Helena Fox knows what it means to find quiet places in times of overwhelming noise. Whether it’s the noise of roaring bushfires, the overwhelm of climate change anxiety, or the echoes of trauma.

Born in Peru, Helena lived in South America, Spain, the UK, Samoa and Australia by the age of 11, when she settled in Australia with her family. After studying law and realising the life of a lawyer wasn’t for her, Helena went on to study a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing in the US, where she lived for seven years.

Returning to Australia, Helena’s mother was living in Wollongong, so she and her family moved here and have called the area home ever since.

Helena’s first book, How it Feels to Float, was written as an exploration of trauma and how we survive it. Exploring themes like grief, mental health and loss, it’s a young adult novel set in the Illawarra that has gained both popular support and critical acclaim – winning the Prime Minister’s Literary Award and the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, along with being shortlisted for many other prestigious literary prizes.

Her latest book, The Quiet and The Loud, has been shortlisted for the Young Adult Book of the Year by the Children’s Book Council of Australia, a highly competitive category. For Helena, this recognition is a reward for the years of effort she put into writing and re-drafting her second novel, which had to carry the pressure of the success of her first book.

“You hope that every book will come out of you easily, with minimal feedback and edits required, but things don’t always line up in a neat row,” says Helena.

“As a survivor of trauma living with complex PTSD myself, I know how helpful it is to find your voice and speak the truth.”

“I was writing the book in a very chaotic time – our collective climate anxiety was high and climate marches were happening around the country, then we had the real-time threat of bushfires followed by the pandemic. There was a lot of noise, and I wanted to reflect this same overwhelm in my book.”

From her home in Russell Vale, which sits alongside the bushland of the escarpment, Helena and her family had a similar experience to many local families during the bushfires, of being ready to run if the flames came too close.

Living with this constant threat, which was additionally dangerous for Helena who suffers from asthma which was inflamed by the ash in the air, informed the ideas in The Quiet and the Loud. In it, Helena explores what it feels like to find your voice in the noise of climate change, social pressure, the stigma of mental illness and the secrets of past traumas.

“As a survivor of trauma living with complex PTSD myself, I know how helpful it is to find your voice and speak the truth. Speaking out about difficult things to trusted, safe people can truly help us heal. I wanted to explore what it’s like to be an embedded people-pleaser who is navigating a cacophony of external and internal noise while staying silent about her own needs,” says Helena.

Giving a voice to the young people in her books mirrors Helena’s work in the real world. She’s been a writing workshop facilitator and mentor for young people since 2009, and founded the South Coast Writers Centre’s Young Writers Program in 2014 and the Young Writers Collective with a former student in 2020.

As someone who values kindness, Helena has seen how giving young people a space to be themselves can help them flourish.

“I’ve seen the effect of listening, supporting and really validating the voices of young people and I’ve noticed that if you value people, they feel safe enough to grow, become adventurous and find themselves.”

When it comes to big issues like climate change, Helena recognises that it’s normal to feel overwhelmed by the size of the problem, especially for young people.

“I was struggling with climate change anxiety, and I felt helpless. I thought what can I do? But then I realised, I’m a writer, so why don’t I start there? I can write about this feeling and these experiences of overwhelm, and that could help others realise they’re not alone in feeling that way.”

“The quiet message of this book is we’re all allowed to speak and we deserve to speak about issues that affect us, and we don’t have to put up with cruelty or unkindness,” says Helena.

To find inspiration, Helena loves spending time in nature when she needs space to explore big ideas.

“Sandon Point is a particular favourite of mine, as is Bulli Beach headland,” she says.

“I love walking the Seacliff Bridge or wandering the botanical gardens – we have so many beautiful places here between the bush and the sea.”

The winners of the CBCA Book of the Year awards will be announced on 16 August, ahead of Book Week (17 – 23 August).