Dark Academics: Elizabeth Knox and Lili Wilkinson

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Elizabeth Knox’s latest novel, Kings of this World, is a propulsive kidnap drama that sees Vex and her school friends, who all possess the mysterious gift of “P”, embroiled in political and personal upheaval. Lili Wilkinson’s Unhallowed Halls sees Page Whittaker unravel the dangerous mysteries of her exclusive new school, Agathion College. Both novelists have harnessed the elements of “dark academia” to create worlds where demonic magic and supernatural powers mark their teenaged protagonists and force them to confront the shadows of humanity. Join Elizabeth and Lili for a deep dive into the truth behind their fiction and learn what it takes to craft novels with teenaged protagonists.

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About

Elizabeth Knox is an acclaimed novelist and essayist. Her novel The Vintner’s Luck won the Deutz Medal for Fiction in the 1999 Montana New Zealand Book Awards, and the Tasmania Pacific Region Prize, and is published in thirteen languages. Dreamhunter won the 2006 Esther Glen Medal, and its sequel, Dreamquake, was a Michael L Printz Honor book for 2008 and, in the same year, was named an ALA, a CCBC, Booklist, and New York Library best book. A collection of essays, The Love School, won the biography and memoir section of the New Zealand Post book awards in 2009. Mortal Fire won a NZ Post Children’s book award and was a finalist in the LA Times Book Awards. Elizabeth’s most recent novel is Kings of This World.

Elizabeth is an Arts Foundation Laureate and was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2002.

Lili Wilkinson is the award-winning author of more than twenty books for young people, including A Hunger of Thorns, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, and was a CBCA Honour Book. Lili has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and is a passionate advocate for YA and the young people who read it. Her latest books are the Bravepaw series and Unhallowed Halls.