About the Authors
Debra Adelaide is the author or editor of over ten books, including three novels. Her latest novel, The Household Guide to Dying, was first published in Australia in 2008, and has now appeared in a dozen other countries. She works at the University of Technology, Sydney.
Claire Aman lives in Grafton, an inspiring town. She writes for pleasure. She has had short stories published in New Australian Stories, Best Australian Stories, Island, HEAT and Southerly. Her writing life has been nurtured by Varuna, the Writers’ House.
Jon Bauer was born in the UK but has lived in Australia for ten years. He is the author of short stories, and plays for stage and radio. His first novel, Rocks in the Belly, was published in 2010. Visit him at www.jonbauerwriter.com.
Melissa Beit has had short stories published in various anthologies, magazines and journals. She is mere months away from completing her first novel, helped along by several visits to Varuna, the Writers’ House, away from her very noisy children.
Tegan Bennett Daylight is the author of the novels Bombora, What Falls Away and Safety. She is currently at work on a collection of short stories.
Tony Birch writes short fiction, poetry and essays. His short-story collections are Shadowboxing and Father’s Day. He teaches in the writing program at the University of Melbourne.
Georgia Blain is the author of five novels and a memoir, Births Deaths Marriages. Her work has been shortlisted for major literary prizes, and her first novel, Closed for Winter, was made into a feature film in 2009. Her latest book, Darkwater, is a murder mystery for young adults.
Patrick Cullen’s first book, What Came Between, was published in 2009 and includes five stories that appeared in Best Australian Stories between 2005 and 2007.
Sonja Dechian works as a documentary development writer in Melbourne, and was previously a producer and writer with ABC TV in Adelaide. She is working on a novel.
Brooke Dunnell is completing a postgraduate degree in Creative Writing at the University of Western Australia. Her short stories have been published in the collections Best Australian Stories and Allnighter, and read on ABC Radio National.
Peggy Frew has been a musician and songwriter for over ten years with critically acclaimed Melbourne band Art of Fighting. She has recently completed a diploma in Professional Writing and Editing at RMIT. Her story ‘Home Visit’ won The Age Short Story Competition in 2009, and her novel ‘House of Sticks’ won the 2010 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript by an Emerging Victorian Writer.
Julie Gittus is the author of the young adult novel Saltwater Moons. Her short stories have been included in New Australian Stories as well as Best of the Best. She is currently working on her second novel. Visit her at www.juliegittus.com.au.
Marion Halligan has published twenty books: ten novels, including Spider Cup, Lovers’ Knots, The Golden Dress, The Fog Garden, The Point, The Apricot Colonel and Murder on the Apricot Coast; collections of short stories, including The Hanged Man in the Garden and The Worry Box; books of autobiography, travel and food; and a children’s book, The Midwife’s Daughters. Her most recent novel is Valley of Grace. She has received an AM for her services to literature.
Jacinta Halloran is a general practitioner and writer. She has published both short stories and a novel, Dissection. She is now writing her second novel with the assistance of an Australia Council grant.
Karen Hitchcock is a writer and doctor. Her collection of short stories, Little White Slips, won the Steele Rudd Award in the 2010 Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards, and was shortlisted in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and the Dobbie Award for women writers. Her first novel, Read My Lips, will be published in 2011. ‘Blackbirds Singing’ first appeared in The Big Issue.
Anne Jenner lives in Adelaide. She is currently undertaking an MA in Creative Writing at Macquarie University, while writing short stories and working on her first novel.
Myfanwy Jones has published numerous short stories and her debut novel, The Rainy Season, was shortlisted for the 2009 Melbourne Prize for Literature’s Best Writing Award. She is also co-author of the ABIA-winning Parlour Games for Modern Families.
Lesley Jørgensen is a medical-negligence lawyer and mother of two, based in South Australia. Her short story ‘Pure Gold’ was published in New Australian Stories. She is currently completing her first novel, just as soon as she can.
Cate Kennedy is the author of the highly acclaimed novel The World Beneath, which won the People’s Choice Award in the 2010 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. She is an award-winning short-story writer whose work has been published widely, and her collection, Dark Roots, was shortlisted for the Steele Rudd Award in the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards. Cate is also the author of the travel memoir Sing, and Don’t Cry, and the poetry collections Joyflight and Signs of Other Fires.
Zane Lovitt has a Masters degree in Screenwriting from the Victorian College of the Arts. He works as an adviser at the Tenants Union of Victoria and studies law at the University of Melbourne. ‘Leaving the Fountainhead’ won the S.D. Harvey Short Story Award in 2010.
Scott McDermott has had stories about invisibility, mouse herding, mermaids, the elderly, operational expenditure and old gods published by Cardigan Press, Sleepers, Cutwater and UQ’s Vanguard. ‘Fidget’s Farewell’ won the S.D. Harvey Short Story Award in 2009.
Fiona McFarlane is from Sydney. Her stories have been published in Southerly, Zoetrope: All-Story and The Missouri Review. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Fiction at the Michener Center for Writers in Austin, Texas. ‘Exotic Animal Medicine’ first appeared in The Missouri Review.
Jane McGown has travelled extensively throughout Asia and is a teacher of the Japanese art of ikebana. Success in short-story competitions has convinced her to pursue her craft more seriously. She lives in Sydney and is working on a discontinuous narrative.
A.G. McNeil is currently working on his PhD at the University of Western Australia. His work has appeared in New Australian Stories and Best Australian Stories.
Susan Midalia is a writer, editor and teacher. Her collection of short stories, A History of the Beanbag, was shortlisted for the Western Australian Premier’s Literary Award in 2007. She is writing her second collection with the assistance of a grant from the Australia Council. ‘Parting Glances’ first appeared in Westerly.
Jennifer Mills is the author of the novel The Diamond Anchor and a chapbook of poems, Treading Earth. Her second novel, Gone, will be published in 2011. Her work has appeared in Meanjin, Overland, HEAT, Griffith REVIEW and Best Australian Stories. She blogs at www.jenjen.com.au and at Overland. She lives in Alice Springs.
Meg Mundell is a Melbourne-based writer who grew up in New Zealand. She has published journalism in The Age, The Monthly, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Big Issue; and fiction in Meanjin, The Sleepers Almanac and Best Australian Stories 2010. Her first novel, Black Glass, will be published in 2011. Meg is currently completing a PhD and a trucking memoir.
Peta Murray lives in Melbourne. Her best-known work is the stage play Wallflowering. Other plays include AWGIE winners Spitting Chips and The Keys to the Animal Room, and Salt, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Drama. Peta’s short fiction has appeared in anthologies, including The Sleepers Almanac.
Ruby J. Murray is a writer, researcher and co-founder of the-democracy-project.org. Her writing has appeared in Australian newspapers, magazines, online, and in Australian journals, including Torpedo, The Lifted Brow and Meanjin. Ruby blogs at rubyjoymurray.wordpress.com.
Mark O’Flynn’s poetry and short stories have appeared in a wide range of journals. His novels include Grassdogs, which was published in 2006. He has had seven plays professionally produced and has also published three collections of poetry. Recently Picaro Press published a selection from these in Wagtail 100.
Ryan O’Neill’s stories have appeared in various journals and anthologies. His collection, A Famine in Newcastle, was shor
tlisted for the 2007 Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards.
Paddy O’Reilly is the author of a short-story collection, The End of the World; a novel, The Factory; and a novella, Deep Water. Her stories have won national and international story awards and been widely published and broadcast. ‘How to Write a Short Story’ first appeared in Southerly.
Kate Ryan has worked as a freelance and in-house editor, and has written a number of children’s books. She is now completing a novel as part of a PhD in Creative Writing at RMIT, where she was selected for a mentorship with Robert Dessaix.
Emma Schwarcz is a Melbourne-based writer and editor. Her work has been published most recently in The Age, harvest magazine and Hide & Seek Melbourne, and she teaches writing at RMIT.
Jane Sullivan is a Melbourne-based writer specialising in literary journalism, who writes a Saturday column and features for The Age. Her novel The White Star was published in 2001. You can meet the characters in ‘Fallen Woman’ again in Little People, which was shortlisted for the inaugural CAL Scribe Fiction Prize in 2010 and will be published in 2011.
Chris Womersley is a Melbourne-based author. He won the 2007 Josephine Ulrick Prize for Literature with his short story ‘The Possibility of Water’, and the 2008 Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction for his novel, The Low Road. His second novel, Bereft, was published in 2010. ‘Theories of Relativity’ first appeared in Kill Your Darlings. Visit him at www.chriswomersley.com.
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