Reena Balding is a Tasmanian-born writer and storyteller who lives in lutruwita/Hobart.

Her first picture book is In the Kelp Forest, a collaboration with Aunty Patsy Cameron and illustrated by Belinda Casey. Published by Magabala Books, In the Kelp Forest is out from 7 April 2026.

Reena’s short stories for children have been published in The Ballad of Jubal Jacques: Assorted whimsies for young and old, released in 2025 by Tasmanian creatives as a fundraiser for refugees.

After living in Indonesia for seven years, Reena wrote a collection of children’s songs called Ayo! Let’s Go! Songs for children in Indonesian and English. Reena was inspired to introduce Indonesian words and phrases to her young sons through song. Apart from writing picture books, Reena is working on her first novel and publishes books for the Australian Government.

 

 

 

Contact Reena for more information at reena.balding at gmail.com.

About the blog

I began this blog in 2014 when I was living in Bali. At that time I was very interested in the Indonesian language and the state of Indonesian language teaching in Australian schools. I did quite a lot of research into this, wondering how the songs and books that I was writing could be useful in an education setting. After a while I expanded to write more about children’s books in general. I’ve become more active with SCBWI since returning to Australia and am spending as much time as I can on submitting picture book manuscripts.

Some useful links

• Society for children’s book writers and illustrators – SCBWI
• Beta Lisboa – yoga practitioner and kids yoga teacher
• Songwriting: Writing the lyrics by Pat Pattison, Berklee College of Music – free (or almost) on Coursera
• The ACT Writers Centre
• Ubud Writers & Readers FestivalUbud Writers & Readers Festival
• Ganesha Bookshop Bali
• The Green School Shop
• Asia Bookroom
• Young Yoga Masters
• 12 X 12 Picture Book Writing Challenge
• Australian Society of Indonesian Language Educators