Simone Pakavakis, growing up with her head in the books of esteemed Australian authors like John Marsden and Markus Zusak, Simone was a runner-up in several writing competitions before winning the Slade Literary Award in Year 10 for her short story, ‘The Big Game.’ The story became a short film, featuring in the Melbourne International Film Festival (2014). In addition to her love for writing, Simone has a passion for the integral development of children. After graduating from the University of Melbourne, Simone began teaching at an inner-city primary school. She works to promote kindness as a core strength in her students and sees literacy skills and quality children’s literature as key elements for this.

Constantine Pakavakis has published a non-fiction work, Looking Inside and was co-author of Early Moves – Primary Gender Inclusive Curriculum Units, a text for teachers. He has been a primary school teacher since 1988 and has also worked as an education officer at Scienceworks, where he led the creation of the Nitty Gritty Super City exhibition. A video he produced with his class about climate change, Solar Solution, won the 1999 Ford “One Planet” Environment Award. Prior to teaching, Constantine worked briefly in Civil Engineering, was a draft resistor during the Vietnam War, became a meditation and yoga teacher in India, and taught Tantra Yoga for ten years in Italy, Greece, India and Australia. Constantine continues to advocate for human rights, social justice and peace and climate action as an active member and supporter of various activist organisations.