June Alexander

I was born in 1950 and grew up on a family dairy farm in a beautiful valley in Gippsland, the south-east corner of Australia. One of my chores was to fill kerosene bottles for the lamps in the house - our farm house had no electric power until 1962. There was no television set but a wireless, books and fertile imagination meant I was never lonely - particularly as our farm bordered what is today known as the Mitchell River National Park. I loved to wander alone in the bush (forest) and help my dad on the farm. I attended a one-room primary school and won my first essay competition at the age of nine. The topic was rice, and the prize was a pen. By now I was smitten with the writing bug. Words held a fascination and more awards followed. At the age of 16, I won a national essay competition on marriage, the prize enabling the purchase of my first manual typewriter and at 17 I departed for a year in Missouri, USA, as an American Field Service exchange student. On return to Australia, a newspaper cadetship in journalism led to a 38-year career in this medium - as journalist, editor and columnist.

In 2007, on recovering from an eating disorder that I had developed way back in 1961, I switched focus to writing non-fiction, starting with my memoir, A Girl Called Tim - Escape from an Eating Disorder Hell. This led to opportunities to write international mental health and academic textbooks, the first of these being My Kid is Back. I continue to author and edit non-fiction books, both academic and mainstream, on mental illness and also have become an educator and mentor in life writing. Everybody has a story to tell and the most ordinary lives can be the most remarkable.

Following my heart and being true to my self led to presentations at eating disorder conferences in Washington, New York and Hollywood. My theme: Hope at Every Age.

In 2010, I was a recipient of an international scholarship, at the Academy of Eating Disorders Conference, Salzburg, Austria, in recognition of writing to raise eating disorder awareness.

Professional memberships include:

F.E.A.S.T. (Families Empowered and Supporting Treatment of Eating Disorders) - Board member

Academy of Eating Disorders -Advocacy and Communication Committee member

National Eating Disorder Collaboration (NEDC) - steering committee member

Australian Society of Authors (ASA) - member.

As my father said when I was 16: You won't know unless you have a go. Never give up!

www.junealexander.com

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