In this issue:

Seasons Greetings

With the 2020 school year about to come to a close, the staff here at Speakers Ink wanted to pass on our best wishes to each and every one of you for a safe and happy holiday season.

I think we can all agree that 2020 has been a year to forget, however we wanted to thank everyone again for their patience and understanding during this difficult year.  With Schools and Speakers adapting to new online presentation formats and everyone being so accommodating with date change requests, and the challenges that involved, we should all feel a sense of pride and achievement, and should all now be looking forward to a well earned rest!

With all Australians doing their bit to help flatten the curve and beat COVID, 2021 is looking far brighter and the staff here at Speakers Ink are ready for the challenges that face us moving forward.

The Office will officially close on Friday, 18th December and re-open on Monday, 11th January.  During this time emails and phone messages will be monitored.  Anything urgent will be dealt with ASAP and non-urgent matters will be responded to, it just may take an extra few days!

As this is our last e-Bulletin for 2020, we wish you all the very best for the remainder of 2020, wish you a safe and happy holiday season and look forward to working with you all again in 2021.

Congratulations and farewell Ross Clark

Ross Clark is an award winning poet who has contributed to Speakers Ink over many years. He began writing poetry while still at university, and continued writing (and having it published) for the 18 years during his first professional life as a secondary teacher of English and social sciences. Ross is currently teaching prospective teachers at two universities. He has had six volumes of poetry and two chapbooks of haiku published. In 2003 Ross was awarded the Centenary of Federation Medal, otherwise known as the Centenary Medal, for "contribution to poetry".  In 2004 he received the Queensland Writers' Centre Johnno Award, "for outstanding contribution to Queensland writers and writing" and in 2008 he won the Australian Book Review Poetry Prize. Ross has decided to retire from the speaking circuit and 'drift off elsewhere'. We wish him all the best post-2020.

The Spotlight is on Jonathan Bentley

Jonathan Bentley grew up in West Yorkshire, England where his love of drawing and the great outdoors was encouraged by a creative and adventurous family. He went on to study illustration at Brighton Polytechnic and has since spent his life living and working between Australia and the UK with his wife Maripaz and two children Harvey and Ruby. Jonathan is an award-winning illustrator, who has worked on over forty books for authors including Margaret Wild,  Andrew Daddo, Shaun Micallef, Patrick Guest, Glenda Millard and Lian Tanner. Jonathan has also written and illustrated six of his own books which are enjoyed by children all around the world.  Having illustrated "Windows" in collaboration with author Patrick Guest, inspired Covid pandemic and lockdown, Jonathan is gearing up to tour in Term 3 of 2021 and is available for a number of dates. If you would like to enquire about a booking, please follow the link here.

Dates for your Diary

	13-20 March 2021	Somerset Storyfest
	19 May 2021	Narelle Oliver Lecture with Australian Children's Laureate, Ursula Dubosarsky presented by Book Links
	21-27 August 2021	CBCA Book Week - The theme for 2021 is 'Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds' featuring the art work of Shaun Tan

Yours in promoting literacy from all at the Speakers Ink team,

Sandie, Margie, Jan, Lia, Rob, Matt and James