Author Visits

Looking for a multi-published children’s author for school visits and other presentations? Kellie is available for author visits on the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne, and elsewhere.

Invite Kellie to come and speak to your class, school, library patrons, festival visitors and other guests on numerous topics. Author sessions can cover book readings and interactive activities; workshops with specific exercises; and talks on a writer's life, publishing, storytelling techniques and more. Kellie is represented by Speakers Ink and Greenleaf Press.

Please contact Speakers Ink or Kellie directly for further information about author visits in Brisbane or the Sunshine Coast (where Kellie is based). Kellie is also available for school visits in Sydney, author talks in Melbourne, and school presentations anywhere else around the country or internationally, including in regional areas. She is happy to travel for author events, though travel fees are charged.

Kellie also loves being an author who presents at literary festivals, and she’s keen to speak about a writer’s life, the publishing process and industry, and writing children’s books at libraries, too. Plus, Kellie’s available to present talks and workshops at writers’ conferences, particularly kidlit writing conferences and related events.

As an internationally-published children’s author and long-term freelance writer for hire, Kellie can speak about a variety of topics, to many different ages, from young children up to adults.

Her first picture book, Cloud Conductor, addresses themes of creativity and dealing with challenging times. It also ties in to curriculum studies on the natural environment, weather patterns, the seasons, clouds, visual literacy, and more. Kellie’s second picture book, Evie is all Ears, about a bilby who struggles to hear, addresses themes of diversity, acceptance, friendship, family, and self-confidence. It ties in to curriculum studies on Australian animals and their biology and environments, the five senses, culture and society, visual literacy, and more.

Kellie’s third picture book, One Remarkable Reef, is a rhyming, counting story that showcases some of the threatened marine life on the Great Barrier Reef. It has many ties to the curriculum, including Australian animals and their biology and habitats, conservation and sustainability, climate change, poetry and other language techniques, maths, visual literacy, etc.

Kellie’s fourth picture book, Yes! No. is fun and lighthearted and, though light on text (it only contains the words Yes and No alternated), it provides plenty of story visually, making it excellent for students to develop their visual literacy skills. It’s also just a lovely simple text for early readers to have fun with, as they can chime in with the alternating words as the story progresses.

Kellie’s fifth picture book, This is NOT a Book! is a humorous meta-fiction story in which a character is sure they’re NOT a character, and certainly NOT in a book! The text introduces children to all the elements of story in an innovative way while the illustrations provide readers with enough details to warrant plenty of re-readings.

All these books are geared towards young readers, aged around 4 to 8 years. (Note: One Remarkable Reef and Yes! No. are well-suited to toddlers aged around 2-4 years, too.) Kellie can perform a reading, answer a Q&A, and direct a craft activity for students in prep or Grades 1 or 2.

In addition, Kellie can speak to students in any year, or to adults where appropriate, about the following topics (45-60 minute talks and 60-90 minute workshops are available): 

- Imagination, and where ideas come from

- How we can use creativity to help ourselves and others

- Weather patterns, the seasons, clouds

- Story Conductor - elements of story and structure

- Making of a picture book

- Fun with language

- Using the five senses in writing

- The roles of authors, illustrators, and publishers

- A writer's life

- Writing effective story beginnings and endings

- Characterisation

- The many forms of storytelling and ways stories can be shared

- Revision, revision, revision

- Creative resilience - how to deal with setbacks, challenges, and rejections

-Productivity - tips and tools for greater output

Would you prefer Kellie to speak about another, specific topic during an author visit or literary event? Or perhaps you'd like to engage her for day-long programs or immersive residencies? Or would a Skype visit from a children’s author suit you better? That's no problem, just get in touch to make a request or learn more about booking an author visit.

Kellie is also part of the Greenleaf Press team, and can visit your location for events. In particular, Greenleaf organises many wonderful KinderFest events, which involve three creatives in total speaking on the day. KinderFests are 2 hour miniature literary festivals for very young children, designed to entertain young ones and educate them on the importance of reading and having books in their lives. 

KinderFests are perfect for daycare centres, preschools, kindergartens, Pre-Prep and Prep, and for events such as Grandparent and Special Friend Days, Book Week, Library Week, Open Days, Numeracy & Literacy Week and the like.

 TESTIMONIALS ABOUT KELLIE’S SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS:

“The library still is a buzz with excitement after Kellie’s amazing presentation! The children and teachers all had a wonderful time. Thank you for inspiring the next generation and fostering their love of reading!” - Alice Schafer, Teacher Librarian, Brighton State School

“Kellie has a wonderful rapport with children and had them completely entranced at our event for 'Cloud Conductor'. We loved having her at Riverbend.” - Vicky, Riverbend Books, Brisbane

“Today the Kindergarten Children enjoyed story time and activities with Kellie Byrnes. She is the author of ‘Cloud Conductor’. Thank you Kellie for spending the morning with us for book week! 📚” - Bracken Ridge Child Care Centre

“The Launch of Cloud Conductor at Books of Buderim made for a special Saturday morning at the bookshop. We were in great hands as Kellie Byrnes offered up some insights into her love of children’s books and how she feels the child in her allows her to connect with our children.

Kellie had us all entranced with her reading of Cloud Conductor. Offering insights and questions for the children to consider about the formation of clouds and how your imagination can be ignited even when you’re not able to go anywhere by just opening up to the possibilities around us.

Kellie then took the children through a craft activity creating clouds and rainbows that the children proudly decorated and showed to us all. Kellie offered support and encouragement to be creative but allowed the children to come about their drawings and decorations in the individual ways they could dream up. The children drew what they saw in the clouds that was always interesting and different.

I would happily recommend Kellie for author visits with primary and preschool children, able to offer the children a unique perspective on exploring your imagination.” - Fiona Blond, Owner, Books of Buderim