Megan Jacobson is an award-winning YA author, picture book author, ABC journalist, and former TV screenwriter who lives in Brisbane, Australia.

Her first novel, Yellow, was shortlisted for the CBCA Book of the Year Awards, 2017; it was shortlisted for the 2018 REAL Children’s Choice awards; shortlisted for the 2017 Davitt Awards: Young Adult and Best Debut categories; and the Audible version had a starred review and was ranked a Top 10 Audiobooks of 2016 by the US magazine and website ‘School Library Journal’ (SLJ).

Her second novel, The Build-Up Season, won the 2018 Australian Family Therapists’ Award for Children’s Literature; was shortlisted for the 2018 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards; and was shortlisted for the 2019 REAL Children’s Choice Awards.

Her debut picture book, Big Love, illustrated by Beck Feiner, was the title that launched the Walker Studio imprint in Australia – a new imprint that showcases books with elegant, engaging designs and superior production values. Big Love was a 2022 CBCA Notable book; was featured on TV (PlaySchool’s Storytime, read by Michael Theo); featured on the ABC Kids Listen Bedtime Stories podcast; has been translated into two languages, and the Spanish-language version, El amor más grande, was listed as a Best Book of 2023 by the New York Public Library; and selected as a Best Spanish Children’s Book of the Year, 2024, by the Bank Street College of Education – The Centre for Children’s Literature.

Her next picture book, ‘The Big Box of Feelings’, will be out with Walker Books in April, 2026, and her next YA novel ‘The Waiting Place’ will be out with Hachette in October, 2026.

Megan’s short stories have been published in the Sydney Morning Herald and the Review of Australian Fiction, aired on ABC radio, and appeared in the UTS Writers Anthology. She has a degree in journalism and has also worked as an in-house script story-liner and script editor for several Australian television dramas, including the International Emmy-nominated children’s series Dance Academy. She currently works part-time as an ABC News TikTok producer when she’s not writing or hanging out with her family.

She is available for school and library author talks and workshops, where she focuses on techniques to find inspiration and unlock creativity. 

Published Works:

Yellow

(Published by Penguin Random House)

If fourteen-year-old Kirra is having a midlife crisis now, then it doesn't bode well for her life expectancy. Her so-called friends bully her, whatever semblance of a mother she had has been drowned at the bottom of a gin bottle ever since her dad left them for another woman, and a teenage ghost is speaking to her through a broken phone booth. Kirra and the ghost make a pact. She'll prove who murdered him almost twenty years ago if he makes her popular, gets her parents back together, and promises not to haunt her. But things aren't so simple, and Kirra realises that people can be haunted in more ways than one.

'This story has such a generous heart. I loved it. Utterly unique and beautifully written, Yellow pulls you into the rhythms of life in a small coastal town; its beauty and its harsh realities. But it's the supernatural element that illuminates the story, weaving through the loves and hopes of characters you care for deeply. I was there every inch of the way with Kirra, as she fought for a future she could believe in, and I cheered for her too.' Kirsty Eagar

'In her first novel, Megan Jacobson reveals herself to be a masterful storyteller . . . This is young-adult fiction at its best.' Nick Earls

The Build-Up Season

(published by Penguin Random House)

'He’s back. The monster. It’s the middle of the night and I’m awake, because even though I’m seventeen I still haven’t outgrown the childhood monster that haunts you in the dark. I haven’t outgrown it, because when I was a child, the monster was real. He was my father.'

Seventeen-year-old Iliad Piper is named after war and angry at the world. Growing up with a violent father and abused mother, she doesn’t know how to do relationships, family or friends. Ily takes off her armour for nobody, until she meets Jared, someone who's as complicated as she is.

Big Love

(published by Walker Studio)

How can you describe how big a parent’s love is for their child? Is it as big as a house, as big as a city, as big as the world? This uplifting picture book helps young readers in finding an answer.

'This is the house. It’s very big! But it’s not as big as my love for you.'

No matter how different our families may be, the one thing we all have in common is love. The evocative text and vibrant artwork explore the boundless love of a parent, comparing the scope of the familiar and the great unknown to the love they have for their child.