Catherine Bateson is an award winning poet and writer for children and young adults. She has written three verse novels for young adults and three collections of poetry for adults. Poetry, composed from a fridge poetry set, is also featured in one of her prose novels for younger readers, Rain May and Captain Daniel. She has twice won the prestigious Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award for Younger Readers and has received other awards for her writing in this field.

‘Learning the Tango’, a poetry sequence, was published in Tales from the Tower, Vol. 2, The Wicked Wood, edited by Nan McNab and Isobelle Carmody. Individual poems and other sequences have also been anthologised. Star, the latest of thirteen novels for children and young adults, came out last year and was a Children’s Book Council of Australia Notable Book. It features haiku throughout.

In 2013, Catherine was the recipient of an Australia Council of the Arts funded three month residency in Paris and is completing a novel based on that experience as well as working on a collection of poetry for middle readers and young adults, A is for Antics: An Abecedarium for Young Poets (with recipes to make your own). She is also completing the libretto for an opera, Rapunzel, composed by Matt Ottley.

http://www.catherine-bateson.com/

http://www.cattybatty.blogspot.com.au/

http://www.tylebateson.com.au/

 

For Primary Schools

Rain May and Captain Daniel, University of Queensland Press

Star, Omnibus

For Secondary Schools

A Dangerous Girl, University of Queensland Press

The Year It All Happened, University of Queensland Press

His Name in Fire, University of Queensland Press

Anthologies:

Tales from the Tower, Vol. 2, The Wicked Wood, Allen & Unwin

Trust Me, Ford Street Publishing

Hunger and Other Stories, AATE

 

Some of Catherine’s poems:©

Haiku

Crow on the fence

ignores the sparrows quarrelling –

scraps of their chatter pass like clouds.

from Star, Omnibus

© Catherine Bateson

 

Basketball Poem

fly from my hand

like magic

a breeze

and sail

up & over

bounce down

hard

such splendid

joy.

from: Rain May and Captain Daniel, UQP

© Catherine Bateson

 

Personal Issues

Matthew asked me out in Year Eight

and I said no, I wanted to be friends first.

He asked me out in Year Nine

and I said no, I wasn’t ready for a boyfriend.

He asked me out in Year Ten

and I said there were a few personal issues

I had to deal with first.

He asked me how I was going with those

personal issues and I said

slowly.

I’m scared one day he’ll give up on me.

Cara likes him. Allie likes him.

Sarah thinks he’s cute.

I’m going to lose him.

And how will you feel about that,

Emma-girl? I ask myself

but I put my fingers in my ears

so I don’t hear my answer.

from: His Name in Fire, University of Queensland Press

© Catherine Bateson