Sophie Masson
An archive of Sophie’s posts can be found HERE.
Born in Indonesia of French parents– who are themselves of mixed ethnicity–Basque, Spanish, Portuguese, French-Canadian as well as French–and brought up in France and Australia, Sophie Masson is the acclaimed, award-winning and internationally-published author of over 70 books for children, young adults and adults. Her first two books were published in 1990, and she has been continuously published ever since, with her latest books published in 2020 and more coming in 2021 and 2022. Her fiction ranges widely over genres, including historical, mystery, thriller, contemporary, romance, and fantasy novels, chapter books and picture books, and she has also published non-fiction and a collection of tales, French Fairy Tales (illustrated by Lorena Carrington, Serenity Press), which feature her new translations and retellings of five beautiful fairytales from France.
In Australia, Sophie has received several awards for her creative work, including winning the Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children’s Literature in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, the Young Adult category in the 2005 Aurealis Awards, and numerous Notable Books citations in the CBCA Book of the Year Awards. She has also been shortlisted for numerous other awards and has been the recipient of a Keesing Studio Fellowship and an Asia-Pacific Fellowship.
In 2019, Sophie received an AM (Member, General Division) award in the Order of Australia in the Australia Day 2019 honours list. Her citation read ‘For significant service to literature as an author, publisher, and through service to literary organisations’.
Sophie is also a founding partner and publishing director of acclaimed New England-based small publisher, Christmas Press, which specialises in children’s books—novels, chapter books and anthologies. As a bilingual speaker and writer, she also edited for Eagle Books (Christmas Press fiction imprint) the first English translation in over 100 years of Jules Verne’s Mikhail Strogoff, the great adventure novel by the legendary French (translated by award-winning translator Stephanie Smee)
A former Chair of the Australian Society of Authors, Sophie is the current Chair of the New England Writers’ Centre, President of the Small Press Network and President of the New England and North West sub-branch of the Children’s Book Council of Australia (NSW branch). She has twice been appointed as Patron of the Historical Novel Society of Australasia’s Conferences, in 2017 and 2019.
In 2019, Sophie graduated from a creative practice PhD at the University of New England (New South Wales, Australia) where she worked on the creation of a young adult speculative fiction novel, The Ghost Squad, with accompanying exegesis. The novel has since been acquired by MidnightSun Publishing and releases in February 2021. She has presented her research work on literary and publishing topics at academic conferences around the world and her scholarly articles on writing and publishing have been published in peer-reviewed journals worldwide. During her PhD study, she was also a Visiting Scholar at the Centre for Research Into Children’s Literature at the University of Cambridge (UK).
Author website: www.sophiemassonauthor.com
Writing blog: www.firebirdfeathers.com
Sophie Masson Presents, a site showcasing Sophie’s presentations: www.sophiemassonpresents.com
Sophie’s fairytale blog, showcasing her books based around fairytales, https://fairytalecountry.wordpress.com/
Sophie Masson You Tube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWLa0xYjGo_nHnAzEZLDB7g
Social media:
Author page, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SophieMassonAuthor/
Twitter: @SophieMasson1 Instagram: @sophievmasson