---
title: "Jessica Townsend"
description: "Guest of Honour 2026"
date: "2026-03-03"
created: "2025-12-11"
---

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                    [Guests of Honour](https://fantasyfestival.eu/guests-of-honour)

                [Jessica Townsend](https://fantasyfestival.eu/guests-of-honour/jessica-townsend)

# Jessica Townsend

![](https://fantasyfestival.eu/i/MOLIRIMEDIA/ec31ac53-b707-49b2-bc20-08de3554d60d?width=800)

### **From Nevermoor and Australia to Esbjerg and Fantasy Festival 2026**

Jessica Townsend (b. 1985, Queensland, Australia) made a spectacular breakthrough in 2017 with *Nevermoor*, the first volume of her fantasy series for children and young readers. Interest in the series was enormous even before publication, with several major publishers engaged in a bidding war for the rights — and the film rights to the first book were sold before it had even been released. The series has been translated into multiple languages, praised to the skies by critics and readers alike, and has won several literary awards.

#### **An important library newsletter!**

Jessica was born and raised in Australia. She began writing as a child and had her first story published at age seven in the local library’s newsletter. She began writing the *Nevermoor* series the year she finished high school and has worked both as a copywriter and at Steve Irwin’s “Australia Zoo,” where she was, among other things, editor of their children’s magazine. She has been a full-time author since the sale of the first book in the series, and for the past 10 years she has split her time between London and Australia.

#### **COVID and ADHD**

While the first three books in the series were published roughly a year apart, it took Jessica longer to complete the fourth book, *Silverborn* (in Danish: *Sølverfødt*), which was released in 2025. A prolonged illness with COVID, along with a previously undiagnosed ADHD that suddenly took over, delayed the writing process, as Jessica had to find new ways of working to manage her condition.

#### **Nevermoor**

The *Nevermoor* series follows the girl Morrigan Crow, who has been cursed since birth and is destined to die. But before that happens, Morrigan is rescued by the mysterious Jupiter North and taken to the magical city of Nevermoor to compete for a place in **The Wundrous Society**.

The *Nevermoor* series has often been compared to *Harry Potter*, and Jessica herself has said she was inspired by *Harry Potter*. Other literary influences include *Little Women* by Louisa May Alcott, *The Golden Compass* by Philip Pullman, *Wicked* by Gregory Maguire, and *Tomorrow, When the War Began* by John Marsden.

We can’t wait to step into Jessica’s fantastic world and experience its magic together with her.