Learn About: 

• writer’s craft
• writing for the screen/television
• writing novels
• writing short stories
• writing historical fiction
• writing for YA
• self-publishing
• earning massive passive income (eg $30,000 per month!)
• wordsmithing
• performance poetry
• writing humorous fiction
• writing books that people want to read
• distributing your book
• marketing your book

…and much more!

Full Program | Write On Festival

About Our Authors

Felicity is a freelance screenwriter, script editor and producer. She is one of the creator-writers of the 2018 Netflix political/spy miniseries Pine Gap, which she also produced. Felicity is one of the creator-writers of the commercially and critically successful Underbelly true-crime drama franchise: Underbelly; Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities; Underbelly: The Golden Mile; Underbelly: Razor; Underbelly: Badness, and Underbelly: Squizzy, associate producing the last four. She was lead writer and co-producer on the ABC’s award winning ANZAC Girls, and adapted, wrote and associate produced Wolf Creek S1 for the SVOD Stan.

Felicity has won multiple awards for her screenwriting, including the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award (screenwriting) for episode 7 of Underbelly, Wise Monkeys. She also has won five Australian Writers’ Guild Awards for Underbelly, Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities, Underbelly: Badness and ANZAC Girls as well as being nominated on several other occasions. Over a career spanning more than two decades she has written hundreds of hours of television drama including for Janet King, MDA, GP, Blue Heelers and Home & Away.

Toni Jordan has worked as a molecular biologist, quality control chemist, TAB operator and door-to-door aluminium siding salesperson, and is the author of five novels. Her debut, the international best-seller Addition was longlisted for the Miles Franklin award and won the Indie Award for best first book. Fall Girl was published internationally and Nine Days was awarded Best Fiction at the 2012 Indie Awards and was named in Kirkus Review’s top 10 Historical Novels of 2013. Our Tiny, Useless Hearts (2016) was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. Toni has been published widely in newspapers and magazines. She holds a bachelor of science in physiology and a PhD in creative arts. Her most recent novel is The Fragments (2018). tonijordan.com

With a string of awards and accolades, including the Prime Minister’s Award for Children’s Literature and CBCA Book of the Year, Wendy Orr has written over 40 books and been published in 27 languages. Her books include Nim’s Island, the first Australian children’s book to become a Hollywood feature film, the much loved YA novel Peeling the Onion, as well as the more recent and highly acclaimed Dragonfly Song and Swallow’s Dance. Wendy believes that every child deserves to find the books that fuel their passion for stories, encourage empathy and connection, and empower them for the future. https://www.wendyorr.com

Nigel Featherstone is an Australian writer who has been published widely. His war novel, BODIES OF MEN, was published by Hachette Australia in 2019 and was shortlisted in the 2019 Queensland Literary Awards and received a 2019 Canberra Critics Circle Award. His other works include the story collection JOY (2000), his debut novel REMNANTS (2005), and THE BEACH VOLCANO (2014), which is the third in an award-winning series of novellas. He wrote the libretto for THE WEIGHT OF LIGHT, an adventurous and highly regarded contemporary song-cycle that had its world premiere in 2018. He has held residencies at Varuna (Blue Mountains), Bundanon (Shoalhaven River), and UNSW Canberra at the Australian Defence Force Academy. He is represented by Gaby Naher at Left Bank Literary, Sydney. opentopublic.com.au

A reformed lawyer, Sulari Gentill is the award-winning author of the Rowland Sinclair Mysteries, the
Hero Trilogy, and a number of standalone novels. She lives on a small farm in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains, where she grows French Black Truffles and writes about murder and mayhem. Sulari has won and been shortlisted in many awards including: the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, the Australian Book Industry Award, the Davitt Award, the Ned Kelly Award, and the Scarlett Stiletto Award. She was the inaugural Eminent Writer in Residence at the Australian Museum of Democracy. Most recently she won the 2018 Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Novel and was awarded a 2019 Create Grant by the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund. sularigentill.com

Ché (Scott) Baker is a writer and film-maker who has recently returned from middle earth, on ‘The Hobbit.’ Scott was a storyteller from a young age, making up elaborate reasons why he wasn’t able to tidy his room – shifting the blame onto his older brother.
  Scott grew up in the Blue-mountains learning martial arts, reading novels and watching movies. He teaches film and lives somewhere on the highway between Sydney and Canberra in a little red Hyundi Excel….
‘The Rule of Knowledge’ is Scott’s first novel. His second novel ‘Blue World Order’ is due out later this year. Ché has produced a film version of ‘Blue World Order ‘ with co-creator Dallas Bland.  ruleofknowledge.com · bwomovie.com · fullpointfilms.com

Gabrielle has shared her poetry at local, national and international events for over 20 years. Her first collection of poetry “Spoken Medicine” (2017) was published by Ginninderra Press. Gabrielle is inspired by creative communities which celebrate diversity, ativism and inclusion. She is completing her second poetry anthology this year with a focus on the courage to share personal truths and experiences through spoken word. poeticpercussion.com.au 

Paul was the Director of the ACT Writers Centre 2018/19, responsible for Centre and staff management, and stakeholder liaison. Paul is an award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker who loves to write stories about time travel and warped realities. He is currently the Co-Artistic Director of The Australian Voice Collective, and is also an assessor for the Stowe Story Labs in Vermont USA. His TV comedy pilot, Above the Angelic, won the Page International Screenwriting Awards. His first feature film, In Search of an Ending, is going into production this year. Paul is an avid advocator for writers and their craft, with admiration for the way people use words to invoke emotional responses.

J.M. Donellan is an author, podcaster, poet, and teacher. He was almost devoured by a tiger in the jungles of Malaysia, nearly died of a lung collapse in the Nepalese Himalayas and once fended off a pack of rabid dogs with a guitar in the mountains of India. He has performed at the Sydney Writers’ Festival, TEDxBrisbane, the Sydney Opera House, Brisbane Festival and some very prestigious basements. 

His writing spans a range of genres and formats in a manner that is either highly impressive or, in the words of his accountant, ‘irritatingly convoluted and frankly quite annoying.’ His recent works include the poetry collection Stendhal Syndrome, the Kirkus Prize-nominated novel Killing Adonis, the dance/spoken word collaboration Inter, and the podcast series Six Cold Feet. His children’s poetry collection 19½ Spells Disguised As Poems was released in January and is already being hailed as ‘the worst recipe book of all time.’ 

Matt Rogers is an author of page-turning action-thrillers from Melbourne. Over 700,000 copies of his books have been collectively read, borrowed, or sold on Amazon since beginning his career in 2016. He turned a lifelong hobby and passion into a career by utilising the new age of publishing, marketing his work independently without the advantage of a traditional publisher and building a considerable fanbase from scratch. His novels tap into the timeless appeal of vigilante justice, centralising on two larger-than-life heroes — Jason King and Will Slater. mattrogersbooks.com

Marion Halligan has published more than twenty books: some eleven novels, including Spider Cup, Lovers’ Knots, The Golden Dress, The Fog Garden, The Point, The Apricot Colonel, Murder on the Apricot Coast, Valley of Grace, and Goodbye Sweetheart, collections of short stories including The Hanged Man in the Garden and The Worry Box, and most recently Shooting the Fox; books of autobiography, travel and food, including Eat My Words, and a children’s book, The Midwife’s Daughters. The Taste of Memory: An Autobiography in Food and Gardens, was published in September 2004. She has been short-listed for most of the prizes on offer, and has won some. She has regularly reviewed books, and likes to write essays.  Currently she is writing small memoir pieces. She has received an AM for her services to literature. Valley of Grace, Allen & Unwin, March 2009 won the ACT Book of the Year and was long-listed for the IMPAC Prize. Her most recent novel is Goodbye Sweetheart, published in April 2015.

Susanne Gervay’s books address all ages from pre-school to young adults, and empower young people to engage in feminism and human rights. You’ll find Susanne at the Istanbul Literary Festival speaking to thousands of young adults about women’s rights when Turkey is facing terrorism and threats to democracy. You’ll find her in remote indigenous communities empowering women elders and children through her stories. Her powerful speech at the World Burn Conference in New York on her novel Butterflies addressed feminism and disability. In a juvenile detention centre, Susanne shared her books inspiring teenage girls who deserve a future.

She was awarded the Social Justice Literature Award for her body of works by the International Literacy Association. She has also been awarded an Order of Australia for youth literature, is a nominee for the Astrid Lindgren Award 2020 and a writer ambassador for Room to Read with its affirmative action for girls in developing countries. When the Museum of Australia asked Susanne to write a story for young people from 7 to 10 on the second rise of feminism, she wrote Daisy Sunshine. Her young adult novel Shadows of Olive Trees lays bare feminism. This makes Gervay the first writer to reinterpret the lived experience of young women in the seventies for an audience of young readers today. Susanne is a national and international speaker, ambassador for literacy and social justice organisations..

As a writer, publisher, editor, bookseller and teacher, Suzanne has over 20 years of experience in all facets of the publishing industry. Previously, as a book coach, she worked with talented Australian writers for nine years, teaching them how to self-publish and make a passive income online.

Since 2010, Suzanne’s passion project has been aussiewriters.com.au which is a not-for-profit organisation entirely focused on discovering, exposing and promoting talented Australian writers. Through her events, social media and publications she has exposed numerous talented writers who also pay it forward by exposing others. She believes, as Aussie writers we are all in this together!

In 2020 Suzanne has been appointed as a judge for Reedsy (UK) blog.reedsy.com/writing-contests and runs writing courses / workshops / literary events (including this one). Her greatest claim to fame is that she can recognise writing talent in others.

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