Alison Stewart writer

Photo by Wolter Peeters – Copyright Fairfax Media

I’m a Sydney writer, journalist and travel journalist who grew up in Cape Town, South Africa. I’ve written nine novels, seven for young people and two for adults. Four of them have been translated into Italian, Danish, Dutch and Thai, three have been shortlisted for literary awards. I’ve also worked as a newspaper journalist on publications including The Sydney Morning Herald and The Sun-Herald, Sydney.

Travel is a passion and so I’ve been writing travel stories for the past 10 years, mostly for Fairfax Media’s Sydney Morning Herald Traveller/Melbourne Age Traveller and associated Fairfax newspapers.   There are stories from more than 50 countries. They’re all in “Making News” or “Alison’s Travel Writing”.

My travel story, Snails in the Mist, about walking New Zealand’s Milford Track with friends, was placed first in the Lane Cove Literary Awards 2019 travel story category and was shortlisted for three awards. Snails in the Mist will be published in the Lane Cove Literary Awards Anthology in 2020.

I’m also including my husband Rob’s travel writing  in “Rob Mills’ Travel Stories”. Rob is a Walkely award winning journalist who worked for many years on The Sydney Morning Herald in roles including Deputy Editor, Sunday Editor, Night Editor, Chief Sub-editor, Assistant Editor and Page One Editor. We love hiking, cycling, train travel, road trips, travelling with friends and basically just meeting interesting people with different viewpoints, cultures, languages and experiences.

From a fiction writing point of view, my first book for adults, Born into the Country, was shortlisted and published after entry into South Africa’s AA Mutual Life Vita Young Writers’ Award. One of my YA books, The Wishing Moon, was shortlisted for the Australian Multicultural Children’s Award and was a Children’s Book Council Notable book.

Penguin Australia published my young adult dystopian novel, Days Like This, in August 2010. It was a finalist in the 2010 YA Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.

My current project,  Cold Stone Soup, is a memoir about growing up in apartheid-era South Africa. It won the Fellowship of Australian Writers 2013 National Literary Awards Jim Hamilton Award for a non-fiction manuscript – please see the item in “Cold Stone Soup”.

It was also a Varuna Writers’ House Scholarship runner-up. An excerpt from Cold Stone Soup has been published in Foreign and Far Away – Writers Abroad’s 2013 anthology. Some of the money raised from paperback sales goes to the charity Book Aid International. This charity increases access to books and supports literacy, education and development in sub-Saharan Africa.

More information about all my books plus review excerpts are in “Published works”.

And one day, I hope there’s a travel book somewhere in there!

Content Copyright © Alison Stewart Writer 2013