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AUTHOR |
William Kostakis is a 20 year old author, and he's looking for an excuse to skip uni classes.
This is where you come in. |
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William was only 19 when his first novel hit the shelves. It was around that time that he realised ‘author duties’ got him out of doing… well, anything he didn’t want to do. So, when he should’ve been taking notes in lectures and sitting cross-legged on the Quad – you know, doing uni student things – he was touring the east coast of Australia, speaking at schools, libraries and literary events.
William, a recent survivor of high school, had suffered through more than his fair share of less-than-stellar author visits. In the back row of his Year 9 class, he made a mental note that if he ever got published and toured schools, he wouldn’t read off of a sheet of paper, he wouldn’t tell kids how wonderful he thought he was, he wouldn’t talk down to them… he would make them excited about stories, not only about reading them, but about writing their own. |
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LOATHING LOLA, William’s novel for young adults, is a book for Australian teenagers, written by an Australian teenager. A product of the Big Brother-consuming, celebrity-adoring noughties, LOATHING LOLA asks the question: If you were offered $30,000 to have your life filmed for a reality TV show for three months, would you do it? LOATHING LOLA is the book about the teenager that says 'yes'.
It deals with the heavy stuff – notions of identity, bias in the media, belonging – only it’s written in a voice that teenagers can relate to, and is a lot of fun.
In 2005, William won Sydney Morning Herald Young Writer of the Year. Since then, he has been running creative writing workshops, specialising in writing that perfect short story. He also delivers inspirational speeches, and really, will probably do anything you want him to.
LOATHING LOLA is published by Pan Macmillan.
Click here to read an extract. |
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