Felicity Castagna Felicity Castagna i(A64260 works by)
Gender: Female
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BiographyHistory

Sydney-based writer and teacher.

Born in Australia but raised in places including North America and Asia, Castagna is now based in Parramatta.

Castagna won the 2014 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Young Adult Fiction for her novel, The Incredible Here and Now, which was shortlisted for the Children’s Book Council of Australia and NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, and adapted for the stage by the National Theatre of Parramatta.

Her collection of short stories, Small Indiscretions, was named an Australian Book Review Book of the Year. Castagna’s work has appeared on radio and television, and she runs the storytelling series Studio Stories.

She has been the editor of the Australian poetry magazine, Hermes

Felicity Castagna taught high-school English for several years, and has since participated in writing and community arts projects for organisations including Arts NSW, WestWords, Express Media,  Bankstown Youth Development Services, Powerhouse Youth Theatre,  Information and Cultural Exchange, Arts Access, the NSW Writers' Centre and the Katherine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre. She has taught tertiary-level writing classes at Macquarie University and Western Sydney University, and served as the Department of Education and Training's National Ambassador for Literacy Week. 

Castagna holds a PhD from the Writing and Society Research Centre at Western Sydney University.

Exhibitions

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon Girls in Boys' Cars Sydney : Pan Macmillan Australia , 2021 21856922 2021 single work novel young adult

'Rosa was never really trying to kill anyone, no matter what they said in court.

'But she's ended up in juvenile jail anyway, living her life through books and wondering why her best mate Asheeka disappeared.

'A page-turning novel about a complicated friendship; a road trip through NSW in a stolen car; the stories that define us; and two funny, sharp, adventurous young women who refuse to be held back any longer. (Publication summary)

2022 winner Queensland Literary Awards Griffith University Young Adult Book Award
2022 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Ethel Turner Prize for Young People's Literature
2022 honour book CBCA Book of the Year Awards Book of the Year: Older Readers
2022 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Notable Book Older Readers
2022 winner Victorian Premier's Literary Awards Prize for Writing for Young Adults
y separately published work icon No More Boats Artarmon : Giramondo Publishing , 2017 10865546 2017 single work novel

'The subject is very topical. No More Boats tackles the fear of refugees head on, portraying the anxieties of a man who was once a migrant himself, brought to breaking point by the Tampa crisis, when the nation itself is thrown into a xenophobic frame of mind.

'It is 2001. 438 refugees sit in a boat called Tampa off the shoreline of Australia while the TV and radio scream out that the country is being flooded, inundated, overrun by migrants. Antonio Martone, once a migrant himself, has been forced to retire, his wife has moved in with the woman next door, his daughter runs off with strange men, his deadbeat son is hiding in the garden smoking marijuana. Amidst his growing paranoia, the ghost of his dead friend shows up and commands him to paint ‘No More Boats’ in giant letters across his front yard. The Prime Minister of Australia keeps telling Antonio that we will decide who comes to this country and the circumstance in which they come, but Antonio’s not sure he wants to think about all those things that led him to get on a boat and come to Australia in the first place. A man and a nation unravel together.' (Publication summary)

2018 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Multicultural NSW Award
2018 highly commended Victorian Premier's Literary Awards Prize for Fiction
2018 shortlisted Voss Literary Prize
2018 shortlisted Miles Franklin Literary Award
y separately published work icon The Incredible Here and Now Artarmon : Giramondo Publishing , 2013 6177924 2013 single work novel young adult (taught in 1 units)

'Michael’s older brother dies at the beginning of the summer he turns 15, but as its title suggests The Incredible Here and Now is a tale of wonder, not of tragedy. Presented as a series of vignettes, in the tradition of Sandra Cisneros’ Young Adult classic The House on Mango Street, it tells of Michael’s coming of age in a year which brings him grief and romance; and of the place he lives in Western Sydney where ‘those who don’t know any better drive through the neighbourhood and lock their car doors’, and those who do, flourish in its mix of cultures. Through his perceptions, the reader becomes familiar with Michael’s community and its surroundings, the unsettled life of his family, the girl he meets at the local pool, the friends that gather in the McDonalds parking lot at night, the white Pontiac Trans Am that lights up his life like a magical talisman. Suitable for young readers from 14 years of age.' (Publisher's blurb)

2014 shortlisted Queensland Literary Awards Griffith University Young Adult Book Award
2014 winner Prime Minister's Literary Awards Young Adults' Fiction
2014 shortlisted Western Australian Premier's Book Awards Young Adults
2014 shortlisted CBCA Book of the Year Awards Book of the Year: Older Readers
2014 shortlisted New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards Ethel Turner Prize for Young People's Literature
2014 CBCA Book of the Year Awards Notable Book Older Readers
2016 shortlisted Festival Awards for Literature (SA) Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature South Australian Literary Awards Young Adult Fiction
2016 IBBY Honour Diploma Writing
Last amended 6 Mar 2018 10:29:53
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