I have a penchant for nougat.
2. What is your nickname?
Libby. My real name is Elizabeth.
3. What is your greatest fear?
To lose my imagination (or my wallet).
4. Describe your writing style in ten words.
I write in a lyrical and lucid style, I hope!
5. Tell us five positive words that describe you as a writer.
passionate, curious, poetic, practised, still-learning
6. What book character would you be, and why?
Being Alice from Alice in Wonderland would be quite a hoot because Wonderland would yield up more and more I’m sure, if you could go there at will.
7. If you could time travel, what year would you go to and why?
If I were to go back in time I would go back to the eighties when my children were young and do it better than I did the first time round.
8. What would your ten-year-old self say to you now?
This is the stuff that dreams are made of…
9. Who is your greatest influence?
Older people in my family who read or recited poetry aloud to me. Writers who took me by the hand and still do!
10. What/who made you start writing?
I read avidly and wanted to write something that would be entertaining to me. My family was a great audience especially for my poems. And then I longed for a wider audience so took courage and took my first story to a publisher…
11. What is your favourite word and why?
I don’t have a favourite but I do fall in love with word at certain times and they find a way into my poetry, likes susurrations or threnodic.
12. If you could only read one book for the rest of your life, what would it be?
A book of Shakespeare’s plays because I discover things every time I read one of them and the deft and imaginative use of language, the deep understanding of human nature is always enthralling to me.
Libby Hathorn is an Australian poet and author of books for children and adults. Her work has won honours in Australia, United States, Great Britain and the Netherlands. Libby's latest picture book, Outside, is illustrated by Ritva Voutila and is published in August 2014 by Little Hare Books. Visit Libby's website for more information about her books, poetry and other writing and events.
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