Emily Chantiri is a Sydney journalist and best-selling author. Emily's books include The Money Club and The Savvy Girl's Guide to Money which were published by Random House and Murdoch Books. In her journalistic work, she writes across areas of business, money, IT and much more. She has interviewed many leading professionals and politicians. Emily writes for SMH, The Age, Yahoo, Forbes Business and Information Age. Emily is passionate about writing and helping others along their writing journey. She runs the Sydney Non-Fiction Writer's Group under the NSW Writer's Group. Emily mentors and chairs the monthly meetings.
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Website: https://emilychantiri.com/

Meera Atkinson publishes creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and hybrid forms. Her writing has appeared in publications such as Salon.com, Best Australian Poems, Best Australian Stories, Meanjin, Southerly, and Griffith Review, and her hybrid memoir, Traumata, was published in 2018. Meera has also worked for many years as a university creative writing educator. She has a special interest and particular expertise in writing about traumatic experiences.
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Gretchen Shirm is the author of a collection of short stories Having Cried Wolf, for which she named a 2011 Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist. Her first novel Where the Light Falls, was shortlisted for the 2017 Christina Stead Prize for Fiction in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. The Crying Room was published in 2023. Gretchen has taught in the undergraduate and postgraduate creative writing programs at the University of Technology, Sydney, the University of Sydney and Western Sydney University. She teaches the Writing a Novel at Faber Academy. Prior to turning to teaching, Gretchen worked as a public law lawyer for over ten years. Her fiction has been published in Griffith Review, Overland, Meanjin, Best Australian Stories amongst other places. Her criticism is regularly published in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Australian. Gretchen is interested in novels, short stories, novellas and life writing.
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Website: https://gretchenshirm.com

Greg Woodland leans towards genre writing. Mostly crime, thriller, black comedy and noir. The darker the better. His debut crime novel The Night Whistler was published by Text Publishing in 2020 and shortlisted for the 2021 Ned Kelly Awards, Best Debut Crime Fiction. The sequel The Carnival Is Over was published by Text in 2022. It was shortlisted for the 2023 Ned Kelly Awards, Best Crime Fiction. Greg has won several writing awards including the Eleanor Dark Flagship Fellowship (2004), the Varuna NSW Writers Centre Fellowship (2013) for his novel Pangs, the Varuna Litlink Fellowship (2014), the Bundanon Artist’s Residency Fellowship (2015) for The Night Whistler, and the 2017 ASA Writers Mentorship for Fiction. Greg has previously written and directed several award-winning short films (Tripe, Sharky’s Party, Green, Target Audience, Your Turn) and docos including Chasing Birds. Greg has written ten feature scripts and taught screenwriting at Macquarie Uni, UTS, NIDA, Australian Film Base and AFTRS, both online courses and weekend workshops. As the founder-director of Australia’s leading script development business, Script Central since 2003, Greg has edited many produced scripts including ‘Shayda’, ‘Moon Rock for Monday’, ‘Don’t Tell’, ‘Broken’, ‘Needle’, ‘The Bet’, ‘Cold Turkey' and completed over 2,000 script assessments.
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Website: https://gregwoodland.com.au

Shankari Chandran is an Australian Tamil lawyer and author of Song of the Sun God, The Barrier and Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens, which 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). The Barrier was short-listed for the Norma K Hemming Award for Speculative Fiction (2018). Song of the Sun God is being adapted for television, starring Bridgerton’s Charithra Chandran (no relation). Her next two novels will be published in 2024. Her short stories have been published in the critically acclaimed anthologies, Another Australia and Sweatshop Women (Vol 2) by Affirm Press/Sweatshop and she is the deputy chair of Writing NSW. Shankari has spent two decades working as a lawyer in the social justice field, on national and international program design and delivery. She continues her work in social impact for an Australian national retailer. She is based in Sydney, Australia.
Website: https://shankarichandran.com

Amy Lovat is the author of Mistakes and Other Lovers (Pan Macmillan 2023) and the founder of online bookstore Secret Book Stuff. She has a PhD from the University of Newcastle where she's taught creative writing and the humanities for almost a decade. Amy is a professional editor and proofreader and has worked as a copywriter, subeditor and ghostwriter. She’s the former Program Manager of Writing NSW and current Program Manager of the Newcastle Writers Festival. Amy loves mentoring emerging writers, helping people tell stories with heart, and immersing herself in books and words.
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Website: https://amylovat.com

Eleanor is the author of four novels: The Coast (Allen & Unwin, 2022), The Passengers (Allen & Unwin, 2018), Long Bay (Sleepers Publishing, 2015) and What Was Left (Sleepers Publishing, 2013, shortlisted for the ALS Gold Medal). Her short fiction and essays have been published various places including Best Australian Stories, Meanjin, Sydney Noir, Griffith Review, Kill Your Darlings and The Big Issue. She’s been the recipient of various residencies, scholarships and grants including from the Australia Council, Copyright Agency, Varuna and the Australian Society of Authors. Eleanor was a lecturer in creative writing at UTS and now teaches novel writing at the Faber Academy. She is the Chair of Writing NSW. Areas of interest include: historical fiction, family history, archives, contemporary fiction, short fiction, memoir and narrative non-fiction.
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Website: https://eleanorlimprecht.com