Ursula Dubosarsky

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Ursula Dubosarsky was born in Sydney, Australia in 1961, the third child in a family of writers. From the time she was first able to read, at age six, she wanted to be a writer. After finishing school, she attended Sydney University, studying languages, including Old Icelandic, Latin and Greek. When she graduated, she moved to Canberra to work in the public service, and in the evenings after work she wrote a time slip adventure called Zizzy Zing.

She then spent a year traveling, meeting her Argentinean husband, Avi, while working on a kibbutz in Israel. They married in London, then returned to Australia to live, where their daughter Maisie was born. At this time Ursula wrote her first published book, Maisie and the Pinny Gig. Since this time, Ursula has published many more novels as well as a number of books for younger children, and has won several prestigious national literary prizes.

Ursula lives in Sydney with her husband Avi, their daughter Maisie, their two sons, Dover and Bruno, and a fluffy white dog called Argus. She has completed a PhD in English literature at Macquarie University, concentrating on the work of Rumer Godden and Mary Norton.

Author's Comment: I wanted to write for all children, even those kids who might see language as a threatening thing, even if English is their second language... What I want is for people to really grab hold of language and not be nervous about it. The Word Spy is all about diving in and playing with words.

Nationality: Australian