Jennifer Rowe Explained

Jennifer Rowe
Birth Date:2 April 1948
Birth Place:Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Other Names:Emily Rodda, Mary-Anne Dickinson
Known For:Deltora Quest, Rowan of Rin, Teen Power Inc., Verity Birdwood series, Tessa Vance series
Alma Mater:University of Sydney
Occupation:Author
Website:http://www.emilyrodda.com/

Jennifer June Rowe, (born 4 April 1948), is an Australian author. Her crime fiction for adults is published under her own name, while her children's fiction is published under the pseudonyms Emily Rodda and Mary-Anne Dickinson.[1] [2]

She is well known for the children's fantasy series Deltora Quest, Rowan of Rin, Fairy Realm, Teen Power Inc., the Rondo trilogy and The Three Doors trilogy, and her latest His Name Was Walter. Her crime fiction includes the Verity Birdwood and Tessa Vance series.

Biography

Jennifer Rowe was born in Sydney, New South Wales, on 2 April 1948, and raised with two younger brothers in Sydney's North Shore. Her father was Jim Oswin, the founding general manager of ATN7 in Sydney, and was responsible for classic 1960s TV shows such as My Name's McGooley, What's Yours? and The Mavis Bramston Show.[3] She attended Abbotsleigh School for Girls on the Upper North Shore of Sydney. She attained her Masters of Arts in English Literature at the University of Sydney in 1973.

Rowe's first job was assistant editor at Paul Hamlyn publishing. She later worked at Angus and Robertson Publishers, where she remained for fourteen years as editor, senior editor, managing director, deputy publisher and finally publisher. During this time she began writing children's books under the pseudonym Emily Rodda (her grandmother's name). Her first book, Something Special, was published in 1984 and won the Australian Children's Book Council Book of the Year for Younger Readers Award. She went on to win that award a record six times.[4] From 1984 to 1992, Rowe continued her career in publishing, then as editor of the Australian Women's Weekly while writing novels in her 'spare time'. In 1994 Rowe became a full-time writer.

She now divides her working day between consultancies for book publishers and her own writing. She lives in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales with her husband Bob Ryan and her four children.[5] She enjoys reading murder mystery novels, which have inspired her to add mysterious plots and hidden clues to her works.[6]

Rowe's Verity Birdwood murder mysteries for adults, written under her own name are: Grim Pickings (1988) (made into an Australian TV mini-series), Murder by the Book, Death in Store, The Makeover Murders, Stranglehold, and Lamb to the Slaughter. Later she also wrote about Homicide Detective Tessa Vance in Suspect (also published as Deadline) and Something Wicked, and both books were incorporated as episode story lines in the Australian TV-show Murder Call. Rowe also edited a collection of crime stories Love Lies Bleeding and contributed to the 1997 "Crimes for Summer" collection, Moonlight Becomes You. In 2011, after a 13-year absence from crime writing, she released "Love, Honour and O'Brien", a humorous mystery which introduced readers to a new sleuth, Holly Love. A follow up to Holly's adventures was never released however.

Emily Rodda

The most notable of her children's works, authored under the pseudonym Emily Rodda, are the series Deltora Quest, Teen Power Inc., Fairy Realm, Star of Deltora and Rowan of Rin. The pseudonym is based on her grandmother's name.

The Deltora Quest series has been published in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, Japan, Italy, Brazil, China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and the United Kingdom, with total worldwide sales across all books in excess of 18 million.[7] A Deltora Quest anime series was broadcast on Japanese television in early 2007.

Among her other successful novels is the 1990 science fiction novel Finders Keepers, which was made into a television series called The Finder, and the Teen Power Inc. series (re-published as The Raven Hill Mysteries), a mystery series involving six teenagers. Both of these are written for young adults.

Rodda's Star of Deltora series is set in the same world as Deltora Quest, The Three Doors and Rowan of Rin, and focuses on a girl, Britta, who wants to be a trader like her father and sail the nine seas. The first book, Shadows of the Master, was released on 1 August 2015, the second book, Two Moons, on 1 November 2015, the third book, The Towers of Illica, on 1 April 2016, and the fourth and final book, The Hungry Isle, on 1 September 2016.

Rodda has written two children's fantasy novels released by HarperCollins Australia: The Shop at Hooper's Bend was released on 7 August 2017, and His Name Was Walter was released on 27 July 2018.

Awards

Select bibliography

Fiction as Jennifer Rowe

Fiction edited as Jennifer Rowe

Non-fiction as Jennifer Rowe

Novels as Emily Rodda

"Early Readers" books as Emily Rodda

Picture Storybooks as Emily Rodda

Film and television

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Search: author:"Dickinson, Mary-Anne, 1948–" . National Library of Australia . 8 February 2019 . 19 February 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180219153142/https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Search/Home?lookfor=author%3A%22Dickinson%2C . dead .
  2. Web site: Search Results | National Library of Australia.
  3. Web site: Murder Call - The Creators - Jennifer Rowe . Angelfire.com . 2019-10-16.
  4. http://www.emilyrodda.com/biography.html Biography
  5. Web site: Emily Rodda - Deltora Quest Anime . 2009-11-29 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100109132044/http://www.emilyrodda.com/deltoraanime.html . 9 January 2010 . dmy-all .
  6. News: Riddle me this: The magical career of Emily Rodda . 21 August 2018 . ABC News . 22 August 2018 . en-AU.
  7. https://web.archive.org/web/20051230153235/http://www.scholastic.com.au/common/about/news_item.asp?NewsID=156 Scholastic Australian News
  8. Web site: Dromkeen Medal . Scholastic . 15 July 2007 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20070703210330/http://www.scholastic.com.au/common/dromkeen/medal.asp . 3 July 2007 .
  9. Web site: Book of the Year Shortlist 2012: Book of the Year Younger Readers 2012 . The Children's Book Council of Australia . 12 October 2015 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20151106225926/http://cbca.org.au/Shortlist_2012.htm . 6 November 2015 . dmy-all .
  10. Web site: Awards Day 2013 . www.koalansw.org.au . 30 October 2013 . KOALA Council . 12 October 2015 .
  11. Web site: KOALA Award Winners 2014 . www.koalansw.org.au . KOALA Council . 12 October 2015 .
  12. Web site: 2018 Winner and Highly Commended – The Goodest Prize . Thegoodestprize.com . 2018-11-29 . 2019-10-16 . 18 August 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190818011314/https://thegoodestprize.com/2018-winners-announced/ . dead .
  13. Web site: Cunningham . Ilsa . Top honour for Leura author Jennifer Rowe . Blue Mountains Gazette . 27 January 2019 . en . 26 January 2019.
  14. Web site: CBCA Awards 2019 winners announced. 2019-08-16. Books+Publishing. en-AU. 2019-08-16.
  15. Web site: Winners announced for PM's Literary Awards 2019. 23 October 2019. Books+Publishing. en-AU. 2019-10-23.
  16. Web site: 2019-10-23. Deltora Quest author Emily Rodda among winners of Australia's richest literary prize pool. 2021-09-14. www.abc.net.au. en-AU.
  17. Web site: Mystery Short Fiction: 1990–2006 . William G. Contento . 24 March 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080904232141/http://www.philsp.com/homeville/MSF/s180.htm#BOT . 4 September 2008 . dead .
  18. Web site: Star of Deltora Series by Emily Rodda . Goodreads.com . 2019-10-16.
  19. Web site: CBCA . CBCA . 2019-10-16 . 18 August 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190818011316/https://www.cbca.org.au/winners-2019 . dead .
  20. Web site: Finders Keepers . Australian Television . 2019-10-16.
  21. Web site: Jennifer Rowe. IMDb.
  22. Web site: Murder Call . Australian Television . 2019-10-16.

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