Christine Bongers is a former radio and television journalist who is now happier writing fiction. She has a Master of Arts (Research) in Children's and Youth Writing. Her debut YA novel Dust was a CBCA Notable Book and long-listed for the Prime Minister's Literary Awards for Children's Fiction. Her middle school novel Henry Hoey Hobson was shortlisted for numerous awards including the CBCA Book of the Year for younger readers. Her latest young adult novel Intruder won the 2015 Davitt Award for Best Debut Crime Book and was shortlisted for the CBCA Book of the Year for Older Readers.
Christine grew up with six brothers on a farm outside Biloela. She now lives in Brisbane and holidays at the Sunshine Coast so often that she has her very own Caloundra City Council library card. She admits to being a shocking liar as a kid, and even now as a grownup, she never lets the truth interfere with a good story.
She is currently working on a middle grade novel How to Destroy Earth - Part One and her first adult novel The Lonely Dead.
Christine is an accomplished public speaker who loves sharing her passion for writing with people of all ages.
Testimonials
Christine presented an engaging talk to our students fitting in with the theme of the school's literature festival. Feedback from students and parents was positive. I had seen Christine speak at a different school and was keen to have her present to our students as she is a great speaker.
Rochedale State High School - October 2021Christine was engaging and obviously enjoyed being with our students. Our students were lifted by the experience and were motivated by her visit.
Morayfield State High School - August 2019The students thoroughly enjoyed Christine Bonger's lively and informative presentation, enjoying the personal touch to her writing and other work. The older students were immersed in the short story genre which will certainly be of benefit to them as they work towards NAPLAN next year and the younger students loved her stories of how she came to write her novels. Many thanks Christine for such a wonderful morning for our students. We highly recommend her as a lively and educational presenter.
Craigslea State High School - July 2019Our Book Week author talks by Christine Bongers exceeded my expectations. She was entertaining, engaging, funny, warm, relatable, and not afraid to show us the real person, and so much more.
I thought it was wonderful. I hope the students enjoyed the experience as much as I did. She made some really great points about the importance of reading, practicing skills to master them and facing setbacks.
As a former year level co-ordinator, I have sat through many, many guest speakers, but Christine Bongers was by far the best…we need to get her back again…
As for the students, well they beat me back to the library and borrowed all of Christine’s books and the rest have put their names on a long list waiting to borrow her novels.
Craigslea State High School - August 2018Christine engaged the students as an excellent storyteller, in answering their questions and through her engagement with them. She more than met our expectations.
St Stephen's Catholic College - October, 2017
Featured Speakers
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Choose Your Own Adventure!
To tie in with the 2025 Book Week theme, ‘Book an Adventure’, Dave Lowe has adapted his popular ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ workshop, as a ‘presentation’-style 45- / 60-minute session for large groups of students, from Years 3 to 8. In this fun, highly-interactive session, Dave will share insights into ideas-generation and plotting, and give each student a story template, as well as all the tips and tricks they’ll need to make their own short ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’-style book that they can take home and try out on friends and family.
New Releases See all books
Touring Speakers See all tour dates
| Speaker | Location | Tour dates | Book now |
|---|---|---|---|
Brisbane | 01 Aug - 09 Sep 2025 | ||
Sydney | 25 Aug - 29 Aug 2025 | ||
Sydney | 25 Aug - 25 Aug 2025 | ||
Townsville | 28 Aug - 28 Aug 2025 | ||
Sydney | 03 Sep - 03 Sep 2025 |
What people are saying
We were really pleased with Kate Hunter’s presentations. She met the needs of our Year 8s and Year 11s very well. The students enjoyed her presentations, and really appreciated her real world experience in advertising, journalism and media. We would be very happy to engage Kate again next year.
It was great to be able to contact Speakers Ink who could then recommend presenters to meet the needs of our school. Nothing was a hassle & booking speakers was seamless.
Our Prep students loved Serena. She read one of her books and conducted a drawing workshop. The students really enjoyed learning new techniques about how to draw characters with expression. Every one of them walked away afterwards with a smile on their face and some wonderful drawings. Serena has a lovely bubbly personality and was thoroughly entertaining and engaging.
Gave the students a lot of terrific advice for writing. Worked well with the students.
Anne E Stewart did an amazing job today at the Library. Both the teacher and students really enjoyed her storytelling and were on the edge of their seats. Anne was perfect for Harmony Day celebrations.
Allison came today – she was wonderful! She easily adapted each presentation for each year level and was engaging. Allison was very generous with her time and did a book signing at lunch for us. We would definitely recommend her to other schools.
Your visit will live long in the memory of my three daughters who all thoroughly enjoyed your visit.
We were so happy with Dave's presentation at our school. The teachers commented that the content of this presentation was supportive of what they are doing in the classroom. I was very impressed with the way he interacted with the students from Prep to Year 6. His sessions were filled with energy and fun humour. I would highly recommend Dave.
It was a wonderful visit last week and an experience that did support many of the messages we deliver to students regarding writing, creativity and engaging in literacy. I was particularly thrilled with the messages Kirsty gave regarding the process and long journey attached to being a writer.
Zanni delivered great presentations to our younger students. She was warm and encouraging, getting the students involved at numerous points in the session. They had a great time.
David’s visit met expectations and exceeded them! David was clearly very experienced. He arrived early to set up, stayed back to talk to participants who wanted to ask him questions, and kept the momentum of the group going. I would definitely recommend him to schools and other libraries.
Jenny Wang helped us kick off a week long celebration of learning as part of Catholic Week activities at Jubilee Primary. With Jenny's expertise, all students successfully created their own manga characters, inspiring some students to submit art work for the school's mini Art Show. Jenny's own passion for using animation to spread positive community messages could be a great starter for students building their own community message.