National Writers’ Conference

Munira Tabassum Ahmed’s work has been published in Pleiades, The Adroit Journal, Meanjin, Best of Australian Poems, Liminal, Cordite, and elsewhere. She was the 2022 Kat Muscat Fellow. ‘The Clinging Thing’ (Penguin, 2026) is her first novel.

Miles Allinson is the author of two novels; Fever of Animals, and In Moonland.

Shannon Benton is a regional NSW writer whose work explores memory, landscape and the interior lives of women. She was one of five shortlisted for the Newcastle Writers Festival Fresh Ink Prize and named in The Best Australian Yarn (Top 50). Her work has appeared in Mona Magazine. She is the recipient of the 2026 ASAL Creative Writing Fellowship and is currently developing her debut novel, Fragmented.

Award-winning author, JJ Carpenter, celebrates our personal stories and unearths our hidden histories through thrilling, terrifying tales.

She writes gothic and psychological fiction rooted in Australian history. Her work explores trauma, memory, and survival, often set within haunted places where the past presses uncomfortably into the present.

Melanie Cheng is a writer based in Naarm/Melbourne. Her short story collection, Australia Day, won the 2016 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript and the 2018 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction. Her novels, Room for a Stranger and The Burrow, were both longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. The Burrow was also shortlisted for the 2025 Stella Prize. Her short stories and non fiction have been published widely in Australia and overseas.

Madeleine Cleary’s debut novel, The Butterfly Women (2025, Affirm Press), was shortlisted for 2025 Dymocks Book of the Year and the 2026 Indie Book Awards. Her writing has been shortlisted for The Australian Fiction Prize and featured in The Australian Weekend Magazine. Madeleine is the co-host of The Book Deal Podcast, a popular podcast where she interviews writers about their pathway to publication. Before she became a published author, Madeleine was a bookseller and served as an Australian diplomat in China. Madeleine is from Melbourne/Narrm and lives at the foothills of the Dandenong Ranges.

Katherine Day is a Senior Lecturer in publishing studies at the University of Melbourne and a former trade editor for some of Australia’s most respected publishing houses, including Penguin Random House, Allen & Unwin, Thames and Hudson and the University of Queensland Press. She has been a mentor for Writers Victoria and runs workshops specialising in navigating and negotiation publishing contracts.

Phil Day has collaborated with authors over the past thirty years. Sometimes as a an editor, publisher, printer, book designer, typesetter, book binder, and illustrator. He is currently the book designer and poetry editor for Life Before Man (Gazebo books).

Astrid Edwards is a bibliophile, literary judge and critic. At Future Women, she works towards equity in the workplace, and as a PhD Candidate at the University of Melbourne, she explores the moral responsibility of the book publishing industry during the climate breakdown.

Sophie Hamley is an editor, former literary agent, bookseller and content producer who has worked at Hachette Australia since 2014, publishing non-fiction including the ABIA-nominated Love & Pain by Ben Gillies & Chris Joannou, Model Minority Gone Rogue by Qin Qin (nominated for the Age Book of the Year and ACT Book of the Year), and bestsellers How to Have an Epic Retirement by Bec Wilson and The New Rules by Margarita Nazarenko. Since 2025 she has also been publishing romance fiction, including the debut trilogy by Tierney Page. As Sophie Green she has released seven bestselling novels.

Based in Queensland, Australia, Ashleigh Hartley is a Publishing Consultant at Tellwell Publishing, a leading team that helps independent authors professionally publish and market their work. She supports independent authors on their self-publishing journey by providing practical industry strategies to help shape a book’s success in the marketplace. At the heart of her work is a deep curiosity about how language shapes and influences our world.

Patrick Hunn is a writer from New Zealand who lives in Melbourne. His collection of short stories, Either Way You Lose, is published by Sick Leave Press.

I am Apyang Imiq, a Truku writer and novelist raised in the Cyakang community in Taiwan. Grounded in my village, my creative practice deeply intertwines literature with Truku culture, plant knowledge, and place-based writing. As the author of I Grow in the Open Tree Hollow and Thigh Mountain, I explore the complex dialogues between tradition and contemporary life. Through my writing and community work, I actively map the emotional geography and ecology of my people, searching for the continuous threads that connect ancestors, our land, and the modern Indigenous experience.

Kerry Jewell is a writer and nuclear medicine physician. She is from Wodonga in North East Victoria. Kerry is an accomplished public speaker and regularly presents at local and international conferences, along with fulfilling session chair and emcee duties. Outside of medicine, her short fiction has appeared in local and international literary journals and anthologies, including Island, The Saturday Paper, May Magazine (NZ) and the Bath Short Story Award Anthology (UK). In 2020 she was shortlisted for the Richell Prize for emerging writers. Her debut novel A Little Unwell was published with Hachette in April 2026.

Toni Jordan is the author of eight novels including the international bestseller Addition, which was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award and adapted into a feature film. Her novel Nine Days was awarded the Indie award for Best Fiction and Our Tiny, Useless Hearts was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. Her latest novel, Tenderfoot, has been shortlisted for the Indie Award for best fiction, and the ABIA award for Literary Fiction Book of the Year. Toni holds a Bachelor of Science in physiology and a PhD in Creative Arts and lives in Melbourne.

Zowie Douglas-Kinghorn is a Tasmanian-based writer with a particular interest in books, music, mental illness and environmental issues. Her recent work can be found in The Big Issue, Meanjin, and Best Australian Science Writing of 2025. In previous years, her writing has won the Scribe Nonfiction Prize, the Ultimo Prize for Young Writers, and been studied for high school exams. She is a 2024 Emerging Critic with the Sydney Review of Books and the previous editor of Voiceworks. In her day job she sells flowers, and can usually be found snipping gum leaves on the side of a highway somewhere.

Ruth Larner is an Australian multi-disciplinary writer. In 2023, she was selected for the WestWords Academy program; the following year, she received the WestWords Varuna Emerging Writers’ Residency. In 2025, her short film “Mama Bird” won the Screen Illawarra x Creative Wollongong Short Film Competition. In 2026, Ruth was invited to read poetry at the Manly Writers’ Festival. Her work has appeared in the Australian Poetry Journal, Cordite, WestWords’ Living Stories anthologies, and The Suburban Review. After living in London and Berlin, she now resides in Dharawal Country.

Meg McDermott is an emerging YA author with a deep love for stories in all their wondrous forms. Still a teenager at heart, she is drawn to the tender, transformative moments of coming of age, which often lie at the centre of her writing. Her debut novel The Big Things will be released in 2027 with MidnightSun Publishing. In 2017, she published a poetry collection Roses, Wine & 2 Minute Noodles. She holds a Bachelor of Communication/Laws. Meg lives on the NSW Central Coast with her three kids, a Spoodle and the surfer dude she met when she was seventeen.

Brendon McLeod is an award-winning emerging writer of fiction, poetry, and drama. He is a PhD candidate in creative writing at The University of Sydney, and was awarded the Arthur Macquarie Travelling Scholarship. He won Indiana Review’s 2025 Fiction Award. In 2023 he was awarded a fellowship to Varuna The National Writers’ House. He was shortlisted for the 2023 Judith Wright Poetry Prize. His poems and short stories have been published or are forthcoming in Rabbit Poetry, Overland, Australian Poetry Journal, and Indiana Review, among others. He lives and works on Wiradyuri/Wiradjuri country in regional New South Wales.

Henry Neilsen is a speculative fiction author, musician, and recovering tech enthusiast based in Melbourne, Australia. His story “Life in the Dirt” was a finalist for the 2024 Aurealis award for best science fiction short story, and he has published two novels. He is a staunch advocate of human-created art, and is the Vice President of Meridian Australis, a speculative fiction writing community.

Valerie Ng is a writer and critic. Her first novel, Driver Driver, was published on 9 June.

Her short stories have been published in Meanjin and Island Magazine, and her arts criticism has found homes in the Australian Book Review, ABC, Time Out, The Guardian, and The Big Issue. Elsewhere, she is a lawyer.

My name is Ado Kaliting Pacidal, and I come from the Pangcah, an indigenous people in eastern Taiwan.

I am a director, producer, music creator, actor, and writer. I hope to convey the subjectivity and cultural context of indigenous peoples through different media.

Simran Pasricha is a Melbourne-based senior news writer and producer at PEDESTRIAN.TV, aiming to make politics, pop culture and social issues accessible for Gen Z and millennial audiences. An Indian-Malaysian queer journalist, she is also the co-founder and host of the podcast Broadly Relevant.

Natasha Rai is a writer, somatic counsellor, writing mentor and workshop facilitator. She is also the co-host of the Book Deal podcast, exploring writers’ publication journeys. Her debut novel, AN ONSLAUGHT OF LIGHT, published by Pantera Press, was longlisted for the 2017 Richell Prize, 2018 KYD Unpublished Manuscript award, and highly commended for the 2022 Ultimo Press/Westwords Prize. Her second novel will be published in 2027. Natasha’s short nonfiction and fiction appear in various journals and publications, including Mascara Literary Review and Overland.

Neqou Soqluman is an Indigenous Bunun writer, novelist, and literary committee member from Taiwan. His literary works deeply explore tribal genealogy, hunting traditions, and ancient seafaring lore, reflecting a profound connection to ancestral heritage. He has served as a final review committee member for prestigious honors, including the Taiwan Literature Award. Integrating cultural roots with contemporary narrative forms, Neqou’s storytelling bridges ancestral wisdom and modern literature. Beyond writing, he is dedicated to indigenous vocal traditions, including eight-part harmony, and community cultural preservation, bringing unique, vital Indigenous perspectives to the global literary landscape.

Tina Strachan is a children’s author whose debut middle-grade book, ‘Neeka and the Missing Key’, was published by HarperCollins Publishers in January 2025. It’s the first book of the Wilder Zoo series which now includes ‘Neeka and the Storm’ and ‘Neeka and the Great Search’. The series was inspired by her career in wildlife conservation.

Tina is also the co-host of The Book Deal podcast, where she interviews authors and industry professionals about writing craft, author tips and publication journeys.

Tina lives on the Gold Coast in Queensland, with her husband, two kids and loudly-snoring cavoodle.

Maria Takolander is a Finnish-Australian writer of fiction, poetry and non-fiction. She won the inaugural Australian Book Review Elizabeth Jolley Prize, was shortlisted in the inaugural Australian Book Review Peter Porter Poetry Prize, and came second in the 2026 Australian Book Review Calibre Essay Prize. Her last book of poetry, Trigger Warning (UQP 2021), won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award. Her debut novel, The End of Romance (Text 2026), is available now. Her words can also be found on bronze plaques in the Geelong CBD and at the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.

Elise Thornthwaite is a Gamilaraay woman, emerging writer, and mother originally from New South Wales who now lives in Milikapiti on the Tiwi Islands. She writes poetry, young adult fiction, and maintains a blog alongside her creative practice. Her work explores themes of home, identity, motherhood, and belonging, and is shaped by place, community, and storytelling. Balancing writing with life as a stay-at-home mum, she can often be found working on poems, essays, and manuscripts during naptimes and in the quiet moments between family life.

Michael Winkler is a writer of fiction and non-fiction. His latest novel, Griefdogg, is about a Mildura water scientist who wants to live as the family pet, but discovers this gives him unwanted insights into secret grief. His previous novel Grimmish, shortlisted for the 2022 Miles Franklin Literary Award, was published in the UK, North America and Spain (in translation). Michael won the Calibre Prize for his essay ‘The Great Red Whale’. His journalism, reviews, short fiction and essays have been widely published and anthologised.