The Viewer

Gary Crew has been awarded the Children’s Book Council of Australia, Book of the Year Award four times; twice for Older Readers (Strange Objects in 1991 and Angel’s Gate in 1993), and twice for Picture Books (First Light in 1993 and The Water Tower in 1996). He has also been short-listed twice for the Edgar Allan Poe Mystery Fiction Award for Youth in the USA, and has been awarded the American Children’s Book of Distinction. Gary is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing, Children’s and Adult Literature at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.

Shaun Tan was born in 1974 and grew up in the northern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia. In school he became known as the ‘good drawer’ which partly compensated for always being the shortest kid in every class. He graduated from the University of WA in 1995 with joint honours in Fine Arts and English Literature, and currently works full time as a freelance artist and author in Melbourne. Shaun began drawing and painting images for science fiction and horror stories in small-press magazines as a teenager, and has since become best known for illustrated books that deal with social, political and historical subjects through surreal, dream-like imagery. Shaun has also worked as a theatre designer, and worked as a concept artist for the films Horton Hears a Who and Pixar’s WALL-E. He is currently directing a short film with Passion Pictures Australia.