Assistant Professor Katherine Wakely-Mulroney will be in conversation with award winning Dutch-Austrian children’s author, Rachel van Kooij. Rachel will read from her book Bartolomé the Invanta’s Pet and discuss her writing life and writing for children.

Biography

Rachel van Kooij was born in the Netherlands. At the age of ten she moved with her family to Austria. She studied pedagogics at the University of Vienna. Her first book “Jonas die Gans” (Jonas the Goose) was published in 2000. Since then she has written another ten books. In 2006 she received the Austrian State Award for Children’s literature for her book “the Kajütenjunge des Apothekers” (The Sinking of the Batavia) and in 2008 this book was selected for the IBBY honour list. Several of her books have been translated and published in Korea, Japan, Brazil, China, Ireland, Italy and Belgium.