Cameron Raynes is a prize-winning author who has chosen in First Person Shooter to explore the deeply personal experience of adolescent stuttering. Having survived bruising encounters with three psychopaths by the age of 30, Raynes turned away from welfare work and anthropology to find his voice as a writer. He teaches history at the University of South Australia and is the author of The Last Protector and the short story collection The Colour of Kerosene.

After being a classroom teacher for 35 years, Jane Jolly now works part-time in the Resource Centre at Eastern Fleurieu School teaching creative writing and immersing classes in literature.

Jane has had three Notable picture books in the Children’s Book Council Australia Book of the Year awards, one CBCA Shortlisted and two CBCA Honour books. Jane strongly believes in the fight to rid the world of landmines and cluster munitions. On the road to getting One Step at a Time published she has met with the Safe Ground group in Adelaide and a representative from Medical Association for the Prevention of War.

Jane Jolly and Sally Heinrich‘s beautiful picture book One Step at a Time was published in February 2015, and was chosen as an Honour Book in the 2016 Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Awards.

Jane and Sally’s second collaboration, Papa Sky, was published by MidnightSun in October 2017.

Jane and Sally’s third collaboration, Mama Ocean, was published by MidnightSun in August 2020.

Sally Heinrich is a writer, illustrator and printmaker, who has published more than forty books. Her work has been recognised through fellowships from the Asialink Foundation, the May Gibbs Children’s Literature Trust, Varuna – the Writers’ Centre, Arts SA and the Ian Reed Foundation and her original artwork and linoprints have been exhibited widely in Australia and Asia including in the Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize. Her commissioned artwork ranges from wine labels to a mural for the Singapore Zoo, painting a life-size baby elephant sculpture for Melbourne Zoo and community arts projects. Sally believes that picture books are a powerful tool to communicate ideas and build bridges of understanding between people from different cultures and Continue reading Sally Heinrich →

Lynette Washington is a short story writer, editor and teacher of creative and professional writing. She holds a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Adelaide.

Her stories have been published widely and in 2014 she edited the story collection, Breaking Beauty. In 2017 she co-edited the story collection, Crush. Her debut novel, Plane Tree Drive was published in November 2017.

When Lynette is not writing, she teaches police cadets the importance of sentence structure and grammar.

Amanda Hickie has always been interested in science, literature and ethical questions, annoying her scripture teacher at the age of ten by asking if it was immoral to lie to a murderer. Despite a passion for writing, she studied Computer Science — but she quickly recovered.

A change of lifestyle when she and her family moved to Canada resulted in her first novel, After Zoe. Living down the road from the SARS outbreak also provided the seed for An Ordinary Epidemic.

Amanda lives a pleasant stroll from Coogee Beach in Sydney with her two computer-oriented sons and husband and two non-computer-oriented cats.

Kristin Weidenbach writes popular non-fiction focused on Australian history. She is the author of the picture book Meet Banjo Paterson and Tom the Outback Mailman, which is a picture book for junior primary readers based on her Australian bestseller, Mailman of the Birdsville Track: the Story of Tom Kruse.

She is the author of Rock Star: the Story of Reg Sprigg and King of the Outback and has also written for Outback magazine and Australian Geographic.

Kristin is a PhD immunologist who specialised Continue reading Kristin Weidenbach →

After growing up in country South Australia, Kim Lock has lived in Darwin, Melbourne and Canberra, and now resides on home soil in Adelaide with her military husband and their two young children. It was after becoming a mother that Kim found the urge to write in earnest. Some experience as a breastfeeding counsellor saw her develop an interest in maternal psychology, and Kim is now working towards her degree.

Kim has spent over a decade working in advertising, and although she has been writing her whole life, Peace, Love and Khaki Socks is her first novel.

Zanesh Catkin was horribly disfigured in a childhood accident; as a result he spent his early life hidden in attics. He was taken in by a kind family from Minnesota, who offered a loving home and some plastic surgery. Later, they moved to Australia and the confusion really set in.

Anna holds a PhD in Creative Writing from The University of Adelaide, has judged the HarperCollins Varuna Award and co-founded the literary journals Wet Ink and Animate Quarterly. She is an active member of the literary community. Over the years, she has worked as a photographer, translator, editor, language teacher and has written more reviews than she cares to Continue reading Anna Solding →