Mentorships: Family History
Back to all mentorshipsSeana Smith
Seana Smith is a supportive and engaged writer of factual books and memoir. She has worked as a writer for more than 35 years and has had five books traditionally published by Pan Macmillan and Ventura Press. These are: Going Under, a memoir of family secrets, addiction and escape, 2024; Sydney For Under Fives, 2001, 2005, 2008,; The Australian Autism Handbook, 2008, 2023; Beyond The Baby Blues, 2011, 2013; and Pocket Superfoods, 2014
Seana has also independently published two books and is experienced in supporting others to learn the art of self-publishing. She is co-host of the podcast The Publisher & The Writer which covers all aspects of writing and publishing.
Fiona Kelly McGregor
Fiona Kelly McGregor is a writer, artist, critic, teacher and mentor with over thirty years’ experience. McGregor has published eight books and won a variety of awards, including The Age Book of the Year for Indelible Ink, a Queensland Literary Award (Steel Rudd) for short story collection Suck my Toes and the Woollahra Digital Literary Award for essay ‘The Hot Desk’. Recent nominations include the Miles Franklin, the NSW Premiers’ Award, and the Stella Prize for the novel Iris. McGregor has conducted seminars at universities and given lectures internationally on topics pertaining to writing, performance art, urban histories, memoir, street life, activism, LGBTIQ culture and politics, and more. McGregor has taught a range of creative writing subjects including fiction both long and short, narrative non-fiction, and arts and music criticism. McGregor has also taught English as a second language and mentored extensively, with several mentees progressing to publication and being shortlisted for awards. McGregor is based in Sydney, on unceded Gadigal land. Web: fionakmcgregor.com Instagram: Fiona Kelly McGregor
Lliane Clarke
Lliane Clarke is an experienced publisher, writer, ghost-writer, editor and journalist with over 20 years of experience in publishing in print and online. She has a passion for story-telling and helping writers to bring to life the stories they want to tell.
Lliane has managed major authors across a variety of genres from biography, cookery and crime and has commissioned titles for markets in Australia and the UK. She has written and created trade and custom publishing titles for companies such as New Hobsons Press, New Holland Publishers International, Bauer Media Books, Emap Media Magazines and others. She runs non-fiction manuscript assessment sessions for Writing NSW and presents non-fiction titles on behalf of authors to publishers such as Hardie Grant, Allen and Unwin/Murdoch, Random House Penguin and New Holland Publishers amongst others. Lliane is also an experienced communications professional with extensive experience in developing publicity campaigns. Personal website: www.contentandculturalprojects.wordpress.com
Diana Giese
Diana Giese has worked for publishers large and small, including Macmillan, Oxford University Press, HarperEducational and Brandl & Schlesinger, in Australia and overseas. She has collaborated with many writers to help them develop their best possible work, and produced and promoted prize-winners and excellent sellers. She is the author of six books, including Astronauts, Lost Souls and Dragons (University of Queensland Press), Beyond Chinatown (National Library of Australia) and A better place to live (Freshwater Bay Press). She has also worked as a literary journalist for major newspapers and ABC radio, and served on writers’ festival and prize committees. A recent mentoree placed his first book with a major international publisher. Diana will help you produce memoirs, fiction and history. Diana’s personal website: https://www.dianagieseeditorial.com.au
Stuart MacDonald
Guiding authors through the creative writing process and through the publishing/sales/marketing process is something Stuart MacDonald has been doing for several decades. His broad experience of manuscript assessment, and of assisting, mentoring and motivating writers and students of creative writing, ranges from business books, self-help and autobiography to romance, serious fiction and poetry. Stuart’s background in publishing management includes directorships with a number of publishers including HarperCollins, Woodslane, Harlequin and Dorling Kindersley. He has spoken at numerous conferences here and overseas, and has lectured for a number of publishing organisations and educational institutions including the Australian Publishers Association and Macquarie University.
Craig Munro
Craig Munro is a biographer, book historian and publishing editor as well as the founding chair of the Queensland Writers Centre. His award-winning biography Wild Man of Letters: The Story of P.R. Stephensen was published to wide acclaim. He was UQP fiction editor (1973-80) and then publishing manager (1983 to 2000). As an editor of both fiction and non-fiction, Craig Munro has worked with a diverse range of writers including Peter Carey, David Malouf, Olga Masters, Murray Bail, Roger McDonald, Barbara Hanrahan, Nicholas Jose, Ross Fitzgerald and Donald Horne. In 1985 he won the Barbara Ramsden Award for Editing and in 2010 the Johnno Award for his contribution to writing. He was awarded a Literature Board writing grant in 2010 and recently completed a publishing memoir Editor at Large. He is currently working on Under Cover, a collection of profiles of Australian book editors, and on a biography of critic and publisher AG Stephens (1865–1933). In his role as UQP publishing manager, Craig Munro was responsible for staff training and mentoring younger editors and was invited by the Queensland Society of Editors to take part in the society’s CAL-funded editorial mentoring project (2008–10).