Presenters

Australian romance author Ally Blake loves strong coffee, bingeing on Netflix, fluffy white clouds in bright blue skies, Fire Fighters, when a favourite song comes on the car radio that she hasn't heard in ages, and the glide of a cheap, soft, dark pencil over really good notepaper.

Amie Kaufman is a New York Times, USA Today and internationally bestselling author. Several of her works are currently in development for film and TV. In addition to writing, Amie hosts the podcast Amie Kaufman on Writing and is currently undertaking a PhD in Creative Writing. She lives by the sea in Melbourne, Australia with her husband, daughter and rescue dog, and an extremely large personal library.

Amy is an award-winning, USA Today best-selling, triple RITA nominated Aussie author who has written 80+ contemporary romances in both the traditional and digital markets. Her books have everything from sass, quirk and laughter to emotional grit and panty-melting heat. She lives in a pretty little coastal town where she gets to stare at the ocean all day.

Dr Andrea Baldwin is a psychologist, teacher and writer. Andrea co-ordinates Birdie’s Tree for Queensland Health, using picture books to help young children cope with natural disasters and disruptive events. Andrea also facilitates QWC’s online course Write Through, a guide to getting through tough times creatively.

Bradley is a passionate writer, frustrated by aspects of the changing publishing process. He believes every writer should write first and not be bogged in by expensive and time-wasting sales and marketing processes. He designed his agency using the hybrid model of collective authors contributing small amounts to the overall benefits of the groups marketing and promotional values, allowing for higher brand development for all authors.

Cale Dietrich is the YA author of The Love Interest, The Friend Scheme and co-author of the upcoming If This Gets Out with Sophie Gonzales. He was born in Perth, grew up on the Gold Coast, and now lives in Brisbane, Australia. When he's not writing he spends his time playing video games, watching Drag Race or reading giant fantasy books.

Cheyenne Blue writes big-hearted sapphic romance novels set in Australia—the latest being The Number 94 Project. She lives in the Mary Valley in a small house with a big view—perfect for morning coffee, evening wine, and anytime writing.

Clair Hume is the publisher of the children’s and young adult list at University of Queensland Press (UQP). She has worked with many beloved authors and illustrators over the last decade. She grew up in rural Victoria and has a Bachelor of Fine Art and an Associate Degree in Professional Writing and Editing.

Claire G. Coleman is a writer from Western Australia. She identifies with the South Coast Noongar people; her family are associated with the area around Ravensthorpe and Hopetoun. Claire grew up in a Forestry settlement in the middle of a tree plantation, where her dad worked, not far out of Perth. She wrote her black&write! fellowship-winning book Terra Nullius while travelling around Australia in a caravan.

CT Mitchell is a 12 x Amazon bestselling author of 25 mystery short reads and novels. He is multiple 5-star recipient in the 2017 Readers Choice Awards for his novel Murder Secret. Street educated and Australian-born CT Mitchell brings his life experiences as well as a love for mystery thrillers to his writing. CT Mitchell splits his time in both Brisbane and Cabarita Beach - a sleepy seaside village in northern NSW, Australia.

David spent 10 years working for the Japanese government before returning to Brisbane to complete his Masters of Japanese Interpreting and Translation at UQ to complement his Master of International Relations. A lifelong writer across several genres, David found the differing styles of writing in other languages and the popularity of genres in other cultures fascinating. He has a particular interest in cross-cultural literature and how translation influences text.

Debbie is Senior Manager, Content Acquisition and Business Development, at Ingram Content Group. Formerly an Academic Publisher, she now assists publishers of all shapes and sizes, from indie authors, to local small presses and multinational conglomerates, with their print on demand, eBook and global distribution needs.

Ellie Marney is an award-winning YA crime author who has gone behind the scenes at the Westminster Mortuary in London and interviewed forensic autopsy specialists around the world in pursuit of just the right gory details. She may or may not know how to commit the perfect murder. Ellie has been involved in the creation of the national campaign called #LoveOzYA to promote and advocate for Australian YA literature.

Dr Gillian Polack is a speculative fiction writer based in Canberra, Australia and at Deakin University. She was the 2020 recipient of the Ditmar (best novel, for her 2019 novel The Year of the Fruit Cake) and the Bertram A. Chandler (lifetime achievement in science fiction) awards. Her current research examines how contemporary speculative fiction novels serve as vectors for cultural transmission.

Jake Corvus is a prolific writer living on the Sunshine Coast, in Australia. While in his mid-thirties, he is often mistaken for a teenager. He writes sci-fi and fantasy, with a queer and inclusive bent. He watches too many horror movies to have any self-respect, and lives with an array of rescue animals, including shrimp, cats, dogs, guinea pigs and his sons. His favourite dinosaur is the parasaurolophus.

John Birmingham is the author of the cult classic He Died With a Felafel in His Hand, the award-winning history Leviathan, Without Warning and the trilogy comprising Weapons of Choice: World War 2.1, Designated Targets: World War 2.2 and Final Impact: World War 2.3. His latest novel is After America.

J.M. Donellan is a writer, musician, poet, and teacher. He was almost devoured by a tiger in the jungles of Malaysia, nearly died of a lung collapse in the Nepalese Himalayas and fended off a pack of rabid dogs with a guitar in the mountains of India. He has spoken/performed at the Brisbane Festival, the Sydney Opera House, TEDxBrisbane, World Science Festival, and some very distinguished basements.

Julie Janson is an award-winning novelist, playwright, artist and poet. Julie lived in remote Northern Territory Aboriginal communities in her early years as a teacher, where she began writing plays and making giant puppets, masks and costumes. She is a Burruberongal woman of Darug nation and now lives in Moruya on the South coast of NSW.

USA Today Bestselling, multi-award-winning author Kelly Hunter writes short contemporary romance in three main lanes: Razzle dazzle high-stakes drama for Harlequin Presents/Modern. Small-town cowboy stories for Tule's Montana Born imprint. And contemporary rural romance for the Australian market.

She’s been editorial director of Tule Publishing Group’s Holiday imprint since 2014.

Romantic Book of the Year author, Kendall Talbot, writes action-packed romantic suspense loaded with sizzling heat and intriguing mysteries set in exotic locations. She hates cheating, loves a good happily ever after, and thrives on thrilling adventures. She lives in Brisbane, Australia with her very own hero and a fluffy little dog who specializes in hijacking her writing time.

Kylie is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today best-selling, Audie Award winning author. She has sold over 2,000,000 books and was voted Australian Romance Writer of the year, 2013, 2014, 2018, & 2019, by the Australian Romance Reader’s Association. Her books have been translated into fourteen different languages. She is based in Queensland, Australia.

Lauren Gawne is a Senior Lecturer in linguistics at La Trobe University. Her work focuses on understanding how people use grammar and gesture, with a particular focus on cross-cultural gesture use, and the grammar of Tibetan languages in Nepal. Lauren also does research on emoji, and constructed languages. Lauren is a co-host of Lingthusiasm, a podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics. She lives in Melbourne, Australia.

Dr Leanne Dodd is a lecturer in creative writing. Her alter-ego Lea Scott is a crime-writer. Other random life skills gained along the way include the ability to bait her own fishhook and shoot with a deadly aim. Her latest manuscript was nominated for prizes with Hachette and Screen Queensland.

Lili Wilkinson is the author of sixteen books. She established insideadog.com.au and the Inky Awards at the Centre for Youth Literature, State Library of Victoria. Lili has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Melbourne, and now spends most of her time reading and writing books for teenagers. Her latest books are The Erasure Initiative and How To Make A Pet Monster: Hodgepodge.

Marcus Hogan was the first Australian Fight Choreographer to be trained by the Society of American Fight Directors and has studied a variety of Martial Arts including Karate, Aikido, Ton Long and Tai Chi Chuan. He currently offers private tutoring to actors, directors, producers and writers and is very interested in mentoring emerging writing talent through his collaborations with Queensland Writers Centre.

Maree Kimberley is a writer from Brisbane. Her work has been published in several anthologies, including The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2015 and Defying Doomsday. Dirt Circus League, her first novel for young adults, was inspired by the remote landscapes of Cape York and her fascination for neuroscience.

Dr Marianne de Pierres is the recipient of a Curtin University Distinguished Australian Alumni award for significant and valuable contributions to Australian science fiction feminist literature and the breaking of stereotypes. Marianne also writes award-winning, humorous crime under the pseudonym Marianne Delacourt.

Mark Brandi's bestselling novel, Wimmera, won the coveted British Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger, and was named Best Debut at the 2018 Australian Indie Book Awards. His second novel, The Rip, was published to critical acclaim by Hachette Australia in March 2019 and his latest novel, The Others was published in July 2021.

Mark started his writing career at eight when a local newspaper published his review of Disney on Ice. His regular technology columns in newspapers and magazines funded a noncommittal path through university, studying Robotics, Anthropology, Philosophy, Computer Science, and Psychology. He now writes off-beat science fiction books, screenplays and spy novels and is a judge for the Aurealis Awards.

Megan Jacobson is an award-winning YA author and TV scriptwriter. She grew up in Darwin and the far north coast of NSW but now lives in Sydney where she works in TV news production at the ABC. She has a degree in journalism and has also worked as an in-house script story-liner and script editor for several Australian television dramas.

Nalini Singh is the New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and internationally bestselling author of the Psy-Changeling, Guild Hunter, and Rock Kiss series.

Her books have sold over seven million copies worldwide and have been translated into more than twenty languages, including German, French, Japanese, and Turkish.

Pepper currently has close to 40 books released in nine languages. She’s hit best-seller lists (USA Today, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal) almost 40 times. She dabbles in multiple genres, ranging from Dark Romance to Coming of Age.

After chasing her dreams to become a full-time writer, Pepper has earned recognition with awards for best Dark Romance, best BDSM Series, and best Hero.

Pepper is a Hybrid Author of both Traditional and Self-published work.

Ricardo Fayet is a co-founder of Reedsy, an online marketplace connecting authors with editorial, design, marketing, and translation talent. A technology and startup enthusiast, he likes to imagine how small players will build the future of publishing. He also blogs about writing, book design, and in-depth marketing on the Reedsy blog.

Richard Yaxley is the author of eight novels, and a former winner of the Prime Ministers Literary Award and the Queensland Premiers Literary Award, both for Young Adult Literature. In 2012, he was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for services to education, literature and the performing arts.

Sara El Sayed was born in Alexandria, Egypt. She has a Master of Fine Arts and works at Queensland University of Technology. Her work features in the anthologies Growing Up African in Australia and Arab, Australian, Other, among other places. She is a recipient of a Queensland Writers Fellowship and was a finalist for the 2020 Queensland Premier’s Young Writers and Publishers Award. Her memoir, Muddy People (Black Inc), is her first book.

Scott Curry is Marketing Strategist of Findaway Voices, a platform that empowers authors and publishers to create and distribute audiobooks to reach listeners globally. Scott is a seasoned marketing and advertising executive that works on Findaway Voices marketing strategy and campaigns. He also helps independent authors find success with their author platforms, marketing, and brand strategy. A writer himself, Scott routinely relishes being outside the datastream writing on a Royal typewriter while listening to classical music on vinyl, playing piano and guitar, racing his sailing yacht Escapade, and imagining bedtime stories with his son.

Academy Award nominee Shirley Pierce is one of the top grossing writers in Australia, having worked on films that have had a cumulative box office gross of over half a billion dollars. She has developed projects for MGM Studios, Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox and Disney. Her adaptation of the opera Aida was source material for Elton John’s successful Broadway production.

Sophie Gonzales writes young adult queer contemporary fiction with memorable characters, biting wit and endless heart.

She is the author of THE LAW OF INERTIA, ONLY MOSTLY DEVASTATED, PERFECT ON PAPER and IF THIS GETS OUT (co-written with Cale Dietrich). Her next book, NEVER EVER GETTING BACK TOGETHER, is coming December 2022 from Wednesday Books / Macmillan.

She is represented by Molly Ker Hawn of The Bent Agency. Photo by Melbourne Actors Headshots.

Stacey McEwan is a school teacher by day and fantasy writer by night. She is a book influencer on multiple platforms and began writing Ledge after book lovers of the internet begged her to share her story ideas. Stacey lives on the Gold Coast, Australia with her husband, two children and one questionable dog. When Stacey isn’t writing, teaching, or making ridiculous tiktoks, you’ll find her playing with her children, reading, annoying her husband, or possibly all three at once.

Stephen is an AFI nominated and multi award winning writer and script editor with five feature credits, hours of award winning produced theatre and television. His work has played at the Toronto, Tokyo, Sydney and Cannes film festivals. Stephen is also one of the country’s most sought after script editors having helped writers to draft, through the state funding systems in NSW, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia.

Sulari Gentill is the author of 14 published novels. She was part of an Australia Council sponsored delegation of Australian Mystery Writers who toured the US in 2019 to promote Australian Crime Fiction to a US readership. Most recently, Sulari was awarded a Copyright Agency Create Grant for a new literary mystery titled The Woman in the Library which will be published in May 2022.