Catherine Bateson

Catherine Bateson (born 1960 in Sydney) is an Australian writer.

Career
Born in Sydney in 1960, Bateson grew up in a second-hand bookshop in Brisbane. She attained a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland, with a major in art history. Her first published novel was Painted Love Letters, a portrait of a family coping with death. She has published two volumes of poetry, and three verse novels for young adults using a variety of poetic forms including haiku, free verse, free renga and acrostic.

Bateson has taught creative writing for the past thirteen years, and has been a guest writer at many schools. Her work has been read on radio and featured on television. She has also appeared at various poetry and writers festivals throughout Australia. She coordinated La Mama Poetica at La Mama Theatre in Melbourne.

Bateson is the mother of two children, Alasdair, born in 1991 and Helen, born 1992.

She currently teaches creative writing at GippsTafe, Victoria and lives in the Dandenong Ranges, Victoria.

Awards and nominations

 * "This is the Poem"
 * John Shaw Neilson Award for poetry.
 * 2006 Faw Mary Grant Bruce Short Story Award For Children's Literature


 * 2003 – Rain May and Captain Daniel
 * winner of the Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award, younger readers
 * shortlisted for New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Patricia Wrighton Prize for Children's Literature
 * Queensland Premier's Literary Awards, Children's Book Award


 * 2003 – Painted Love Letters
 * CBCA Honour Book recognition
 * winner 2003 Australian Family Therapists' Award for Children's Literature
 * 2003 shortlisted for the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Ethel Turner Prize for young people's literature
 * Children's Book Council of Australia Awards (2003) Honour Book, older readers.


 * 2005 – Millie and the Night Heron
 * Honour Book, CBCA Book of the Year, Younger Readers


 * 2007 – His Name in Fire
 * Notable CBCA Book of the Year, Older Readers
 * Shortlist, Queensland Premier's Award


 * 2007 – Being Bee
 * Winner CBCA Book of the Year, Younger Readers


 * 2009 – The Wish Pony, Woolshed Press
 * CBCA Honour Book, Younger Readers