Penni Russon

Penni Russon (born 27 December 1974) is an Australian writer of children's literature and young adult fiction.

Russon was born in 1974 in Tasmania, Australia. Russon has studied children's literature at Monash University and professional writing and editing at RMIT University. She is a freelance editor and originally wrote poems. In 2004 her first novel was published by Random House, entitled Undine. Undine was a finalist in the 2004 Aurealis Award for best young-adult novel but lost to Scott Westerfeld's The Secret Hour. In 2005 she released the sequel to Undine, entitled Breathe which was published by Random House and in 2007 she concluded the Undine trilogy with Drift. Breathe received a note of high commendation at the 2005 Aurealis Awards. Russon has written two novels in the Girlfriend Fiction series and in 2007 she released Josie and the Michael Street Kids which was a finalist for the 2009 Children's Peace Literature Award. She currently lives in Melbourne with her husband and two children. She currently releases stories on the online website Storybird and is a CP author there, under the name of Eglantine.

Aurealis Awards

• Best young-adult novel
  • 2004: Nomination: Undine

Children's Peace Literature Award

• 2009: Nomination: Josie and the Michael Street Kids