Lilith Norman

LILITH NORMAN
b. 1927

Biography and studies

Lilith (pronounced Lye-lith!) Norman's art has benefited from her work from various perspectives of Children's Literature. Born on 1927, her earliest success was winning 3rd prize in a newspaper poetry competition when she was 18 (for The Colour of Sorrow: a lament for the Aborigines). She worked as a library, then bookshop, assistant, travelled overseas, returned to formal library training and work, and was Children's Librarian at Sydney Public Library from 1966 to 1970. It was reading countless incoming titles that convinced her she could write as well and better as the material she was selecting.
Her first novel, Climb a lonely hill (1971), was commended in the Book of the Year awards, and set her on her authorial way. She joined the editorial staff of the NSW School Magazine under Patricia Wrightson and wrote of that time -

I learned more during the 5 years Patricia Wrightson was editor at the School Magazine than would have in fifty years of fumbling on my own ...There is no point in writing abstract waffle to bore the kids. It is not easy to make your writing lively and interesting and to make one article ten lines long, another twenty-six, one fourteen, one a full page. I learned discipline to write at length, to meet deadlines, to see my own writing clearly - and to stick glue on the seat of my pants and sit down and write - the hardest discipline of all.

Lilith took over as editor on Patricia's retirement in 1975 but in 1978 turned to writing full time. In 1980 A dream of seas was chosen as a Hans Christian Andersen Honour Book by IBBY, and in 1999 Grandpa received several awards for its warm and realistic portrayal of the loss of a loved one.
(Information drawn from Authors and Illustrators of Australian Children's Books by Walter McVitty 1989, and The Oxford Companion to Australian Children's Literature ed. Stella Lees and Pam MacIntyre 1993, as well as meeting Lilith at the Bendigo Children's Literature Conference in 1995)

While she feels that a children's writer must essentially be an optimist, she has never shied away from honest and realistic representation in her writing. She does not patronise her readers by obscuring their view of the world.

Austlit has a short biography and list of works, and you can search further in the database for reviews and analysis

For a broader list of authors, have a browse through the Australian Authors and Illustrators page from the NSW branch of the Australian School Library Association

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