Kate Simpson author page

Kate Simpson biography

Kate Simpson is an Australian children’s author and podcast host whose picture books draw on science, history and curiosity. A chemical engineer by training, she balances a career in the water industry with writing for young readers.

Her debut, Finding Granny, illustrated by Gwynneth Jones, explores a child’s experience after her grandmother’s stroke and was shortlisted for the Speech Pathology Australia Book of the Year in 2019. Simpson followed with Dear Grandpa, illustrated by Ronojoy Ghosh – a letters-based picture book about staying close across distance that was named a Notable Book in the CBCA Book of the Year awards in 2020.

Simpson’s historical nonfiction picture book Anzac Girl: The War Diaries of Alice Ross-King, illustrated by Jess Racklyeft, adapts extracts from Ross-King’s First World War diaries for younger readers. Later titles include the science-infused Ouch! Tales of Gravity with Andy Hardiman, and Unreal: Can You Tell Fact from Fake? with Leila Rudge – a museum-style exploration inviting readers to separate natural history from myth, recognised as a CBCA Eve Pownall Award Notable in 2025.

How to Move a Zoo, illustrated by Owen Swan, recounts the 1916 walk of Jessie the elephant through Sydney to her new home at Taronga Zoo and was shortlisted for the 2025 CBCA Book of the Year – Early Childhood.