Our Manuscript Assessors

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 TV, theatre and print. She has written for three seasons on the Logie award-winning international detective series Return to Paradise (BBC/ABC) and worked on various TV projects with Roadshow Rough Diamond, Easy Tiger, Truce and Princess Pictures. Her acclaimed memoir Inconceivable: Heartbreak, Bad Dates and Finding Solo Motherhood about her journey to becoming a solo mum by choice was published by Hachette in Australia, UK and the US. 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 

Camha Pham is an accredited freelance editor with more than a decade of experience in the publishing industry. She has held in-house roles at Oxford University Press and Margaret River Press. As a freelancer, she has worked on copyediting and proofreading projects for leading trade publishers including Hachette, UQP, Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hardie Grant, Ultimo Press, Affirm Press and Pantera Press, among others. She has experience working with both emerging and established authors, and has worked on Miles Franklin award-winning and nominated books. Alongside her editorial practice, she works in the industry as a mentor and manuscript assessor, supporting writers at various stages of their careers.

Specialises in:

• Literary fiction
• Contemporary 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 (2020), 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 on 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 (short fiction and novels)
• Memoir
• Creative non-fiction
• Essays
• Publishing submissions

Emma Cayley was formerly the editor at Writers Victoria and has a great deal of experience editing short fiction for publication. She is a fiction aficionado and especially loves thoughtful speculative fiction, edgy YA and middle-grade children’s adventure stories. In addition to her work at WV, Emma is a freelance editor and writer and has worked on a variety of texts, including fiction, non-fiction, illustrated monographs, educational texts, reference books, cookbooks and corporate publications. 

Specialises in:

• Literary fiction
• Speculative fiction
• Young Adult and children’s fiction
• Short fiction and collections

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 was Australian Correspondent for Writers’ News, UK’s largest circulating magazine for writers for 12 years, where he advised readers on potential publishing markets. He has also published over thirty freelance articles in a variety of magazines both in Australia and the United States. He 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, 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 latest screenplay Dirty Little Secrets was released as a feature film in 2026 on Amazon Prime, Tubi and other streaming platforms, as well as Blu-ray and DVD. Laurent has been a principal tutor at Swinburne University’s Postgraduate Writing Program since 2004.

Specialises in:  

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

Liz Kemp has spent most of her professional life in the publishing industry, most recently for a decade in the role of Operations Co-ordinator for the Children’s and Young Adult Department at Allen & Unwin. Prior to that she worked in a variety of administrative roles here and in the UK in all areas of the publishing industry, and at the State Library Victoria’s Centre for Youth Literature. She now operates a freelance manuscript assessment and editing business.  

Specialises in:  

• Young adult fiction  
• Children’s fiction (picture books, chapter books, and middle grade fiction)  
• Popular adult fiction  
• Genre fiction (fantasy, science fiction, romance, crime)
• Memoir 

Lyndel Caffrey is an award winning writer. Her own writing focus is poetry and historical fiction. She is a mentor, assessor and creative writing tutor with many years experience. Lyndel has worked as a mentor and program manager for Writers Victoria’s Writeability program and has run a range of regional and suburban creative writing and mentoring programs for Writers Victoria, local libraries and neighbourhood houses. Lyndel is currently facilitating the volunteer/disability-led Our Words Our Way disabled writers group at Kathleen Syme Library in Carlton.

Specialises in:   

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

Marie Alafaci 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 
• Young adult 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. 

Specialises in:

• Literay fiction
• Commercial and genre fiction
• Narrative non-fiction
• Young adult
• Popular science

Natalie 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 

Rachel Flynn has written numerous picture books and novels for children, several of which have been published internationally. She also writes short fiction and poetry for adults. Her writing is based on observations of society and relationships, exploring themes of balance and imbalance between adults and children, men and women and different generations. She has a PhD in Creative Writing. 

Specialises in: 

• Picture books 
• Children’s novels 
• Short stories for adults 
• Poetry Research 

Ruth McIver is an award-winning crime writer born in Ireland, raised between Dublin, Perth and NYC. Her critically acclaimed literary crime thriller debut, I Shot the Devil, won the 2018 Richell Prize for emerging authors and an Affirm Press Mentorship Award. That same year, her first unpublished manuscript, Nothing Gold was runner up for the inaugural Banjo Awards and was included in Bloody Scotland’s Pitch Perfect. Ruth has worked as a reviewer, freelance journalist and completed a novel-in-verse as part of an Australian Poetry residency – The Sunset Club, which was highly commended in the Anne Elder category in 2014. She is also the author of Blackout (Audible Australia) and The Sound (2025) with Blackstone USA. She is represented by the boutique LA agency for bestselling international authors, The Story Factory. She has a PhD from Curtin University and works as a sessional academic, workshop facilitator and manuscript assessor. 

Specialises in: 

• Crime fiction 
• Memoir (non-fiction)  
• Horror 
• Literary fiction 
• Novel in verse 

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.

• 1. Memoir
• Body writing
• Essays/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 

Shivaun Plozza’s critically acclaimed debut novel Frankie was nominated to ALA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults List, highly commended at the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, shortlisted for the CBCA Book of the Year Awards, and won the Davitt Award for best YA crime novel. Her second novel, Tin Heart, was nominated to ALA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults List and received starred reviews from Kirkus and Publishers Weekly. Shivaun’s most recent YA novel, The Worst Perfect Moment, received three starred reviews and sold into multiple territories. Shivaun’s middle grade debut, The Boy, the Wolf, and the Stars, was a JLG selection. Her other middle grade novels include A Reluctant Witch’s Guide to Magic, Meet Me at the Moon Tree, which was shortlisted for the ABIA awards, and Summer of Shipwrecks, which was shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards. Running in Circles is her latest novel. Shivaun lives in Geelong with her cat, Fenchurch.

Specialises in: 

• Young adult fiction (all genres) 
• Middle grade fiction (all genres) 
• Crime
• Mystery