Judith Ridge

(MENAFN- The Conversation)

• Sessional academic, University of Tasmania

Profile Articles Activity

Judith Ridge is internationally recognised as one of Australia's leading experts on literature for children and young adults. She is a writer, editor, teacher and advocate for children's literature and reading.

In a career spanning more than 30 years, Judith has worked as an English Teacher, Teacher Librarian, children's book and magazine editor, youth arts program coordinator and teacher of creative writing to adults. She is the commissioning and contributing editor of The Book That Made Me (Walker Books Australia 2016, Candlewick Press USA 2017) and co-wrote two chapters on children's literature with Professor Angela Thomas for Teaching and Learning Primary English (Oxford University Press 2021). She has acted as a judge for the NSW Literary Awards three times, is a past Board Member of the Australian Society of Authors and is currently a member of the board of TasWriters.

Judith is a Churchill Fellow and is currently working on completing her PhD on Australian children's fantasy fiction through the University of Newcastle (NSW). She is writing about five Australian authors of fantasy novels for older children: Nan Chauncy, Patricia Wrightson, Joan Phipson, Gillian Rubinstein and Kate Constable. Her research interest is focused on how White Australian authors for children have used the fantasy genre to explore how non-First Nations people can form a connection to the unceded, sovereign First Nations Country we live on as settler colonials. Judith graduated with a Masters in Children's Literature from Macquarie University in 2008, with her thesis titled "Feminist Criticism, Narrative Theory and the Fairy Tale Retellings of Donna Jo Napoli".

Judith lives in Launceston, Tasmania, in an old house she shares with two cats and too many books.

Experience

• 2016–present PhD, Children's Literature, University of Newcastle

Education

• 2008 MA, Children's Literature, Macquarie University
• 1986 BA, Dip. Ed., Macquarie University

Publications

• 2026 Visual storytelling: The power of graphic novels in literacy, Literacy Learning: The Middle Years (ALEA)
• 2021 Teaching and Learning Primary English (co-author of two chapters), Oxford University Press
• 2016 The Book That Made Me, Walker Books Australia, Candlewick Press USA

Grants and Contracts

• 2001 Churchill Fellowship Role: Funding Source: Winston Churchill Foundation

Professional Memberships

• Children's Book Council of Australia
• TasWriters
• Tasmanian Association for the Teaching of English (TATE)
• The Australasian Children's Literature Association for Research (ACLAR)
• Australian Education Union

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