Bren MacDibble

Summary

Bren is an author of children's middle grade and YA fiction based in Kalbarri, WA.
Her award winning books are character-driven adventure stories set in changed futures and immensely popular with young readers as well as in schools and libraries and bookshops.

Biography

Bren is deeply passionate about the environment and this is reflected in her stories set in changed futures where young readers get to examine change within the safety of rollicking fast-paced adventure fiction.
Bren's books have been hugely popular with teachers and parents and create dynamic discussions at home and in the classroom and present cross-curriculum opportunities with science and social subjects.
Bren has presented at festivals and workshops across both Australia and NZ. Bren's favourite topics are future science, the environment and intensive first person writing techniques.
Bren also writes for YA as Cally Black.

Relevant qualifications

In 2018 Bren was the first person to ever win two NZ Book awards in different categories when she picked up the Esther Glen Award for How to Bee and the Copyright Licensing NZ award for In the Dark Spaces. How to Bee went on to pick up a CBCA book of the year in Australia and In the Dark Spaces was an honour book. How to Bee won a Patricia Wrightson Award in the NSW Premiers awards and In the Dark Spaces won the Griffiths Uni YA award in the Queensland Lit Awards as well as an Aurealis Award. The following year The Dog Runner also picked up an Esther Glen NZ Book award and an Aurealis Award and was nominated for the 2020 Cillip Carnegie medal in the UK.

Recent experience

In 2024 Bren has been touring with The Literature Centre WA to lead their Young Writers in workshops in Perth, Albany, Busselton and Bunbury.

In 2023 she appeared at the Between the Lines Festival, Busselton, and was active in Perth during Bookweek, prior to that she has also appeared at the Big Sky Festival Geraldton, Sydney Writers Festival, Melbourne Writers Festival, Queensland Writers Festival and Somerset Festival in Queensland.