Shirley Marr

Shirley Marr is a first generation Chinese-Australian located in Perth and an author of Young Adult and children’s fiction.

Little Jiang, a spirited Middle Grade novel featuring a pint-sized Chinese vampire is out now through Fremantle Press. A Glasshouse of Stars, a contemporary migration novel based on her childhood story is set to be published internationally in mid 2021 by Penguin Random House (AUS), Simon & Shuster (US) and Usborne Books (UK).

Her previous two contemporary young adult titles are Fury (a dark and funny murder story narrated by a petulant sixteen-year-old mean girl) and Preloved (a lower-teen paranormal love story for girls who don’t like paranormal love stories), both published by Black Dog Books, an imprint of Walker Books Australia.

It was while she was working on a very dry Accounting PhD that she realised she'd rather be writing down her dark, twisted daydreams instead. She is still a Bespectacled Accountant by day and a Masked Writer at night.

Shirley describes herself as having a Western Mind and an Eastern Heart and write in the middle where both collide. She takes milk and sugar with her tea much to the dismay of her oolong drinking friends and eats chicken feet much to the disgust of her Aussie friends.

Her passion is to distil her cultural heritage in dark and unusual ways through the lens of resilient young women and her soft spot is interpreting the concept of a "Suburban Princess".

She is the only person she knows who has ever been kicked out of a bookstore for disruptive behaviour.