ROBERT CORBET

AUTHOR

Robert Corbet has worked with street kids and played guitar in a Koori reggae band. He has been mugged in Rio and chased by riot police. He has taught English to newly arrived migrants, retrenched factory workers, wealthy overseas students, children, teenagers and adults of all ages. Now living in Brunswick, Melbourne, his house is overrun by children and small animals.

He thinks that reading and writing should be fun - like speaking and listening to a friend - and that writing is the best way he knows of staying sane.

Robert's first novel for young adults, THE PASSENGER SEAT (Allen & Unwin), is a poetic and comic story of a young man's search for meaning in his dysfunctional world, the Northern suburbs of Melbourne. It has been described as "a contemporary Australian Catcher in the Rye". It is a story about love and sex, friendship and revenge, stolen flowers and broken bones.

Robert's second novel, FIFTEEN LOVE, has been met with fantastic praise across the globe - The Bookseller (UK) says it is "the kind of book that girls will love and boys will read on the sly" while The Star (NZ) has dubbed it "wonderful and hilarious" and the New York Library listed it as one of the best books of 2005. Closer to home, FIFTEEN LOVE was listed as a noteable book by the Children's Book Council of Australia.

SHELF LIFE, Robert's third YA book, was published in June 2004. Set in and around a suburban supermarket, SHELF LIFE follows the lives of the teenagers who work there. It was a CBC Notable book in 2005 and has been nominated by the American Library Association for the best books of 2006.

Robert has a variety of presentations and workshops developed for secondary students. For more information see www.allenandunwin.com

FEEDBACK:

"The Passenger Seat is imaginative, contemporary, pacey and accessible. It never for one moment bores."
- Reading Matters bookshop

"An author worth watching out for."
- Australian Booksellers and Publishers, Winter 2000.