A.K. Mulford is a bestselling fantasy romance author with books published in twelve languages worldwide. Both traditionally and self-published, Mulford loves writing adventurous and feel-good tales with lovable and diverse characters. They also write cozy and spicy romantic comedies under the pen name Ali K. Mulford. A US and NZ citizen, A.K. now lives on the Sunshine Coast of Australia with their partner, kids, trouble-maker cats, and a very patient dog.

Cale Dietrich is the internationally bestselling author of five queer young adult books, including The Love Interest, The Rules of Royalty and If This Gets Out (co-written with Sophie Gonzales). His books have received multiple starred reviews, been featured in Entertainment Weekly and Writer’s Digest, and appeared on the Rainbow List.

Christof Bogacs (He/Him) is a non-binary comic book author, video game writer and public speaker based in Sydney, Australia. He has spoken at schools and libraries, as well as being a featured comic guest at Oz Comic-Con’s around the country. His debut graphic novel ‘Under Kingdom’, a midge grade fantasy-comedy with an emphasis on non-violent problem solving, was released in April 2023 through Dark Horse Comics. In April 2024, he had a licensed Rick and Morty Comic, ‘Rick and Morty Presents: Finals Week’ published through Oni Press. This was followed by the 'Rick and Morty New Year Special’ in early 2025. His short comics have been published by DC Comics, Image Comics and in the Ringo award nominated ‘Dead Beats’ anthology from AWBW as well as the Eisner award winning ‘PanelXPanel’ magazine.

Cody is a Sci-Fi Fantasy author writing for Middle Grade and Young Adult audiences. His debut novel The Ostrich Dilemma will be published in 2027 by Riveted Press, and two sequels are slated for publication in 2028 and 2029. In addition to writing novels, Cody also writes for the screen and stage. His play The Box was performed at the Beenleigh Festival of One Act Plays, and he co-wrote a screen adaptation of his short story A Timely Murder. His day job is Program Officer at Queensland Writers Centre, where he is thrilled to get to work with amazing writers from across Queensland and Australia. Cody's creative mission is to create more fiction for young people by young people.

Douglas Watkin is an Erub/Mabuiag man with over 30 years of film and television experience. He is committed to advancing First Nations narratives and actively works to develop the skills of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practitioners to support this objective. He has directed and produced award-winning feature films, documentaries, and immersive VR art projects, including Black Diggers of Logan (2014), Ella (2016), Alick and Albert (2021), and Rebel With A Cause – Neville Bonner (2023). From 2017 to 2021, Douglas was Content Director for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Program at Screen Queensland.

Eugen Bacon is an African Australian author. She’s a Solstice, British Fantasy, Locus and Foreword Indies Award winner, a twice World Fantasy and Shirley Jackson Award finalist, and a finalist in the Philip K. Dick, Victorian Premier's Literary and Ignyte Awards, and the Nommo Awards for speculative fiction by Africans. Eugen is an Otherwise Fellow, and was also announced in the honor list for ‘doing exciting work in gender and speculative fiction’. Danged Black Thing made the Otherwise Award Honor List as a ‘sharp collection of Afro-Surrealist work’.

Geneve Flynn is a speculative fiction editor, author, and poet. Winner of two Bram Stoker Awards and the Shirley Jackson, Aurealis, and Brave New Weird Awards; recipient of the 2022 Queensland Writers Fellowship. Her work has been nominated and short/longlisted for the British Fantasy, Locus, Carl Brandon Parallax, Ditmar, Australian Shadows, Elgin, and Rhysling Awards, and the Pushcart Prize. Co-editor of Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women and collaborator for Tortured Willows: Bent, Bowed, Unbroken. Her work has been published by Crystal Lake Publishing, PS Publishing, Flame Tree Publishing, PseudoPod, and Written Backwards.

Georgia Harper is a psychologist and crime fiction author. Her first novel, 'What I Would Do to You', was published by Penguin Randomhouse Australia in 2024. Her second novel, 'Dove', was released in March. Georgia was born in Brisbane and currently lives on the Sunshine Coast.

Jemma Pollari is a Finnish-Australian author of speculative fiction and has been published in AntipodeanSF, Jacaranda Journal, WQ Magazine and beyond. She has shortlisted for Pitchable 2025, the Albedo One Aeon Award, and is the co-author of Code Bravo, a YA mathematical thriller for the MathThrills suite for schools. Chair of the Queensland Writers Centre, she thrives on helping other writers find community. On her blog Spec. Fic. Society she explores SFF that goes further and is currently publishing an anthology by Australian emerging authors. When not writing, she builds websites for creative people.

Dr Judy Gregory is a Brisbane-based writer, editor, researcher, and writing educator. She specialises in ghostwriting memoirs and business books and using plain language to write about complex concepts. Judy has more than 30 years’ experience as a writer and editor. She currently teaches writing and grammar at The University of Queensland. Her historical novel-in-progress, 'Inheritance', was shortlisted in the 2024 Historical Novel Society’s First Chapters Competition. She was project manager for the essay collection 'Indigenous and Tribal Peoples and Cancer', published by Springer in September 2024.

Kylie Chan has a BBus in information technology, an MBA in IT, and an MPhil in Creative Writing. She started out as an IT consultant and trainer specialising in business intelligence systems in Australia, and then had her own consulting business for ten years in Hong Kong. When she returned to Australia, Kylie wrote the bestselling nine-book Dark Heavens fantasy series, followed by the Dragon Empire science fiction series. Her 2023 speculative novel, ‘Minds of Sand and Light’, explores the theme of artificial intelligence and its possible impact on society. She is a full-time writer based on Queensland’s Gold Coast.

A 2023 Bram Stoker Award® nominee, L. E. DANIELS is an American author, poet, and editor living in Australia. Her novel, Serpent’s Wake: A Tale for the Bitten (Interactive Publications) is a Notable Work with the HWA’s Mental Health Initiative. Lauren co-edited Aiki Flinthart’s Relics, Wrecks and Ruins (CAT) with Geneve Flynn, winning the 2021 Aurealis Award, and co-edited the 2022 Aurealis finalist, We Are Providence: Tales of Horror from the Ocean State (Weird House) with Christa Carmen. She has served as a literary judge for Interactive Publications, Hawkeye Books, the Society of Women Writers and the HWA.

Laurel Cohn is a developmental editor passionate about communication and the power of words to engage, inspire and challenge. Since the late 1980s Laurel has been helping writers of all types navigate the challenging terrain of preparing work for publication. As a mentor and assessor, her approach is informed by the importance of honest, clear and practical guidance, and an awareness of the journey of the writer, as well as the writing itself. She has a PhD in literary and cultural studies.

Lori-Jay Ellis is a creative executive leader with a diverse and eclectic background in global marketing. She embodies creativity and innovation, and has a passion for building strong and connected communities. She has produced and directed funded short films and has a genuine love for the written word and for all things indie. She has been CEO of a community arts studio, marketing director at a large multinational, and managed a New York art gallery.

Madeleine Dale grew up on Tamborine Mountain and lives in Brisbane. She holds First-class Honours and a Masters in Creative Writing from UQ, where she is completing a PhD. Her collection Portraits of Drowning won the 2023 Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize and is published with UQP. Her work has appeared in Meanjin, Westerly, Cordite, Australian Poetry Anthology and Best of Australian Poetry.

Marisa Pintado is the Publishing Director at Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing. She has published a wide range of best-selling and award-winning titles across picture books, fiction and non-fiction for young readers, with creators including Megan Hess (Claris), Sally Rippin and Chris Kennett (School of Monsters), Andrew McDonald and Ben Wood (Real Pigeons), and Dr Melissa Kang and Yumi Stynes (Welcome to Your Period). She is passionate about early literacy, graphic novels, and working with emerging authors and illustrators.

Michael Robotham is one of Australia’s most celebrated crime writers, whose psychological thrillers have won numerous awards and been published into 25 languages selling more than 8.5 million copies around the world.

Michelle Birrell is an independently published contemporary romance author. Writing under the pen names Emma Lea and Avery Glass, she has published more than 60 books since beginning her career in 2014. She was a finalist for the Romantic Book of the Year in 2020 and 2022 and a finalist for the Romance Writers of Australia short story competition in 2018. Michelle has a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing and English and is currently doing a master's degree in creative arts. She lives on the Sunshine Coast with her husband, and in her spare time she binge-watches K-dramas.

Nick Rees is an illustrator and artist in Brisbane Australia. He worked as the lead background artist on the animated show Bluey and is currently also experimenting with 3D modelling and designing art toys. He also has experience in producing indie comics.

Pamela Jeffs is an Australian speculative fiction author with over 90 published works of short fiction. She holds a Bachelor of Interior Design degree and has authored six short story collections including the Aurealis Award noted work ‘The Terralight Collection’. She was the recipient of the 2021 QWC Flinthart Writing Residency and has work featured in publications including ‘Midnight Echo’ (AHWA) and the ‘SNAFU’ military horror series by Cohesion Press. Pamela won the 2023 Aurealis Award for Best Horror Short Story and in previous years shortlisted for an additional eleven Aurealis Awards, three Ditmar Awards and two Australasian Shadow Awards.

Paul Williams is an associate professor in creative writing at the University of the Sunshine Coast and study coordinator: creative writing & publishing. He has published widely in fiction and non-fiction and has won international awards for his novels. His latest books (co-authored with Shelley Davidow) are Writing the Radical Memoir (Bloomsbury) 2023, Write Now! Literacy through Creative Writing Craft (Amba Press) 2025, and Writing Human in the Age of AI (Bloomsbury, 2026).

Queenie Chan was born in Hong Kong, and migrated to Australia when she was six years old. She is a manga-style comic book writer and artist who has worked both on her own original series, and as an illustrator of graphic novels for famous creators such as Dean Koontz and Kylie Chan. Currently, she is working on the next book in "The Dreaming" series, and some short stories with publisher Viz. She has worked with US publishers and Australian publishers in her field for over 20 years.

Richard Yaxley lives in Brisbane. His novels include This Is My Song (winner of the Prime Minister’s Literary Award and the ACU Book of the Year), The Happiness Quest (CBCA Notable), A New Kind Of Everything, Harmony, Leonardo Forever and Something Somewhere. Richard is a past winner of the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award and the QWC-Varuna Fellowship for Established Writers. He is a writing mentor who regularly presents workshops and has judged the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards and the Queensland Literary Awards.

Sandra has a background as a freelance writer and has worked in film and TV production as a writer/producer. She was a writing consultant for the Regional Arts Development Fund and holds a Master of Arts in children’s and youth writing. Sandra is a recipient of an ASA Edel Wignell Mentorship and a Varuna Residential Fellowship. She is editor of WQ, and Publications & Grants Manager at QWC.

Scott Wilson is a Kimberley‑born comic writer and illustrator and the creative lead at Indigiverse, Australia’s first Aboriginal‑owned graphic‑storytelling studio. Blending traditional lore with pop‑culture flair, Scott guides Elder‑led story circles and mentors emerging First Nations artists to turn community knowledge into high‑impact comics, games and workshops. His work has premiered at Perth Comics Arts Festival, toured nationally with SupaNova and is now inspiring a new wave of First Nation superheroes.

TC Phillips is a natural born scribbler, chaos creator, and storyteller. He’s the founder of Central Queensland’s own indie press, Specul8 Publishing, a member of the editorial team for Supanova Comic-Con (Australia’s biggest pop-culture bash), and a TV and Film News writer for Screen Rant. He also moonlights as an author of his own special brand of wonderfully warped fiction, diving headfirst into all things strange, bizarre, and fantastical.

Trent Jamieson is the Award-winning author of the novels The Stone Road, and Day Boy, as well as the Death Works Trilogy, and Roil Duology. His children's book The Giant and the Sea, illustrated by Rovina Cai, won the 2021 Environment Award for Children's Literature Picture Fiction. His latest book is Mr Impoppable, illustrated by Brent Wilson. He is currently writing a novel with a Creative Australia Grant.