Ray's Olympics

Libby Gleeson was born in Young, Australia in 1950. After high school she studied at the University of Sydney. Gleeson taught for two years in a small town, Picton, which is just outside of Sydney, but in 1976, she took time off to travel for five years.

Gleeson based herself first in Italy where she taught English and then in London where she started writing her first novel, Eleanor, Elizabeth. She also attended a creative writing group where the other students pushed her to write a better book. After returning Gleeson taught at the University of NSW, but soon quit to write full-time. In the last twenty years, she's written twenty books and also taught occasional courses in creative writing and visited schools to talk about her work.

Gleeson has won the Lady Cutler Award for Services to Children's Literature, in 1997, the Children's Book Council of Australia, the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, the Victorian Premier's Awards, the South Australian Literary Awards, the Prime Minister's Multicultural Awards, the Children's Literature Peace Prize, and the Young Australian Readers Award (YARA). In 2015 she won a Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year Award in the Younger Reader Category with her title, The Cleo Stories: The Necklace and The Present. She also won a (CBCA) in the Early Childhood category with her title Go to Sleep, Jessie!. The Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) also presented her with the 2015 Nan Chauncy Award for her work in Australian children's literature. Her title Banjo and Ruby Red made the IBBY Australian Honour Books List for Books for Young People. She is also an Astrid Lindgren award nominee.

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