{"id":3212,"date":"2020-04-15T10:00:06","date_gmt":"2020-04-14T23:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/?p=3212"},"modified":"2020-04-16T12:46:44","modified_gmt":"2020-04-16T02:16:44","slug":"author-feature-catch-tilly-anti-bullying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/2020\/04\/author-feature-catch-tilly-anti-bullying\/","title":{"rendered":"AUTHOR FEATURE: Catch Tilly’s anti-bullying focus"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Otherwise<\/a><\/p>\n

Friday 20 March marked\u00a0National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence (NDA).\u00a0With 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<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/span><\/h1>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you call a boy who doesn\u2019t play sport?\u201d 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: \u201closer\u201d or \u201chopeless\u201d. The teachers who sat in on the workshops were routinely shocked. After a while, I wasn\u2019t. 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\u2019t get it, I\u2019d be stuck for what to do. That never happened.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Excerpt from Catch Tilly’s piece in the <\/strong><\/em>Guardian<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Catch<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Catch Tilly\u00a0<\/strong>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\u00a0Otherwise Known as Pig<\/em>.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In\u00a0an online Q&A with #LoveOzYA<\/a>, 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:<\/h1>\n

Otherwise known as Pig<\/em> is a YA novel about bullying. It\u2019s violent and confronting. I usually describe it by saying it starts with \u201cStormin punched me in the mouth today\u201d and goes downhill from there. But it\u2019s 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\u2019s pieces of real hope.<\/p>\n

I wrote it after doing a workshop on bullying and there\u2019s a lot of research behind it. What I\u2019ve found most amazing is the way people tell you stories. From 13-year-old kids to adults over 80, I\u2019ve found by just talking about this book, people open up to you and tell you things about their past you never imagined. It\u2019s humbling to think something you\u2019ve written can speak into people\u2019s lives like that.<\/p>\n

\"Praise<\/a><\/p>\n

Catch has appeared as an anti-bullying expert on <\/span>ABC RN <\/span>Life Matters<\/em> and ABC radio. She teaches anti-bullying workshops for schools, is a stage performer, and undertakes author talks at multiple events.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

To find out more about\u00a0Otherwise Known as Pig<\/a>, visit our website. We’ve uploaded study notes written in partnership with Catch to support those of us with students at home.<\/em><\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday 20 March marked\u00a0National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence (NDA).\u00a0With 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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[868,759],"tags":[780,869,871,872,304,870,779,831],"class_list":["post-3212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-feature","category-young-adult","tag-loveozya","tag-anti-bullying","tag-author-feature","tag-wakefield-press-author","tag-wakefield-press-family","tag-ya-contemporary-fiction","tag-young-adult","tag-young-adult-fiction"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4v1Of-PO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3212"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3433,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3212\/revisions\/3433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wakefieldpress.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}