Michelle Worthington is an international award-winning author of The World’s Worst Pirate and Johnny’s Beard. Two-time winner of the International Book Award and finalist in the USA Best Book Awards, Michelle also received a Gellett Burgess Award and a Silver Moonbeam Award for her contribution to celebrating diversity in literature.

Michelle is also a real-life book fairy. Her magic powers include turning coffee into books. She waves her wand to coach aspiring authors and illustrators all over the world achieve their dreams of publication. Whether she’s a fairy, a pirate or an elf, Michelle celebrates empowering readers and storytellers to dream big.

Michelle is dedicated to encouraging a strong love of reading and writing in young children and conducts author visits at primary and special schools, libraries and bookstore storytelling and publishing workshops for adults. She especially enjoys meeting people through her speaking engagements for women’s groups and charities.

Katrin Dreiling is a German-born language teacher but moved to Australia with her husband and three children and became an illustrator.

Katrin creates quirky illustrations that feature different media. Her first picture book “The World’s Worst Pirate” by Michelle Worthington has been awarded Notable Book 2018 by the Children’s Book Council of Australia and she also delivered illustrations for a highly successful video animation production on YouTube.

Katrin was awarded the Harper Collins Illustrators Showcase Award 2019 at the biannual SCBWI conference in Sydney. She is represented by Essie White at Storm Literary Agency. In 2021 her first authored and illustrated picture book “A Perfect Pig” published by Scholastic Australia was released and quickly followed by “If You Ever Meet A Skeleton” written by Rebecca Evans and published by Page Street Kids.

Katrin also teaches art to children twice a week and conducts illustration workshops for both adults and children. In her free time she loves to spend time with her family, writing quirky stories and walking her Golden Retriever ‘Loki’.