Allison Tait (AL Tait) is an internationally published, bestselling middle-grade author, speaker, co-founder of yourkidsnextread.com and co-host of YKNR podcast. Her fantasy series (The Mapmaker Chronicles, The Ateban Cipher, and Maven & Reeve Mysteries) have been shortlisted and longlisted for awards, as was her first contemporary mystery novel The First Summer of Callie McGee. Willow […]

Ali Gray grew up in regional South Australia and after a 30-year banking career in Sydney and New York turned her focus to her passion: thinking. She set about introducing some of the great thinkers from the past to kids through exciting time travel adventure stories. She is a self-published author and now resides on […]

Belinda Murrell is an award-winning, internationally published author who has written more than 40 books including best-selling series The Sun Sword trilogy, Pippa’s Island, Lulu Bell and her time-slip novels such as The Ivory Rose, The Forgotten Pearl, and The Golden Tower. Her latest junior-fiction series is The Daredevil Princess, about a brave princess solving […]

Charmaine Ledden-Lewis is a proud Bundjalung woman, and award-winning artist and illustrator, living on Dharug & Gundungurra Country in the Blue Mountains, NSW. She has produced children’s books with authors such as Bruce Pascoe and Cathy Freeman, and continues to share her visual storytelling with more books coming in the near future. Instagram

Clare Hallifax is publisher of the Omnibus Books imprint at Scholastic, and manager of Scholastic’s digital publishing program. She has worked with many esteemed children’s book creators including Mem Fox, Julie Vivas, Judy Horacek, Libby Gleeson, Kerry Argent, Emily Rodda and Michael Gerard Bauer. Whether working with established writers or new voices, discovering new stories […]

Dani Vee is publisher at Larrikin House. She is also an author of best-selling picture book My Supercharged ADHD Brain, and various other picture books and two junior fiction titles including the new release My Pet Croc. She has also had an adult crime story published in an anthology. Dani is host of the literary […]

Since 2002, Deborah Abela has written 30 internationally published and awarded children’s books. Her latest are CBCA Notables, Bear in Space, The Book of Wondrous Possibilities and The Kindness Project. She’s spoken to tens of thousands of children and their adults, in Australia and overseas, and has a lot to share about being and staying […]

Dot Tonkin is the marketing and publicity director at Penguin Random House Australia.

Graham Davidson has been a professional creative for over 45 years working as both a visual and commercial artist, and as a writer. Having founded the IF Maitland Writers Festival in 2020, he now runs a small publishing company in the Hunter Valley. Website Instagram

Jane Godwin is the highly acclaimed author of over thirty books for young people, across all styles and ages. Her work is published internationally and she has received many commendations. Jane was the children’s publisher at Penguin Books Australia for many years, where she produced books for a wide range of readers, from very young […]

Jane McCredie is a writer, journalist and a former book publisher who is now CEO of Writing NSW. She is a former science publisher and a writer and journalist with a special interest in science and medicine. She is the author of Making Girls and Boys: Inside the science of sex and was coeditor of […]

Dr Kate Forsyth is an award-winning author whose work has been published in 20 languages. Historical novels for adults include Psykhe, a retelling of the ancient Greek myth which reached Number 3 on the Australian Fiction Bestsellers list; The Crimson Thread, set in Crete during World War II which The Washington Review called ‘a riveting […]

Kate Temple is an internationally awarded children’s authors of over 30 books from picture books to junior fiction and middle grade. Together with her partner Jol Temple, she has written the best-selling Bin Chicken series, the CBCA honour book, That Bird Has Arms and the highly awarded backwards-forwards book Room on Our Rock, which has […]

Katrina McKelvey is a children’s author, former primary school teacher and mother living in Newcastle, NSW. She’s highly involved in CBCA, SCBWI, Littlescribe, community events, literary conferences and festivals, and loves visiting schools. She’s written many children’s picture books and educational readers including her new title, My Heart (March, 2024) and three Healthy Harold big books […]

Kristin Darell is the author of nine books for children, including the junior fiction series Taronga Presents and the best-selling Football Fever series. After working as a broadcast journalist for more than twenty years, Kristin works for the Australian Children’s Laureate Foundation and is passionate about encouraging kids to share stories of their own.

Liz Bowring is the past president of the CBCA NSW branch. As a teacher librarian in both primary and secondary schools, she was immersed in books for young people. Liz was particularly interested in the role of awards in promoting quality Australian books. She assisted in the establishment the KOALA Awards. As an author and […]

Louise Park is a multi-award-winning author known for her bestselling series fiction, including Zac Power Test Drives, Boy vs Beast, Harriet Clare, D-Bot Squad, Star Girl, Grace’s Secrets and Grace’s Escape. She is the author of 7 Steps to Get Your Child Reading and Last Man Out, A Personal Account of the Gallipoli Evacuation, an […]

With over twenty five years in the publishing industry, Matt Cosgrove is the bestselling author and illustrator of Macca the Alpaca, Dharma the Llama and many more picture books. He is also the co-author of the hit, new middle-grade series: Worst Week Ever. Matt likes chocolate, avoiding social interactions, and more chocolate. Website Twitter Instagram

Mick Elliott is an acclaimed author, illustrator, TV producer, screenwriter, and literacy ambassador whose books have been published in seven international territories. He has written and illustrated picture books, junior fiction, and middle grade series with Hachette, Walker Books, and Scholastic. His debut series, THE TURNERS was nominated for an Aurealis Award and features on the NSW Premiers’ […]

Nat Amoore’s debut novel Secrets Of A Schoolyard Millionaire became Australia’s #1 bestselling debut Aussie children’s fiction in 2019 and has sold into the UK, US, Italy, China, Estonia and Romania. The Power Of Positive Pranking won the 2021 Environment Award for Children’s Literature. The Right Way To Rock, We Run Tomorrow and Shower Land […]

Oliver Phommavanh is an author and comedian, who uses his experience as a primary school teacher to inspire kids to write funny stories. His books include Thai-riffic!, The Other Christy and What About Thao. Oliver’s new book, Sneakerheads will be released later this year.

Olivia Lanchester is a cultural policy consultant and intellectual property lawyer. She is deeply experienced at advising authors and illustrators on all aspects of the publishing process, including publishing, agency and distribution contracts. Olivia was the CEO of the Australian Society of Authors from 2019 – 2024 and established Authors Legal, a national non-profit legal […]

Paul Macdonald is the owner of The Children’s Bookshop, runs the small picture book imprint Book Trail Press and is a literacy consultant for many primary and secondary schools. Instagram

Pippa has worked at Curtis Brown for 25 years, currently as a Senior Agent and Head of Agents. Her authors include best-selling ABIA, Davitt, Premier’s Literary Awards and Ned Kelly award-winners, and those who have sold in multiple territories and had their books adapted for screen. She represents adult fiction that sits neatly in the […]

RA Spratt is the bestselling author of the Nanny Piggins, Friday Barnes, Peski Kids and Shocking Good Stories series. She also hosts the podcast Bedtime Stories with RA Spratt. Website Twitter Instagram

Rawah Arja is an acclaimed writer and teacher from Western Sydney. Her YA book, The F Team, was published by Giramondo in 2020 and was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award (2021). Her writing has featured in Second City: Essays From Western Sydney (2021), Arab, Australian, Other (2019), SBS Voices and at the Sydney […]

Rebecca McRitchie has been in the publishing industry for over ten years, working in publishing houses such as Scholastic and Hardie Grant. She is now a Publisher at Penguin Random House, where she works on everything from picture books to YA. Rebecca is also the author of a number of children’s fiction series published by […]

Samera Kamaleddine is a Sydney-based author and librarian. For many years before that she was a journalist, writing for magazines about everything from friendship dramas and school bullies to body confidence. Her debut YA novel, Half My Luck, was published in 2021 after it won the HarperCollins Matilda Prize. Her debut middle-grade novel, The Sideways […]

Sarah Ayoub is a journalist, academic and author who has written for the Guardian, Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney Review of Books, Griffith Review and more. Her latest novel, The Cult of Romance, is inspired by her PhD research into interventionist multicultural YA narratives and her debut picture book The Love that Grew is out now. […]

Sue Whiting is an award-winning children’s author, editor and former primary school teacher who writes for many age groups, from picture books through to YA. Sue is a passionate advocate for reading for pleasure and loves nothing more than enthusing kids about the power of story, and the joy of books and reading. Her latest […]

Originally from Ballarat, Tobias Madden worked for ten years as a performer, touring Australia in musicals like Mary Poppins and Cats. His debut young adult fiction novel, Anything But Fine, is out now in Australia and the US, and his next book, Take a Bow, Noah Mitchell, is coming out in September this year. Tobias […]

Tristan Bancks is an author for kids and teens. His latest book, Scar Town, won the CBCA Book of the Year awards. His other books include Two Wolves, The Fall, Detention, Cop & Robber, Ginger Meggs and Tom Weekly. His books have won and been shortlisted for a number of other awards, including South Australian […]

Wai Chim is the Chinese-American-Australian author of a number of children’s and YA titles, including The Surprising Power of a Good Dumpling, which was a Kirkus Prize Finalist in the US and was Shortlisted for the Prime Minister Literary Awards in 2020. She appeared as a contestant on Australian Survivor: Brains vs Brawn. Last-Place Lin, […]

Wendy Fitzgerald is the current vice-president of CBCA NSW Northern Sydney sub-branch. She’s the author of Bollywood Dreams and Indigo solves the Pzulze. Her favourite thing to do is to encourage kids to write their own stories. Wendy knows that these days there are many paths to publication and this opens up exciting possibilities for […]

Yvette Poshoglian has written over 45 books for young people including the bestselling Ella and Olivia series. Her new book, Dear Greta, for ages 8+ is out now and is all about food, family and finding your place in the world. Yvette works in education at the intersection of pedagogy, technology and innovation. Website Twitter […]

With over a decade of publishing experience, mostly in publicity, Children’s Publisher Zoe Bechara knows what makes a good story and how to pitch it. Zoe publishes established and emerging children’s authors and, ever the publicist, is a master of blurbs and finding yet another new angle on a story. Her childhood favourite book is Hating Alison Ashley, she (still) loves big […]

Zoe Walton is a publisher of books for young readers at Penguin Random House Australia. Zoe edits New York Times bestselling author John Flanagan, whose Ranger’s Apprentice and Brotherband series have sold fifteen million copies worldwide. She also publishes many popular and award-winning Australian authors, including Deborah Abela, Tristan Bancks, Fleur Ferris, Emily Gale, Tim Harris, Belinda […]