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Elizabeth Kata (1912 4 September 1998) was an Australian writer, best known for Be Ready with Bells and Drums (1961), which was made into the award-winning film A Patch of Blue (1965).

Elizabeth Kata was born of Scottish parents in Sydney in 1912. After marrying a Japanese man in 1937, she lived for ten years in Japan. During the last years of World War II she was interned at the mountain resort village of Karuizawa, Nagano. Kata returned to Australia in 1947 with her baby son, after battling the Australian Government for permission.

As well as writing novels, Kata also wrote for television and several Hollywood scripts. Her first novel Be Ready with Bells and Drums (written in 1959, first published in 1961) was produced as the film A Patch of Blue (1965). Shelley Winters playing the role of Rose-Ann D'Arcey won an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Guy Green, who directed, also adapted Kata's book and his screenplay was nominated for a Writers Guild of America award. After the success of the film, the novel was re-released as A Patch of Blue. The book was for many years included in the "school book list" both in the US and Australia. The book Mrs Katayama and Her Splash of Blue (2010, Independence Jones), covers how Elizabeth Kata's first book became the film A Patch of Blue.

Elizabeth Kata died in Sydney in 1998.

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Elizabeth Kata", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0