AUTHOR FEATURE: Catch Tilly's anti-bullying focus
Friday 20 March marked National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence (NDA). With everything else going on in the world at the moment, it passed by with a whisper rather than a bang. Yet, prior to the current pandemic situation, bullying was in the headlines and at the centre of debate. It was also the initial drive for author Catch Tilly when she first began writing her young adult fiction novel, Otherwise Known as Pig.
“What do you call a boy who doesn’t play sport?” I asked this question of Australian public and private school students during a series of anti-bullying workshops I ran in 2007. The answer was always the same: “loser” or “hopeless”. The teachers who sat in on the workshops were routinely shocked. After a while, I wasn’t. Though sport was considered optional for Australian girls, boys who opted out were considered suspect. The next 15 minutes of the workshop were planned around that response. If I didn’t get it, I’d be stuck for what to do. That never happened.
Excerpt from Catch Tilly's piece in the Guardian
Catch Tilly is a former high school teacher now working as an author and script writer. It was after hearing students comment how realistic and empowering they found Morgan and Stormin's story presented in a play on bullying that she decided to write Otherwise Known as Pig.
In an online Q&A with #LoveOzYA, Catch explained the drive behind the story, and emphasised that while the book isn't all sunshine and roses, there are still glimmers of hope, both in this story and in the world:
Otherwise known as Pig is a YA novel about bullying. It’s violent and confronting. I usually describe it by saying it starts with “Stormin punched me in the mouth today” and goes downhill from there. But it’s very funny: my protagonist Morgan, otherwise known as Pig, has a real mouth on him and he says those smart-arse sarcastic comments we all want to. And, in between the bullying there’s pieces of real hope.
I wrote it after doing a workshop on bullying and there’s a lot of research behind it. What I’ve found most amazing is the way people tell you stories. From 13-year-old kids to adults over 80, I’ve found by just talking about this book, people open up to you and tell you things about their past you never imagined. It’s humbling to think something you’ve written can speak into people’s lives like that.
Catch has appeared as an anti-bullying expert on ABC RN Life Matters and ABC radio. She teaches anti-bullying workshops for schools, is a stage performer, and undertakes author talks at multiple events.