Anita Weller loves to write and make children (and their adults) laugh. She writes funny chapter books for children.
Anita lives in bayside Melbourne with her husband, 2 sports mad teenage boys, 1 border collie, 1 cockatiel and 2 blue tongue lizards. All of whom will interrupt any video conference she’s in, on any given day. Except the blue tongues – they’re very well behaved.
By day, she is an accomplished technical writer. She also contributes to her local community by writing grant applications for the many sporting clubs her boys frequent. But in the early hours of the morning, she writes.
Anita can also be found writing on trains, at sporting grounds, on park benches and even while out for a run (via breathless voice recordings on her phone). She is an opportunistic writer with a notepad and pen stashed in every bag.
When she’s not writing, Anita can be found running or swimming at the beach, op shopping, reading, and cheering for her boys on the sidelines of every sport ever invented.
The Wonderful Kidlit Community
Anita is an active member of the KidLit community and participates in the following forums:
- KidLitVic conference attendee since 2017 (back when it was at the State Library!)
- Tania McCartney’s 2017 52 week picture book challenge: wrote 52 first draft picture book manuscripts in 2017 (Phew!)
- 52 week Picture Book Challenge: wrote another 52 first draft picture books in 2018! Why?
- 52 week Picture Book Challenge: 2019 prompt provider.
- Jen Storer’s Scribbles course
Awards
- Winner 2016 City of Kingston 24 hour Artblitz Creative Writing Challenge
- Highly commended 2018 City of Kingston 24 hour Artblitz Creative Writing Challenge
- Runner up 2019 City of Kingston 24 hour Artblitz Creative Writing Challenge
- Longlist (JF/MG category) – 2021 Pitch It! competition
- Honourable mention (Picture book category) – 2019 Pitch It! competition
