Craig Silvey told a group of Year 11 Perth College students, who are studying English 2AB, that his book had been published all over the world, translated for the stage and would also become a film.
About 200,000 copies of Jasper Jones have been sold in Australia since it was published in 2009.
Silvey’s debut novel, Rhubarb, was published in 2004 and he was named one of the Sydney Morning Herald’s Best Young Novelists in 2005.
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READ NOW‘It’s a real thrill for me to come and talk at schools,’ he said.
‘When I was 14, a local writer ” Glyn Parry ” came to my school and he talked with such passion about writing books and literature, and it really energised me.
‘It was at that moment I resolved to become a writer.’
Silvey said books were precious because people had a sense of ownership over the characters.
‘People feel very passionately about their favourite books and the characters they love,’ he said.
‘We might all read the same novel but privately we each take away something different.
‘It’s a strange thing to write a book because you have it and the characters to yourself for so long, and then once the book is published, they become public objects.’
Silvey is finalising the screenplay for a movie based on Jasper Jones, which will be filmed in the South-West at the end of this year.