Showcasing Gabrielle Wang – Children’s author, illustrator and friend

I’m continuing my blog posts showcasing my children’s writer and illustrator friends and colleagues and this week’s post is about author/illustrator Gabrielle Wang.

Gabi and I met somewhere around 2006 probably at a pre-Christmas lunch for children’s writers and illustrators, or at John Marsden’s Tye Estate or perhaps at a SCBWI event – neither of us can remember for certain.  Not long after we both flew to Sydney for a week long creative writing workshop called Catch the Whisper. It is still one of the best workshops that we have ever been part of.

We sat in the gardens of the NSW Writers’ Centre at Rozelle, imagining we were in exotic places overseas and learned how to create with a new-found freedom. We immersed ourselves in a heightened sense of creativity.

 

Gabi and I stayed in an apartment block in nearby Balmain, I still managed to do my early morning walks and some days we walked or caught the bus to Rozelle. At the end of each day we ventured about Sydney discovering new places, riding ferries and gathering information for our works in progress. I think this is where Gabi also introduced me to Chai Lattes and that tradition still continues.

As I recall Gabi was working on her beautiful novel Little Paradise, partly set in Shanghai, published by Penguin and inspired by a true story about her parents. I was working on my first picture book with Owen Swan, My Friend Tertius, published by Allen and Unwin partly set in Hong Kong, around the same era, so we had much to chat about.

Gabi is a wonderful presenter at schools and festivals and in recent times has returned a little more to her first love, illustrating.

Have a look at her website to learn more about her and her accomplishments. https://gabriellewang.com/

Gabi is also very active on social media.    https://www.instagram.com/gabriellewangbooks/

https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=gabrielle%20wang%20author