James Nielsen is a writer and art director living in the Huon Valley, lutruwita / Tasmania. In 2026 he founded Currawong Books Press, an independent Australian picture-book imprint that publishes one or two carefully made books a year. He works slowly and deliberately — manuscripts edited at length, illustrations art-directed and revised across many iterations, print specifications chosen for longevity rather than unit cost.

His debut as author and art director, Clara the Carolling Currawong, releases December 2027 — a bush tale about belonging, creativity, and finding your own colour, illustrated in a soft watercolour style inspired by Australian natural-history plates of the nineteenth century. The book is the first of several titles planned for the press, all of which will share the same commitment to careful craft, Australian setting, and stories a child might still love at thirty.
