Josie Montano is an award-winning author of over sixty books from picture books to Young Adult novels and has twenty years of experience in the publishing industry. She has been internationally published and writes fiction under the name Montano, and non-fiction on Autism under the name Santomauro. Josie also dabbles in freelance having had a variety of differing articles and regular columns published, a play that trod the boards, technical handbooks, narrative scripts as well as co-edited an international journal.
Josie is also a Script-Writer & Film producer, having recently produced her first short film during COVID-19 - titled The Great Salami Breakout - An Italian themed comedy/drama based on a family road trip to Gippsland (see separate tab)
She has been short-listed for a variety of literary awards and acquired achievements over the years, including a residency with the May Gibbs Children's Literature Trust as well as booked as a presenter with Out of The Box.
She grew up in rural Australia within a strong Italian community. From the age of nine, she self-published her own books for borrowing at the school library, and received her first rejection letter from Golden Books when she was thirteen.
HOW TO CREATE A PODCAST
Josie offers a tailored 'How to Write a Podcast' session. Utilising her skills and experiences as a creative writer, she shares and focuses on the key aspects of a podcast framework. From idea, tagline, intro, content and outro, this is a rich and relatable workshop for students learning to create their own podcast.
INSPIRING P.O.W.E.R WRITING WORKSHOP
Either as a 90 minute workshop or whole day (3 hours contact time with same group)
Are your students stuck for ideas or lack story development in creative writing? This workshop caters for aspiring and developing writers and can be tailored to suit the needs of the class/school as either a one off 90 minute workshop where Josie uses her successful P.O.W.E.R. writing workshop, students are introduced to writing hints/tips and inside information on ‘tricks of the trade’ that will assist students with ideas, how they can turn everyday events into a story, how they can bait their reader with an enticing start, to planning their story in full. Or this workshop can be extended and presented as a whole day (3 hours contact time) resulting in a story planned and fleshed out, and the confidence to write without fear across all mediums and genres of writing.
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AUTHOR’S TALK
One hour presentation.
Josie shares her life as an author, why she wanted to write, from what age, where did her motivation come from, and how did she make her dream of becoming a published author happen. She discusses her books, their themes and research involved. She also throws in some tricks of the trade, writing hints and how to create a great story opening, and if time prevails a quick writing activity. Always ensuring there is time for Q&A’s, students leave this talk energised and inspired to write!
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Testimonials
Josie was really well prepared and put the focus on key aspects of Podcasting which I know meant she had to reframe lots of her story writing info. She had lots of great advice and interesting ideas. (Customised Presentation)
Hillbrook Anglican School - February 2022Josie was very well received for her generous and genuine talk about what it is to be a writer and how to get started. The students, teachers and parents from the Fascinate writing program really responded to Josie's talk
Garden City Library - August 2018
Iris and the Rainbow Day
The Secret Science Society's Spectacular Experiment
Engelberta Finds Her Feet
Segreti Velati (Italian Edition)
Stuff they DON'T teach you at school
Snot cool
Snot funny
Snot fair
Cross-eyed Jack (Takeaways)
Little Penguin : the Life of Eudyptula Minor the Great!
Strictly Stars
The Bubble
who's wheelie the fastest?
Wogaluccis
Set for Success
Sunlight
My Family Sized Pizza
Veiled Secrets
Featured Speakers
Stop Press
Welome to Term 2
Hope that everyone has had a relaxing break.
If you haven't already secured your booking for Book Week, please get in touch - we still have availability for some wonderful speakers.
We look forward to hearing from you soon!
New Releases See all books
Touring Speakers See all tour dates
| Speaker | Location | Tour dates | Book now |
|---|---|---|---|
Perth | 05 May - 15 May 2025 | ||
Brisbane | 16 May - 16 May 2025 | ||
Singapore | 19 May - 21 May 2025 | ||
Melbourne | 25 Jun - 27 Jun 2025 | ||
Newcastle | 01 Jul - 02 Jul 2025 |
What people are saying
It was fantastic having Helen in person to talk with our students at Bright P-12 College. She was so engaging, and her presentation was intriguing with historical photographs and artifacts from the area. My students were keen to know more and to read ‘The Rebels of Buffalo’.
Candice was lovely to work with. All our students from Prep - Year 6 were engaged, enthused and thoroughly enjoyed their session with Candice.
Brett was very commanding, was able to give strong credentials and good examples of what students are facing. Some student input would have been useful, to keep the two-way loop going.
Sarah's whole school performance and workshop sessions were so incredibly engaging and captivating. She was able to retain the attention of all students from Kindergarten to Year 6! Sarah's presentation was fun, exciting and very humorous. She has left our students incredibly inspired, thank you Sarah!
Gus provided wonderful examples of how his story ideas come from his life experiences and made the concept of becoming an author an idea the students could really understand.
Nikki Rogers captivated our students during Library Day! They responded enthusiastically to her engaging presentation and thoroughly enjoyed exploring her books. She provided wonderful insights into her writing and illustration techniques, inspiring creativity at every turn. A highlight of the session was the drawing activity, where students had the chance to design their own chickens and imagine unique worlds for them. It was fascinating to see the journey from an initial idea to a published an [...]
We were excited to welcome Dr. Rob Bell to our all-boys college, where he captivated our Year 7 students with his dynamic science experiments and innovative approach to creative writing. Dr. Bell’s ability to seamlessly blend hands-on scientific exploration with imaginative storytelling not only engaged our students but also ignited their curiosity and creativity. His sessions were a perfect blend of education and inspiration. We are incredibly grateful for his visit and look forward to future c [...]
Dub was wonderful with our Year 6 students. He was engaging and responsive to their interactions. And so talented!!
Vacen presented a series of engaging workshops for our students in years 4, 5 and 6 at our 2020 School Book Week. It was wonderful how she catered her program around “writing focus” requests from teachers. The children thoroughly enjoyed not only the writing activity but also the chance to learn about “World Building” in Fantasy writing and character development. Vacen was prepared, professional and it was a pleasure hosting her here at Our Lady of Mt Carmel.
Just a quick note to let you know how much we as a school appreciated the workshops and author talk last week. The students got so much from the opportunity, and were so excited by having met you.
The students were very excited to hear about Jan's adventures and learn about wildlife conservation directly from the author. Her passion for protecting endangered animals and educating others about their plight was evident, and her use of both personal stories and multimedia presentations ensured that the students were captivated throughout the session. Our school would thoroughly recommend studying Jan's work and having her visit as an inspiring culmination of a unit of work