Our ambassadors
Our Ambassadors are passionate advocates for the power of storytelling, creativity and young people’s voices.
Alongside joining our programs as guest artists and working directly with children and young people, our Ambassadors help inspire community involvement, champion our mission and values, and share the work of 100 Story Building.
We are honoured to have the following Ambassadors be part of our story!
Sally Rippin
“I am absolutely honoured to be an ambassador for 100 Story Building. It is such an important and worthwhile initiative, run by a crew of fabulously talented, dedicated and enthusiastic staff and volunteers. The 100 Story Building is a uniquely fun and inspiring place where young writers from the West have the opportunities to hone and develop their skills. Having been an ambassador from the first days of inception, I have loved watching the centre grow, change and expand over the years. I couldn’t think of a worthier cause to support.”
Sally Rippin is a best-selling and beloved author for children with over ten million copies of her books in print around the world and translated into over sixteen languages. Her most popular series include Billie B Brown, Hey Jack! and School of Monsters. Sally was named the Eighth Children’s Laureate for 2024 – 2025: the national ambassador for reading and Australian children’s literature. In this role, Sally aimed to create public awareness around learning difficulties as well as the most effective practice in teaching children to read. Sally's advocacy work spotlights the reading challenges faced by millions of Australian children – including but not limited to discussions around neurodiversity, disability, mental health, access to books and language barriers.
Maxine Beneba Clarke
“I live, and write, in Melbourne’s west, and am delighted to be an ambassador for 100 Story Building. As a young child, I was always lost in words and stories. It’s an honour to think I might play a tiny part in fostering this love of words and the imaginary in another kids. I’m passionate about writing the western suburbs of Melbourne into Australian literature. Sections of my book Foreign Soil are set in a fictional flat above the iconic Dancing Dog Cafe building, and on Footscray’s Barkly Street outside Ted’s Cycles. The creative, engaged and exceptional work of 100 Story Building in engaging with young local writers, plays a vital part in ensuring that the future of Australian writing – and reading – is geographically and culturally diverse, which is also extremely important to me, as an Australian writer from a diverse background.”
Maxine Beneba Clarke is an Australian author and spoken word poet of Afro-Caribbean descent. She is the author of the poetry collections Gil Scott Heron is On Parole and Nothing Here Needs Fixing. Maxine’s short fiction collection Foreign Soil won the 2015 ABIA Award for Literary Fiction Book of the Year; the 2015 Indie Award for Debut Fiction; and the 2013 Victorian Premier’s Award for an Unpublished Manuscript. Her memoir of growing up black in Australia The Hate Race won the NSW Premier's Literary Award Multicultural NSW Award 2017 and her first picture book The Patchwork Bike with Van T. Rudd was a CBCA Honour Book for 2017. Maxine writes regularly for The Saturday Paper and won the Victorian Premier’s Prize for Poetry in 2017. Maxine lives in Melbourne’s west, mostly outside the window of the Footscray Station jam donut van.
Alice Pung
“Growing up in Braybrook and the Western suburbs, one of the most exciting things that ever happened to me was the opening of the Footscray Library. It was there that I spent hours reading books and realising that a different and larger life could be lived. It is no exaggeration to say that books, and writing, changed my life. They taught me to understand different points of view and gave me insight about how choices were made, which has helped me immensely not only as a writer but as a human being. That is why I am proud to be an ambassador for 100 Story Building – it means a lot to me that kids in the West get opportunities to develop the same love of literature I did.”
Alice Pung OAM is the author of the bestselling memoirs Unpolished Gem and Her Father’s Daughter, and the editor of the anthologies Growing Up Asian in Australia. Her novel Laurinda won the Ethel Turner Prize at the 2016 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, and One Hundred Days was shortlisted for the 2022 Miles Franklin Award. She is also the award-winning author of children's books including Be Careful Xiao Xin (illus. Sher Rill Ng) and the Millie Mak series (illus. Sher Rill Ng). In 2022, Alice was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for services to literature.
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