Dr Jesse Blackadder was an award-winning author of seven novels for adults and children, an emerging screenwriter, an inspiring public speaker and a creative writing teacher and youth literacy advocate. She was fascinated by adventurous women, extreme landscapes, unusual creatures and chilly places.
Her most recent book was In the Blink of an Eye, published in the USA by St Martins Press (published as Sixty Seconds in Australia by HarperCollins).
Jesse was twice awarded the prestigious Australian Antarctic Arts Fellowship. She was a writer in residence in Alaska, outback Australia, Byron Bay, Charles Sturt University Wagga, and Varuna The Writers’ House.
Jesse was an experienced freelance writer and journalist. She studied creative writing (along with film and photography) in a BA (Communication) at the University of Technology Sydney. She had a Master of Applied Science (Social Ecology) and a Doctor of Creative Arts from Western Sydney University, and won awards for her fiction and non-fiction.