I recent­ly had the hon­our of attend­ing New­ing­ton Col­lege Lit­fest 2023 at the invi­ta­tion of Ann Jag­ger and her unri­valled team of librar­i­ans and teach­ers. Over the course of three excit­ing days, I deliv­ered eleven talks and work­shops for hundreds …

New­ing­ton Col­lege Lit­Fest 2023 Read more »

As the Coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic con­tin­ues to rav­age pop­u­la­tions world­wide — I write these words in Novem­ber 2021 — the DPRK (North Korea) con­tin­ues to insist that it has suc­cess­ful­ly main­tained Covid Zero. As reports from Dai­ly NK and oth­er organisations …

Plagues & Peo­ples in Korea Read more »

In April I had the plea­sure of attend­ing the New­ing­ton Col­lege Fes­ti­val of Lit­er­a­ture for 2021. It was my first fes­ti­val appear­ance since the eas­ing of Covid restric­tions in Syd­ney and a glo­ri­ous way to cel­e­brate the return of something …

New­ing­ton Col­lege Fes­ti­val of Lit­er­a­ture for 2021 Read more »

The fol­low­ing speech was deliv­ered online in Eng­lish and Kore­an on the 5th of Decem­ber 2020. The event was enti­tled: ‘Build­ing Up Cross-Cul­­tur­al Under­stand­ing Through Chil­dren’s Lit­er­a­ture Between Aus­tralia and Korea: 2020’, con­vened by Dr Hyung-joo Judy Park. Dr Park …

The Book of Beasts: Ani­mal & Human Nature in Children’s Lit­er­a­ture Read more »

Last week I had the plea­sure of answer­ing a short Q&A for Eliz­a­beth Shim about North Kore­an chil­dren’s cul­ture in the Kim Jong Un era, along­side Mar­tin Petersen from the Nation­al Muse­um of Den­mark. As usu­al, my enthu­si­asm ran over …

Some Ques­tions About North Kore­an Children’s Cul­ture in the KJU Era Read more »

This week I had the hon­our of meet­ing over 500 Year 7 and Year 8 stu­dents at Oakhill Col­lege in Cas­tle Hill at the invi­ta­tion of librar­i­an Lynn Revai. The theme of the Oakhill Book Week for 2019 was “Ban­quet …

Oakhill Col­lege Ban­quet of Books: Book Week 2019 Read more »