Our Mentors

Adolfo Aranjuez is an editor, writer, speaker and dancer. He has worked across periodical, book and digital/web publishing for over fifteen years, having held editorial tenures for the anti-racist literary platform Liminal (including its award-winning collection Against Disappearance: Essays on Memory), the screen journal Metro, the LGBTQIA+ magazine Archer, the literary journal Voiceworks and the Melbourne International Film Festival. As a freelancer, he has edited and proofread for Hachette, Melbourne University Publishing, Ultimo Press, Pantera Press, Bundanon Museum and Malthouse Theatre. His essays, criticism and poetry have been published widely, including in Meanjin, Right Now, Kill Your Darlings, Screen Education, The Manila Review and Cordite. Alongside editing and writing, Adolfo has hosted and appeared on panel discussions, run mentorships and workshops, judged literary prizes, acted as industry advisor, and performed movement and spoken word. In addition to English, he speaks Spanish, Tagalog and some French. Find out more: adolfoaranjuez.com

Specialises in:  

• Nonfiction (memoir, creative nonfiction, essays, arts/screen/cultural criticism, scholarly/academic)
• Political commentary/literature (LGBTQIA+, gender, immigrant/POC, mental illness)
• Poetry

Alexandra Collier is an award-winning writer who has written for theatre, screen and print. Her memoir Inconceivable: Heartbreak, Bad Dates and Finding Solo Motherhood about her journey to becoming a solo mum by choice was published by Hachette. She has written for two seasons on the ABC/BBC detective series Return to Paradise and is developing a number of her own TV writing projects. Alexandra lived and worked in New York for a decade where her plays were produced Off Broadway, including Triplight, a new musical written with ARIA award-winning composer Greta Gertler Gold, at Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater. In Australia, her plays have been produced and developed at Sydney Theatre Company, La Mama and the Hayes. She has written for a range of mediums and people, including Esther Perel, Showtime (TV network), The Guardian, The Age/Sydney Morning Herald, Harper’s Bazaar and Mamamia. She is a MacDowell fellow, an RE Ross Trust Playwrights Award winner and a Susan Smith Blackburn Prize finalist 

Specialises in

• Memoir Writing 
• Essay Writing 
• Non-Fiction Writing 
• Screenwriting for TV 

Amra Pajalić is an editor, teacher and award-winning author who has written young adult fiction, memoir and romance novels. Her debut novel The Good Daughter (Text Publishing, 2009) won the 2009 Melbourne Prize for Literature’s Civic Choice Award and is re-published as Sabiha’s Dilemma. She is co-editor of the anthology Growing up Muslim in Australia (Allen and Unwin, 2019) shortlisted for the 2015 Children’s Book Council of the Year awards. Her family memoir Things Nobody Knows But Me (Transit Lounge, 2019) was shortlisted for the 2020 National Biography Award. She is the author of the Sassy Saints Series, an own-voices young adult trilogy published by Pishukin Press, which includes the books Sabiha’s Dilemma, Alma’s Loyalty, and Jesse’s Triumph. She has been successful in obtaining funding applications and has been a panel assessor, and is an award-winning short story writer whose writing has been published in anthologies, journals and in online publications. Her freelance articles have been published in ABC Education, ArtsHub, Kalliope X Journal, The Guardian, The Age, Southerly Journal, Overland, AEU Magazines, Meanjin and SBS Voices. Her romance novels are published under her pen name Mae Archer. Amra is completing a PhD in Creative Writing at La Trobe University. 

Specialises in: 

• Young adult fiction 
• Adult fiction 
• Memoir 
• Romance 
• Funding applications 
• Short stories 
• Self-publishing 

Andrew Nette is an award-winning writer of fiction and non-fiction. He is the author of three novels, Ghost Money (2012), a crime story set in Cambodia in the mid-nineties, and two novels featuring his professional character Gary Chance, Gunshine State (2016) and Orphan Road (2023). He also co-edited Hard Labour (2012), an anthology of Australian short crime fiction, and LEE (2013), an anthology of fiction inspired by American cinema icon, Lee Marvin. His short fiction has appeared in various print and online publications. His short fiction has appeared in various print and online publications. He writes a regular newsletter under his own name on Substack. 

Specialises in:

• Long and short form crime fiction
• True crime
• Non fiction work relating to cinema and popular culture

Camha Pham is an accredited freelance editor based in Naarm/Melbourne, with over 10 years of experience in the publishing industry. She has worked in-house at Oxford University Press and Margaret River Press. As a freelancer, she has worked on copyediting and proofreading projects for publishers including Hachette, UQP, Hardie Grant, Affirm Press and Pantera Press, among others. She has sat on the Editorial Boards of Portside Review and Margaret River Press, and also works in the industry as a mentor and manuscript assessor.

Specialises in:

• Literary fiction
• General fiction
• Essay collections
• Short story collections
• Memoir

Cassandra is an Australian YA writer living in France. She completed her Master of Creative Writing, Editing and Publishing at the University of Melbourne in 2015 and has worked as a freelance proofreader. She is a 2016 Grace Marion Wilson Glenfern Fellow, an alumni of the Djerassi YA Novel Writing Workshop, a judge for the 2016 and 2017 Aurealis Award Illustrated Works category, and a slush pile reader for Aurealis magazine. As well as being a PitchWars alum, Cassandra was a round 4 Author Mentor Match mentor. Her short fiction publications include Softcopy and The Victorian Writer More information can be found at cassfrances.com. 

Specialises in:

• Young adult fiction, particularly fantasy, speculative and gothic  
• General fantasy 
• Gothic literary science fiction
• Speculative fiction 

Christie Nieman is an award-winning​ author and essayist. Her second novel, the literary gothic Where We Begin won the Davitt Award for Best Young Adult Fiction, an Honour Book Award from the Children’s Book Council of Australia, and was shortlisted for both the Victorian and NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. Her short fiction, memoir and essays have featured in Sydney Review of Books, Meanjin, Overland, The Age and The Guardian, as well as in a number of anthologies. She has been commissioning editor of many anthologies, teaches Creative Writing at The University of Melbourne and was lucky enough to have recently been a State Library of Victoria Creative Fellow. Specialises in:

• Fiction (both short form and novels)
• Memoir
• Creative non-fiction
• Essays
• Publishing submissions

Demet Divaroren is the author of Living on Hope Street which won the 2018 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards Prize for Writing for Young Adults and was shortlisted for a 2018 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. She is the co-editor of CBCA shortlisted anthology Growing up Muslim in Australia. Her second novel Blood Moon Bride will be published by Allen and Unwin in 2025. Demet appears as a panellist, guest speaker and workshop leader at literary festivals, universities and schools across Melbourne. 

Specialises in: 

• Young adult fiction 
• Adult contemporary fiction 
• Fantasy 

Fiona Murphy is an award-winning writer and editor. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, ABC, The Saturday Paper, Griffith Review, The Big Issue, among many other outlets and anthologies. Her memoir, The Shape of Sound (Text Publishing), was published in Australia, New Zealand, UK and North America. It was highly commended in the 2022 Victorian Premier’s Awards. Fiona is a guest lecturer for the RMIT Professional Writing and Editing program.

Specialises in:

• General fiction and short story
• Memoir
• Biography/family history
• Non-fiction essays

Hoa Pham is the award-winning author of seven books and a play so far. Her first adult novel Vixen was awarded the Best Young Writer Award by the Sydney Morning Herald and shortlisted by the Aurealis Awards for the Best Fantasy Novel. Her book Wave has been translated into Vietnamese and sold in Vietnam. Silence, a play for three Vietnamese-Australian women, was on the VCE Drama List in 2010. She is also the founder of Peril, an Asian-Australian arts and culture online magazine. You can find out more about her at www.hoapham.net

Specialises in:

• Adult and Young Adult fiction
• Fantasy fiction
• Magic realism
• Short stories

Jackey Coyle is an author, editor, artist and broadcaster. Her portfolio career takes in freelance roles as magazine founder and contributing editor, ghost-writer, editor, postgraduate writing tutor and short-course developer–presenter. She was commissioned to write two books – In the End: A practical guide to dying and Cancer Treatment Breakthroughs: Milestones, lessons and inspiration for patients, family, friends and survivors. 

Jackey earned her Master’s in Writing and Literature with a novella themed around Hawaiian music in Australia, and units in fiction, nonfiction, editing, travel and scriptwriting. 

During her magazine-publishing career she has been Associate Editor of Rhythms and Founding Editor of Inside Small Business and The Strategic Super Investor, and spent 10 years editing for Lonely Planet. 

Her writing has appeared in magazines, anthologies and scholarly journals. She continues to mentor writers and editors, edit books and theses, and present radio programs on music and music writing, while travelling three months a year and creating travel sketchbooks. Her editing work centres around books and theses for publishers and emerging authors. More at wordygurdy.com.au. 

Jackey is a member of Writers Victoria and the Institute of Professional Editors (IPEd). 

Specialises in: 

• Non-fiction 
• Freelancing 
• Editing 

Jennifer Compton lives in Melbourne. Recently Work Press published her 11th book of poetry – the moment, taken in 2021. Her third book, Blue, was shortlisted for the Kenneth Slessor Prize For Poetry; her sixth book, Barefoot, was shortlisted for the John Bray Poetry Award; her seventh book, This City, won the Kathleen Grattan Award. In 2013 her poem, Now You Shall Know, won the Newcastle Poetry Prize. Her 12th book of poetry, Still, is forthcoming.

• Poetry and poetry manuscripts/ advice as to how to prepare work for publication and where to send it / how to cut for narrative clarity / coping with setbacks and realistic expectations / grammar and punctuation etc

Jock Serong is the author of seven novels, most recently Cherrywood. He is the founding editor of Great Ocean Quarterly, holds a PhD in Creative Writing and is a board member of Melbourne’s Wheeler Centre for Books Writing and Ideas. His non-fiction work is published in The Monthly, The Guardian, Surfing World and elsewhere. 

Specialises in: 

• Literary fiction 
• Crime 
• Historical fiction 
• Biography 

Josiane Behmoiras is the author of Dora B: A Memoir of My Mother published in Australia, the UK, France and Germany, and shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Award. The paperback edition was published as My Mother was a Bag Lady. Her short stories and essays have been published in Heat, Meanjin, Island, and elsewhere, including anthologies. She was the recipient of fellowships and grants, including Australian Council for the Arts and Varuna writers’ house. Josiane has taught creative writing at The University of Melbourne, where she completed a PhD on the topic of writing the future in times of accelerated reality. She considers the mentoring of fellow writers a privilege. 

Specialises in:

• Memoir and biography
• Literary fiction
• Short stories
• Travel writing
• Personal essays

Kate Ryan writes fiction and non-fiction and has worked as an editor for publishing houses including Penguin and Lothian Books, as a manuscript assessor, writing mentor and writing teacher. Her work has appeared in publications including New Australian Writing 2, The Sleepers Almanac, Meanjin, Kill Your Darlings, Griffith Review, TEXT and Best Australian Stories (2016), and her children’s picture books were published by Penguin and Lothian. Kate’s short stories have been shortlisted for the Josephine Ulrick and Boroondara Literary Awards and longlisted for the Elizabeth Jolley Prize. She won the Writers’ Prize in the Melbourne Prize for Literature (2015) and in 2016 the novella category in the Lord Mayors Creative Writing Awards. She has a PhD in Creative Writing (La Trobe University, 2013). Her debut novel The Golden Book (Scribe) was published in 2021. Her second novel HOUSE explores the intersection between families, houses and emotion. Read more about Kate’s work at www.kateryanauthor.com

Specialises in:

• Adult fiction – literary and general
• Creative non fiction
• Essays
• Memoir
• Young adult and children’s fiction

Koraly Dimitriadis is a poet, writer and performer and the author of the poetry books Love and Fck Poems, Just Give Me The Pills and the short story collection, The Mother Must Die. Her opinion articles have been published widely including The Washington Post. www.koralydimitriadis.com 

Specialises in: 

• Experimental fiction and non-fiction writing  
• Poetry 

Laurent Boulanger is an award-winning novelist, scriptwriter and filmmaker. He writes both literary novels and genre fiction.  His crime novel Better Dead Than Never was finalist at the 2006 CWAA’s awards. His literary novel The Girl From France won the 2014 Paris Book Festival Awards for Best E-book in all categories (all genres, five languages) and the 2014 eBook Award (#1 Gold) for Best Multicultural Fiction. The Novelist won the Grand Prize and the Best General Fiction at the 2016 Pacific Rim Book Festival. His screenplays have been selected for over 80 film festivals awards, and his films are distributed worldwide via Bounty Entertainment. Laurent has a PhD in Writing and has taught in the postgraduate writing program at Swinburne University since 2004 with a focus on journalism and scriptwriting.  

Specialises in:  

• Literary fiction  
• Crime fiction  
• Non-fiction  
• Scriptwriting  
• Journalism 

Lyndel Caffrey is a Melbourne writer, historian, mentor and creative writing teacher. She works to help writers build a deeper understanding of the story they have to tell and how to tell it. Lyndel has been published by Southerly, Poetrix, Vignette Press and newmatilda.com, among others. Her novella Glad featured in Griffith Review 38. Her manuscript Gunclub was shortlisted for the 2015 Richell Prize. Lyndel has worked with Writers Victoria’s Writeability program since 2013.   

Specialises in:   

• Memoir and biography  
• Family history  
• General fiction  
• Historical fiction  
• Short story  Poetry 

Marie writes for adults as well as children and has been shortlisted for a number of fiction and non-fiction awards. She has had work on The Age best-sellers list and her most recent title, Zelda’s Big Adventure – a book about a chook who wants to be an astronaut – was a ‘Notable’ picture book in the CBCA Awards and was read by the wonderful Leigh Sales on Playschool. Her writing journey began in 1994 when she was handed a brochure for Holmesglen TAFE that listed the Diploma of Arts – Professional Writing and Editing. She decided then and there to throw in her corporate job and do the course. Fast forward 30 years and she is a full-time copywriter who, in her spare time, runs creative writing clinics, reviews children’s books and writes humorous speculative fiction. Her current work in progress is a humorous, feminist, crime space opera. 

Specialises in: 

• Picture book texts 
• YA speculative fiction 
• Narrative non-fiction 

Myfanwy Jones is the author of Leap, shortlisted for the 2016 Miles Franklin Literary Award, and The Rainy Season, finalist for The Melbourne Prize for Literature’s Best Writing Award 2010. She also co-wrote, with Spiri Tsintziras, the bestselling Parlour Games for Modern Families, awarded ABIA Book of the Year for Older Children 2010. Her third novel, Cool Water, was published by Hachette in February 2024.  Alongside her own practice, Myfanwy works as a manuscript assessor and writing mentor, and has a particular keenness for structure and the character of place. www.myfanwyajones.com

Natalie Rose Dyer currently teaches in the Creative Writing Program at The University of Melbourne where she is an Honorary Research Fellow (having taught there since 2020). She completed a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Melbourne (2017) where she also earned an MFA (2010) with an Australian Postgraduate Award. Natalie is the recipient of The Peter Steele Poetry Award in 2021 towards the completion of her first poetry manuscript. More recently she was highly commended for the 2024 Vincent Buckley Poetry Prize for poems towards her first collection (forthcoming). Selected poetry is widely published in journals including Meanjin Quarterly, Australian Poetry, Cordite Poetry Review, and many more. Her book ‘Notes on a Wild Fluidity’ was published with Palgrave (2020). Her second book of essays ‘Nothing But a Fine Nerve Meter; New Maps at the Planetary Turn’ is forthcoming in 2025 with Revolutionaries Press. For more information visit www.natalierosedyer.com

Specialises in:

• Adult Fiction
• Short Story
• Memoir
• Travel Writing
• Poetry

Rachel Ang is an artist and writer who makes comics. Their work has previously been published in international journals such as The New Yorker and kuš!, and Australian periodicals like The Age and Meanjin. Their first book, Swimsuit, was published by Glom Press in 2018, and won a Silver Ledger from the Comic Arts Awards of Australia. Their next book, titled I Ate The Whole World to Find You, will be published by Drawn and Quarterly (global) and Scribe (Australia/New Zealand) in 2025. 

Specialises in: 

• Graphic novels  
• Graphic essays, using text and images 

Sam van Zweden is a Naarm/Melbourne-based writer and editor interested in experimental nonfiction, essays, mental health, body writing, food, and memory. Her book, ‘Eating with my Mouth Open’, won the Kill Your Darlings Unpublished Manuscript Award. Her work has been published widely, including by The Guardian, Good Weekend, The Big Issue, ABC Life, the Griffith Review, Meanjin and more.

• Memoir
• Body writingEssays/creative nonfiction
• Food writing
• Freelancing

Sherryl Clark writes adult crime fiction and books for young readers. She taught Professional Writing and Editing for 23 years, and now works as a part-time editor, for both independent authors and publishing companies. She teaches writing workshops and speaks at conferences. She also writes articles about writing/editing for Medium. 

Specialises in: 

• Middle grade fiction 
• Young adult fiction 
• Picture books 
• Adult crime fiction/thrillers 
• Adult women’s fiction 

Dr Sian Prior is a writer, broadcaster and writing teacher. She has been a presenter on ABC radio and a regular contributor to The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. Sian teaches creative writing at RMIT University and for writers’ centres, runs her own online writing courses and mentors individual writers. Her essays have been published in Meanjin, The Saturday Paper, and her first book Shy: a memoir (Text Publishing) came out in 2014. Her second memoir, Childless: a story of freedom and longing (2022) was short-listed for The Age Non Fiction Book of the Year Award. For more information: sianprior.com.

Specialises in:

• Memoir
• Travel writing
• Self-help writing
• Essays
• Feature articles

Spiri Tsintziras has been writing life stories for over 30 years, from her first published story about breaking bread with strangers, to caring for her mother. She is the author of the memoirs My Ikaria: How the People From a Small Mediterranean Island Inspired Me to Live a Happier, Healthier and Longer Life (Nero 2018) and Afternoons in Ithaka (ABC Books 2014). She co-authored, with Myfanwy Jones, the award-winning and internationally acclaimed Parlour Games for Modern Families (Scribe 2008). Spiri’s latest work, Twelve Golden Gifts is due for release with Harper Collins in mid-2025. She has been a long-time professional writing teacher at Swinburne University, as well as mentor and trainer with Writers Victoria. She is passionate about helping people tell their life stories. www.writingspirit.com.au 

Specialises in: 

• Memoir 
• Creative non-fiction 
• Writing difficult stories and protecting yourself 
• Food and travel 
• Time management