Inga Simpson
Dr Inga Simpson is a New South Wales writer whose work, across multiple genres, focusses on our relationship with the natural world. Her latest dystopian novel, The Thinning, was longlisted for the 2024 Indie book award for fiction, while her previous novel, Willowman, about the art of cricket batmaking, was voted one of BookPeople’s 100 Must-Read Australian Novels.
Inga’s earlier novels – Mr Wigg, Nest, Where the Trees Were and The Last Woman in the World – have all been long and shortlisted for numerous awards, including the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Stella Prize. Her first book-length work of nature writing, Understory: a life with trees (Hachette: 2017), was shortlisted for the Adelaide Writers Week prize for nonfiction.
Inga has PhDs in creative writing and English literature, with her most recent thesis exploring the history of Australian nature writing. Her essays and short stories have been published in Griffith Review, Wonderground, Chicago Quarterly Review, Openbook, Review of Australian Fiction, Clues, Writing Queensland, and The Dictionary of Literary Biography. She was also the winner of the (final) Eric Rolls nature writing prize for her essay “Triangulation.”
Inga lives on the far south coast. She is currently working on a collection of short stories and a non-fiction book about her favourite Australian trees. Her picture book, The Peach King, illustrated by Tannya Harricks, will be released in October 2025.