Toby Hammerschlag grew up in South Africa, immigrating to Australia with her husband and two daughters in 1986.
She was a Special Education teacher for many years, specialising in literacy. While teaching, she would write passages and stories for her students when she couldn’t find an appropriate text for them.
After retiring from teaching, she did an oral history course with the chief oral history librarian at the State Library of NSW. She then interviewed people in order to preserve their family stories. Some of the characters in her recent novel have been inspired by these interviews.
Her first book, ‘The Rooftop’, was published in 2015. It is a story of friendship between four young students from diverse cultural and social backgrounds. The book celebrates freedom and diversity. That book has been widely used in schools.
‘Looking Out and Beyond’ is her second novel. The research and writing of her novel has taken five years.
Toby and her husband live on the upper North Shore of Sydney and is now a grandmother of five.
In the 185th episode of The HYBRID Author podcast host Joanne Zara Ellen Morrell, author of young adult fiction, women’s fiction and short non-fiction for authors, chats to Toby about:
- her new novel ‘Looking Out and Beyond’, the story rooted from Toby’s childhood experiences growing up in Apartheid South Africa, blending personal memory with historical fact
- covering complex themes—racial injustice, World War II and migration being accessible to young adult readers.
- how Toby’s background as a literacy educator has helped shape this story to align with the Australian school curriculum and still connect emotionally with students
- Toby’s hopes for this book is to empower young people to stand up against racial discrimination via conversations or classroom discussions for Looking Out and Beyond sparking in schools
- Publishing with Woodslane and embracing a hybrid path to authorship, what Toby’s author adventure has been like bringing this important story to life
- her advice for writers who also want to make a social impact with their work and much more