Justine Larbalestier


Justine Larbalestier is an Australian writer of young adult fiction best known for her 2009 novel, Liar.

Personal life

Her surname has been pronounced in several different ways. She says online that Lar-bal-est-ee-air is correct:
Q: How do you pronounce your surname?
A: Lar-bal-est-ee-air. It can also be pronounced Lar-bal-est-ee-ay or Lar-bal-est-ee-er. Those are all fine by me. Friends at school used to pronounce it: Lavaworm. I have to really like you to let you get away with that one, but.

Larbalestier was born and raised in Sydney. She now alternates residence in Sydney and New York City.
In 2001 she married the American science fiction writer Scott Westerfeld. They met in New York City while she was doing postdoctoral research. They have different stories of how they met.

Selected works

Nonfiction

;Magic or Madness trilogy, or Reason Cansino series
;Other
Magic or Madness won the 2007 Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy—as the year's best book published in the US according to American speculative fiction writers.
Daughters of Earth: Feminist Science Fiction won one of Australia's Ditmar Awards in 2007, the William Atheling Jr. Award for Criticism or Review and the Susan Koppelman Award.
Her works have also been among the runners-up for several annual book awards.