PHILLIP GWYNNE

AUTHOR / SCREENWRITER

Phillip Gwynne was born in Melbourne, but his family (including seven siblings) soon moved to South Australia. In 1999, Phillip won the Victorian Premier's Literary award for Young Adult Fiction with his first YA novel, DEADLY, UNNA?

DEADLY, UNNA? is a rites of passage story about friendship, racism and Australian Rules Football. The superb writing and characterisation vividly captures the essence of small town life within a mixed-race community. Teenage readers immediately took to the complex narrative and appealing narrator and the book quickly became a bestseller.

The sequel, NUKKIN YA, was published in 2000 to great acclaim. Phillip then set about combining the events of both books for his screenplay of the controversial film AUSTRALIAN RULES, which was included in the offical selection for the 2002 Sundance Film Festival.

Phillip has also written THE WORST TEAM EVER, a story for younger readers. His latest publication, JETTY RATS (2004), is a great read for upper primary/early secondary students. Set in a rural coastal town, JETTY RATS charts the growing pains of thirteen year old Hunter Vettori.

Phillip has worked at a number of jobs including computer programming in Europe, teaching in Thailand and counting fish in Brazil. Approaching the age of forty, and having tried just about everything else, he decided to start writing.

His fantastic student presentations cover this journey as well as the process of adapting DEADLY UNNA? to the big screen and his own inspirations and motivations as an author. He now lives in Sydney with his young son.

FEEDBACK

"Students were unanimous in their enthusiastic response to Phillip. His candid, honest and revealing story of his life struck a chord with many of our pupils who left the session determined to read his books. You could have heard a pin drop in our hall when he was talking - no mean feat with for a group of year 9 students!"

- Anne Shanley, Xavier High School

"The greatest strength of DEADLY, UNNA? is its portrayal of Australian family life written cleverly with a blend of old Aussieisms interspersed with teenage lingo. It is fast-moving, humorous, and intriguing, a fair dinkum page turner which will provide hours of enjoyment. Brilliant."

- Margaret Clark, Geelong Advertiser