Control Room: Melina Marchetta

Get up close and personal with our festival ambassadors. Ask them the big questions, the little questions, the good questions. Now’s your chance!

Melina Marchetta has been published in more than twenty countries and in eighteen languages. This year marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of her first novel Looking for Alibrandi, which was made into a major motion picture. Two of her novels, Saving Francesca and Looking for Alibrandi have won the highly esteemed CBCA Book of the Year. Marchetta’s novel On the Jellicoe Road has sold over 120,000 copies worldwide and is studied in American and Australian schools. In 2011, her novel The Piper’s Son was long listed for the Miles Franklin Award. Her latest novel, Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil, was published to critical acclaim in 2016. Melina has also written for the two-time International emmy nominated televisions series, Dance Academy.