A USC doctoral student who fondly recalls meeting her favourite authors when she was a schoolgirl visiting the Sippy Downs campus for annual Voices on the Coast literature festivals will launch her first published book on the same campus tomorrow, Friday 5 May.

Doctor of Creative Arts student Emily Larkin, 24, of Buderim, is delighted at the publication of her children’s picture book by independent Australian publisher Wombat Books.

“I originally wrote The Whirlpool as an assignment for one of my creative writing classes and it’s wonderful to now see it in print,” said Ms Larkin, who previously graduated from USC with a Bachelor of Communication and Bachelor of Arts (Honours First Class).

“The main character is a polar bear cub who feels intense emotions as he interprets the world around him, and the book is about the power of perspective and return of hope.”

The book’s illustrator, award-winning artist Helene Magisson, also will attend the event at the USC Art Gallery at 10.30am.

Ms Larkin, who enjoys the fantasy fiction genre, has previously had stories published in online literary journals and appeared in the non-fiction book Visions about aspirational people connected with the University of the Sunshine Coast in its first 20 years.

Currently supervised by Senior Lecturers Dr Ross Watkins and Dr Paul Williams, she said it was a dream to be launching her first book on the campus she visited so often as an Immanuel Lutheran College student in the 2000s.

Tomorrow’s event is free. Copies of the The Whirpool will be on sale. For details about the book go to www.wombatbooks.com.au.

— Julie Schomberg