Abigail Nathan is a freelance editor who has run Bothersome Words Editing & Writing Services for more than twelve years. She specialises in fiction (including genre — fantasy, science fiction, horror, crime, suspense, romance etc.) for adults, young adults and middle grade, and works with major Australian and UK trade publishers including HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, Hachette and Gollancz; as well as small presses in the USA. She has edited a range of authors for these publishers, including Karen Miller, Traci Harding, Alastair Reynolds and James Barclay. In addition, she works regularly with emerging and self-publishing writers including authors such as Mitchell Hogan and Maria Lewis. Abigail was a committee member and website coordinator for Editors NSW for over ten years and occasionally presents workshops on editing, self-publishing and freelancing. Personal website: www.BothersomeWords.com

Kirsten Tranter is a novelist and critic with over twenty years experience in the world of publishing, and the author of the critically acclaimed novels The Legacy, Hold, and A Common Loss. Her approach to mentoring involves identifying and building on the storytelling strengths of a manuscript, with a focus on narrative structure and voice. Kirsten has taught creative writing at UC Berkeley, UTS, Writing NSW and literary festivals across Australia. Since the early 1990s Kirsten has worked as a freelance manuscript assessor and editor for organisations including leading agency Australian Literary Management. Kirsten brings expertise in a wide range of genres from literary fiction to genre fiction including sci-fi, fantasy, and romance. Personal website: www.kirstentranter.com

Leonie Tyle has been dedicated to children’s literature as a librarian, reviewer, speaker, editor and publisher. She was Children’s & Young Adult Publisher at University of Queensland Press and established Woolshed Press, a children’s literary imprint for Random House Australia. Both lists have won many awards including the inaugural Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Young Adult Literature.

She is currently a Partner in Tyle&Bateson Publishing, a multi-faceted publishing services enterprise. Leonie does sessional teaching at Queensland University of Technology. She is the currently one of 3 judges for the Rosanne Fitzgibbon Editorial Award & a judge for the Dorothea Mackellar Poetry Award.

Leonie has worked with many of Australia’s finest authors and illustrators including Steven Herrick, James Moloney, Brian Caswell, James Roy, Gregory Rogers, David Mackintosh, Stella Danalis, Anthony Eaton, Bill Condon, Christine Bongers, Nette Hilton, Samuel Wagan Watson, Celeste Walters and Doris Pilkington Garimara. She has a passion for literature and believes in encouraging and providing an environment for her authors and illustrators to produce their most imaginative and creative work. Personal website: www.tylebateson.com.au

Keith Stevenson is the author of Horizon: an SF thriller (HarperCollins) and The Lenticular Series: Traitor’s Run (finalist in the Aurealis Awards for Best SF Novel), Traitor’s Bargain, and Traitor’s War. On Traitor’s Run, Kirkus Reviews said, “The author’s gift for xenofiction matches that of genre grandmasters like Hal Clement, Larry Niven, and C.J. Cherryh” and Aurealis Magazine described it as, “wild and expansive, and just so utterly out there”. He’s also a past editor of Aurealis Magazineand Dimension6 as well as a number of anthologies including X6 (which won the World Fantasy Award for Margo Langan’s “Sea-Hearts”), and Anywhere But Earth. Keith brings his critical skills as a writer and editor immersed in the SF, Fantasy and Horror genres to the mentorship program. Personal website: www.keithstevenson.com

EMILY MAGUIRE is the author of five novels and three non-fiction books. Her latest novel, An Isolated Incident was shortlisted for the Stella Prize, the ABIA Literary Fiction Book of the Year and the Miles Franklin Literary Award.

Emily’s articles and essays on sex, feminism, culture and literature have been published widely including in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, The Observer and The Age.

Emily works as a teacher and as a mentor to young and emerging writers and was the 2018/2019 Writer-inResidence at the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney.