The Program

6.png
7.png
8.png
9.png

Festival Authors

  • USA Today Bestseller and award-winning author Alissa Callen draws inspiration from the country vistas beyond her kitchen window as well as from the strength and resilience of local bush communities. She writes uplifting and feelgood fiction that explores themes of home, belonging and second chances. Her books are heart-warming, authentic and multi-faceted, and she is rather partial to a secret, or three. Alissa lives with her family on a usually peaceful slice of rural Australia outside Dubbo, central western NSW.

  • Gabrielle Tozer is an award-winning writer based in regional NSW. She is the author of eight books, including THE UNEXPECTED MESS OF IT ALL, Before We Met (with Sophie Beer), Can’t Say It Went to Plan, Remind Me How This Ends and The Intern. She loves sharing her passion for creativity with aspiring writers of all ages, and has worked as a mentor for the Regional Arts Network's Horizon program, Regional Arts Australia's Regional Scribes program and the ABC's Heywire initiative. Gabrielle is currently working on three new books for HarperCollins.

  • Lili Wilkinson is the award-winning author of more than twenty books for young people, including A HUNGER OF THORNS, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, and was a CBCA Honour Book. Lili has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and is a passionate advocate for YA and the young people who read it. Her latest books are the BRAVEPAW series and UNHALLOWED HALLS.

  • A former youth librarian who grew up running wild in the Barossa Ranges of South Australia, Lyndall Clipstone currently lives in Adelaide in a hundred-year-old cottage with her partner, two children, and a shy black cat. She is the author of the lush gothic-romance duology, LAKESEDGE and FORESTFALL, the first novel of which was a Dymocks, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble bestseller, nominated for the 2021 Book Shimmy Awards, and selected as one of Better Reading’s 2022 top 50 kids’ books. Her works have been published in more than four countries, including multiple translations. TENDERLY, I AM DEVOURED is her fourth novel.

  • Shankari Chandran is a Sydney-based Australian Tamil lawyer and author of CHAI TIME AT CINNAMON GARDENS, SONG OF THE SUN GOD and THE BARRIER. Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens won the Miles Franklin Literary Award 2023. Song of the Sun God was long-listed for the International Dublin Literary Award (2019) and short-listed for Sri Lanka’s Fairway National Literary Award (2018). UNFINISHED BUSINESS is Shankari’s latest novel published with Ultimo Press.

  • Will Kostakis is one of Australia’s most renowned authors for kids and young adults. First published at nineteen, he is best known for writing whip-smart comedies that break (then mend) hearts.Will tours the world, speaking at schools, festivals and conferences. WE COULD BE SOMETHING is his latest novel. It’s a moving family epic that won the 2024 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Young Adult Literature, and was shortlisted for the Victorian and New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards and the Queensland Literary Award.

  • Anna Snoekstra is an internationally bestselling author living in Naarm/Melbourne. Her novels, including ONLY DAUGHTER and OUT OF BREATH, have been published in over twenty countries and sixteen languages. She has written for many literary magazines and newspapers including The Guardian, Kill Your Darlings, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Griffith Review, and is also a profile writer for The Saturday Paper. She has had video work exhibited at the National Gallery of Victoria and has written audio novellas This Isn’t Happening and the forthcoming The End of The Ski Season. Her new novel THE ONES WE LOVE is out in June with Ultimo Press.

  • Irma Gold is an award-winning author, editor and podcaster from Naarm/Melbourne. She is the author of two critically acclaimed novels, THE BREAKING and SHIFT, a short fiction collection, TWO STEPS FORWARD, and five children’s books, with another two forthcoming. Good Reading magazine has described her as ‘an immense literary talent’. Irma works full-time as a freelance book editor for both publishers and individuals, and for a decade was Convener of Editing at the University of Canberra. She is the founder and co-host of the writing podcast Secrets from the Green Room.

  • Lisa Fuller is a Wuilli Wuilli woman from Eidsvold, Queensland, also descended from Wakka Wakka and Gooreng Gooreng peoples. She has lived on Ngunnawal and Ngambri lands (Canberra) since 2006 where she works at the University of Canberra as Lecturer in Indigenous Studies. Spreading her time between work as a freelance writer, editor, literary agent and publishing consultant, Lisa has also been awarded numerous writing awards for her fiction and non-fiction works. WASHPOOL is her latest young adult novel.

  • Stella Quinn writes contemporary novels that are warm-hearted and filled with characters you want to be best friends with. Stella has five rural fiction novels published by Harlequin Australia, an imprint of HarperCollins, with her most recent title being A SNOWY RIVER SUMMER published in March. Stella diversifies her traditional writing by contributing to Christmas anthologies, dipping into indie publishing with her series, The Island Escape, published in 2019 and The Matchmakers of Lighthouse Cove Series underway as we meet her at our 2025 Festival.

  • Shelley Burr grew up on Newcastle's beaches and her grandparents' property in Glenrowan, and on the road between the two. Her debut Crime Fiction novel WAKE was awarded the prestigious UK Crime Writers' Association's Debut Dagger Award in 2019 and the Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year in 2023. Her second novel, RIPPER, went straight to #1 on the Australian Fiction Bestseller list and was shortlisted for both the Sydney Crime Writers Festival's Danger Award for Fiction and the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Fiction in 2024. Shelley’s latest novel VANISH has also taken readers by storm and instantly topped national book charts everywhere!

  • Dr. McLaine, a bibliotherapy expert with nearly 20 years of experience, has researched, delivered, written about, and spoken on bibliotherapy in Australia and internationally. Bibliotherapy is akin to meditation for readers, offering solace and insights by exploring thoughts and feelings through literature. It reconnects individuals with authors, poets, and philosophers, enhancing self-understanding. Dr. McLaine offers programs and training designed to enhance wellbeing and engagement with reading throughout Australia.

  • Kell Woods is an Australian historical fantasy author. She lives near the sea with her husband, two sons, and a writing cat named Juniper. Kell studied English literature, creative writing and librarianship, so she could always be surrounded by stories. She has worked in libraries, museums, communications and copywriting, all the while writing about made-up (and not so made-up) places, people and things you might remember from the fairy tales you read as a child. Her debut novel AFTER THE FOREST was published in October 2023 and her second novel UPON A STARLIT TIDE is out now.

  • A former country journalist and radio host, Maya is a newly-minted Queenslander who lives in the Darling Downs region with her family. She writes to a sound track of kookaburras and relies on copious amounts of tea, chocolate and homemade biscuits to fuel her days at the keyboard. COCKATOO COVE is her seventh novel, following Wallaby Lane, Kookaburra Cottage, Paperbark Hill, Magpie’s Bend, Bottlebrush Creek and Wildflower Ridge.

  • Rachael Johns was once (briefly) an English teacher, before turning her attention to writing—and never looking back. She now writes award-winning romance, women’s fiction, and the occasional awkward text.Her novel THE PATTERSON GIRLS won the 2016 ABIA for General Fiction, and she’s a two-time winner of the Romance Writers of Australia RUBY Award. When she’s not writing, Rachael can be found hanging out with her adorable Sheepadoodle, listening to audiobooks, or fuelling her latest obsession—reformer Pilates. She lives in the Swan Valley with her husband, two of her three sons (the other has flown the nest), and tells herself she’ll read more non-fiction every year—but let’s be honest, the novels always win. Rachael is the co-host of two podcasts: Reading Between Deadlines and Dear Rach & Soph, and also runs the vibrant Rachael Johns Book Club on Facebook.You can find her at www.rachaeljohns.com or subscribe to her Substack, Pink Ink, where she shares behind-the-scenes bookish thoughts and writer life.

  • Tahlia Sinclair is a Melbourne-based writer, broadcaster, and lover of stories. She's spent her 20s galavanting through regional NSW hunting for the stories and tales others missed.