Fourth-grade teacher Mrs Bannister, from Springwood Primary School, often gets a shout-out during school talks given by award-winning children’s and teen author Tristan Bancks. Her encouragement of five minutes of uncensored writing each morning gave young Tristan – and his 4B classmates – permission to imagine many things, including what it might be like to live as a Mars bar.
“It encouraged me to love writing,” said Tristan, who, decades later, still pens “three unplanned, messy, free-written pages” each day to trigger fresh ideas. “Mrs Bannister was very important to me.”
He was an avid reader as a child – everything from The Hardy Boys to the books of Roald Dahl and Paul Jennings – but Tristan believes we’re now at a critical juncture for kids and reading. “Technology is so prevalent and good for so many things, but reading is also important,” he said. “I feel I need to do as much as I can, whether it’s touring or making videos and sharing them online, to inspire kids to read.”
And not just privileged kids either.
When he was studying for a Bachelor of Arts at UNE in the early 2000s Tristan encountered the French expression nobless oblige – the notion that with privilege comes responsibility. “I am pretty lucky; I grew up with lots of books, I am literate and am now fortunate enough to write stories as well,” he said. “Formal study at UNE gave me the confidence to develop, seek feedback and be nurtured as a writer.
“Literacy is something I feel strongly about, so 12 years ago I started fundraising for Room to Read, a not-for-profit that provides school libraries and books for children in the developing world. We have since raised $220,000 for literacy programs in India, Cambodia and Nepal, among other countries.”
Closer to home, Tristan visits up to 100 Australian schools a year to promote his books – 17 titles and counting, including the popular Tom Weekly series and more recent best-sellers Two Wolves, The Fall and Scar Town. It’s also a prime opportunity to gauge the reactions of his readers and to encourage reading. “It’s definitely a two-way street; hopefully the kids are excited to read a book or listen to my stories, but I also get a really good sense of who my readers are and the language they use.”
A passion for film-making sits comfortably alongside Tristan’s written works. He’s an active user of social media and often produces video trailers for his books. “I was making short films while I was studying at UNE and took a lot of film studies units,” he said. “You need to explore ways to connect with your audience and have the best party around your book’s release. Being creative and inventive not just with the writing but also with sharing the book is essential if you want to make a creative living in Australia. It makes the writing process more fun and interesting, too.”
Sometimes, his written and visual worlds also intersect. Tristan’s Tom Weekly series and thriller Cop and Robber, which last month won a Young Australians’ Best Book Award and Kids Own Australian Literature Award (KOALA), are being developed for television and Detention is being adapted for theatre. “Considering how your work can be developed for a different realm makes you a better storyteller,” he said.
