Biography of Ursula Dubosarsky.

For book list/CV click here.

Ursula Dubosarsky was born in Sydney, Australia, third child in a family of writers. From the time she was first able to read, at age six, she wanted to be a writer. Among her favourite books as a child were "Biquette the White Goat" by Francoise, "Gone is Gone" by Wanda Gag, and "Snugglepot and Cuddlepie" by May Gibbs. She wrote stories and poems and puppet plays all through primary and high school.

After finishing school, Ursula went to Sydney University to study English and languages, including Old Icelandic, Latin and Greek. When she graduated, she moved to Canberra to work in the public service, and in the evenings after work she wrote a time slip adventure called "Zizzy Zing".

She then spent a year traveling, meeting her Argentinean husband, Avi, while working on a kibbutz in Israel. They married London, then returned to Australia to live, where their daughter Maisie was born. At this time Ursula wrote her first published book, "Maisie and the Pinny Gig" illustrated by an old school friend, Roberta Landers. She then wrote a comic children's novel, "High Hopes", which she sent as an unsolicited manuscript to Penguin Books in Melbourne. The book was accepted.

Since this time, Ursula has published many more novels as well as a number of books for younger children, and has won several prestigious national literary prizes. She lives in Sydney with her family - Avi, daughter Maisie, and two sons, Dover and Bruno.

She has completed a PhD in English literature at Macquarie University, concentrating on the work of Rumer Godden and Mary Norton – click here for access to a digital version of her thesis.

Ursula and the Minister for the Arts Bob Debus at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards.