the dunes, both from nature and from those who explore it.
 
Hannah and I wanted to capture the way both creatures and kids in the dunes bring a happy harmony of noise to these towering, tumbling dunes. It’s a perfect partner for In the Rockpool as the Little Worlds series for early readers too. 
 
 
7. And to end on a fun, but tricky note: name 3 classic or current Australian children's books every bookshelf should have and why?  
This is so hard. There are so many! I’ll just have to apply the luck dip principal and shine the spotlight on 3 out of my many!
 
I will always be an adoring fan of Alison’s Lester’s Magic Beach. I’ll aways gravitate to an oceanic read, and it reminds us of the make-believe of childhood and adventures a family builds up over beach holidays. Anything can happen at our Magic Beach.
 
A classic book that I adore is Nadia Wheatley and Donna Rawlin’s My Place. When I first read this book, I adored unpacking the history of one piece of land and the kids who live there in Sydney from 1788 to 1988. It’s like a time machine.  The book steps through the history of traditional owners, colonisation and immigration, and the images are superb. I’ve always loved how this book combined fiction and non-fiction elements through text and illustrations.
 
Margaret Wild’s There’s a Sea in my Bedroom. (I know – beach reads again!)  The language in this book is so beautiful, it’s such an intimate and enormous story between a boy and the sea. I love that the amazing Margaret Wild surprises you as a reader with the twist this tale takes. It's a perfect combination of imagination and how a child moves through what challenges him. And if you gave me a 4th book to love, I’d give an equal shout out for Margaret Wild’s gleeful The Midnight Gang. It must be an utter joy to be a comet riding baby in a Margaret Wild picture book!