Gary Crew
, b. 1947
Gary Crew, was born on September 23, 1947 in Brisbane, Australia. As a child he suffered from chronic illness, forcing him to stay home from school, during which time he read a lot of adventure stories. Isolation from his peers and the “stifling” religiosity of his upbringing did, however, fuel his love of literature. (McKenna and Pearce, 1999, p. 9). At sixteen he left school to take up a cadetship as a civil engineering draftsman. After graduating from the Queensland Institute of Technology, he worked in a drawing office as a design draftsman for ten years.
Gary Crew became a high school teacher in 1974 after undertaking a Masters of Arts in English. He began writing for children in 1985, deliberately targeting a broader audience of contemporary teenage readers. He taught at high schools in Queensland for eighteen years before becoming a full time writer.
Crew has collaborated with several Australian illustrators, including Peter Gouldthorpe, Steven Woolman, and Shaun Tan to produce picture books for older readers that offer a crossover for young adult readers. He has won multiple awards for his young adult fiction and picture book collaborations, including the Australian Children’s Book of the Year Award four times.
Gary Crew is Associate professor of Creative writing, Children’s and Adult Literature at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland.
Bio prepared Margaret Bromley, University of New England, mbromle5@une.edu.au, brom_ken@bigpond.net.au
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