Alison Stegert: Kidlit Author and Editor

Alison is a freelance writer and kidlit author from Queensland, Australia. Her US-based babysitting career spanned nearly a decade from middle school through to university. The experience she gained led to positions coordinating summer day camp programs in organizations as diverse as churches and country clubs. University degree in hand, she set off overseas, funding her travels by teaching English as a foreign language to youth and adults in Asia.

After settling in Australia and raising three children, Alison completed graduate studies in counseling with a focus on working with children and youth. She landed a dream job as a school counselor in a K-12 school.

Over her twelve years in the position, the role grew to include coordinating the college’s life skills program. She collated and formulated secondary school curricula that aimed to foster students’ resilience, reinforce positive coping skills, and enhance social and emotional wellbeing.

With the advent of 1:1 student devices such as tablets back around 2010, Alison identified a need to equip students and their parents with cyber safety awareness and skills. She created a customized digital citizenship and cyber safety educational package for secondary students and a blog for parents. She’s written articles on these topics for Screen Education magazine and online journals.

Alison has retired from school work and now focuses on freelancing, building a creative community for kidlit authors, and crafting un-put-down-able children’s books. She has won various awards for her writing, including the prestigious Australian Society of Author’s Emerging Writer Mentorship and an enviable residency in the Creative Spaces Artist in Residence program.

Alison is the Queensland state director of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and founder of the Sunshine Coast Writers’ Roundtable.

When her children’s adventure novel projects aren’t maxing out her headspace, Alison blogs at www.ali-stegert.com.