Margot McGovern
Margot McGovern lives in Adelaide and has a creative writing PhD from Flinders University. Her debut novel, Neverland, was shortlisted for the Text Prize and the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature.
Her second novel, This Stays Between Us, will be published in March 2025.
Margot's short horror fiction has appeared in issues of The Dark and the Aurealis-Award-shortlisted anthology Hometown Haunts: #LoveOzYA Horror Tales.
You can find Margot on Instagram: @margot.mcgovern
If you like author Margot McGovern here is the list of authors you may also like
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Jenny Downham
Jenny Downham (born 1964) is a British novelist and an ex-actor. In her first book, Before I Die, the fictional account of the last few months of a sixteen-year-old girl who has been dying of leukemia for 4 years. The book is told in the first person. The book was acclaimed and was short-listed for the 2007 Guardian Award and the 2008 Lancashire Children's Book of the Year, nominated for the 2008 Carnegie Medal and the 2008 Booktrust Teenage Prize, and won the 2008 Branford Boase Award.
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Emma Lord
Emma Lord is an award-winning Australian author with a love of all things sci-fi, fantasy and horror. She’s a sucker for a fictional apocalypse, but can’t shake a nagging suspicion she’d be among the first to die if a real one hit. Anomaly is her debut novel and incorporates everything she loves in a story: an apocalyptic setting, creepy monsters, and a young woman more powerful than she appears.
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Aaron Fa'Aoso
Aaron Fa’Aoso is a Torres Strait Islander film producer, director, screenwriter and actor. He is known for his roles in RAN: Remote Area Nurse, East West 101, The Straits, Black Comedy, and as the presenter of Strait to the Plate and Going Places with Ernie Dingo.
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Aaron is the executive director of his own film and television production company, Lone Star, which created the documentary series Blue Water Empire, about the history of the Torres Strait Islands.
Aaron is a board member of Screen Queensland and belongs to several government and not-for-profit advisory committees. He holds a Masters Degree of Film Business from the Australian Film, Television and Radio School.
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Carl Merrison
Carl is a Jaru/Kija man from Halls Creek in the Kimberleys in Western Australia. Carl loves spending time out bush with his family; fishing, hunting and swimming in waterholes. He loves AFL- he is a Level 3 coach! Carl was awarded State Finalist of the Australian of the Year Award- Local Hero for Western Australia in 2016 for his work as lifeguard, football coach, Clontarf worker and youth mentor. Carl was the 2020 Black&Write Fellowship recipient for his series of picture books: Backyard Sports. He was a shortlisted author for the Western Australian Writing Fellowship.
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Barry Jonsberg
Barry Jonsberg is an Australian author and teacher originally from Liverpool, England. He holds degrees in English and Psychology from Liverpool University and moved to Australia in 1999. His debut novel, The Whole Business with Kiffo and the Pitbull, earned acclaim in 2005, and his follow-up, It’s Not All About YOU, Calma, won the 2006 South Australian Festival Award for Children’s Literature. Jonsberg has continued to receive numerous honors, including awards and shortlistings for Dreamrider, My Life as an Alphabet, A Little Spark, and Smoke & Mirrors, affirming his place in contemporary young adult literature.
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Sara Foster
Sara Foster is a critically acclaimed, bestselling fiction author with a passion for psychological suspense and a keen interest in exploring zeitgeist issues and strong female characters in her nail-biting novels. Her latest, When She Was Gone (2025), begins when an au pair and two small children vanish from a remote Australian beach, and is a race-against-time thriller, exploring themes around misogyny, wealth, power and control.
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Sara is also the author of dystopian thriller The Hush and seven more bestselling novels. Two of her books have been optioned for television, and You Don’t Know Me was adapted into a chart-topping podcast series by Listnr. Sara has a PhD in creative writing (studying maternal representations in fiction) and lives i -
Jane Caro
Jane Caro wears many hats; including author, lecturer, mentor, social commentator, columnist, workshop facilitator, speaker, broadcaster and award-winning advertising writer. Jane runs her own communications consultancy and lectures in Advertising Creative at The School of Communication Arts at UWS. She has published three books: The Stupid Country: How Australia is dismantling public education co-authored with Chris Bonnor (2007), The F Word. How we learned to swear by feminism co-authored with Catherine Fox (2008), and Just a Girl (UQP, 2011). She has also appeared on Channel 7’s Sunrise, ABC’s Q&A and ABC’s The Gruen Transfer.
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Lili Wilkinson
Lili Wilkinson is the award-winning author of eighteen books for young people, including The Erasure Initiative and After the Lights Go Out. Lili has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and is a passionate advocate for YA and the young people who read it, establishing the Inky Awards at the Centre for Youth Literature, State Library of Victoria. Her latest book is A Hunger of Thorns.
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Jack Heath
Jack Heath wrote his debut novel, The Lab, in secondary school and sent it to a publisher at age seventeen. He's now the award-winning author of forty novels for adults and children, including the international bestsellers Hangman, The Wife Swap and 300 Minutes of Danger. His books have been translated into ten languages, optioned for TV and adapted for film. He lives on Ngunnawal/Ngambri country in Canberra, Australia, with his wife, their children, several chickens, a few fish and a possum named Oreo.
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Cynthia Murphy
Cynthia is a YA writer from the North-West of England. She has always enjoyed writing and when her English teacher accused her of plagiarism in Year 8, she thought she might actually be quite good at it.
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She has a long-standing love affair with all things scary, reading Point Horrors at primary school before graduating to Stephen King in her misguided teens. Classic 90s and 00s horror movies are definitely her pub quiz strong point and her first love may well have been Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Studying for a degree in Art History and Archaeology meant that she developed a thirst for anything old, beautiful and very often dead. She tries to combine this with contemporary settings in her writing to make unique and chilling modern stories.
Cynt -
Jill Baguchinsky
Jill Baguchinsky grew up fluent in darkness and Disney. She spent much of her life on a barrier island just off the coast of Southwest Florida, where she read way too much Stephen King and dodged more hurricanes than she could count.
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Jill still lives in Florida, but after one hurricane too many, she and her mini menagerie of rescue animals moved inland. Aside from the manatees she used to watch in her backyard canal, she doesn’t miss much about island life. -
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Amie Kaufman
Amie Kaufman is a New York Times and internationally bestselling author of young adult fiction. Her multi-award winning work is slated for publication in over 30 countries, and is in development for film and TV. Raised in Australia and occasionally Ireland, Amie has degrees in history, literature, law and conflict resolution. She lives in Melbourne with her husband and daughter, their rescue dog, and an extremely large personal library. She is the host of the podcasts Amie Kaufman on Writing, and Pub Dates.
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You can sign up for her newsletter to see what she's working on, hear when she releases a new book, and be automatically entered for giveaways: https://amiekaufman.substack.com/ -
Marieke Nijkamp
Marieke Nijkamp a storyteller, dreamer, globe-trotter, geek.
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Please note I don't respond to friend requests or messages on GR, but you're always welcome to tweet or email me. :) -
Natasha Preston
#1 New York Times Bestselling Author of The Cellar and The Cabin. Romance and YA Thriller writer, boy mum, Tom Hardy enthusiast. Always buried in a book and a glass of wine.
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Amazon - https://goo.gl/VsxKPk
Facebook - https://goo.gl/vAAGsB
Twitter - https://goo.gl/JGrC4b
Instagram – https://goo.gl/kvk7DD -
Mark Smith
Mark Smith lives on the west coast of Victoria, Australia, He is the author of four novels: The Road To Winter, Wilder Country, Land of Fences and If Not Us (all Text Publishing). Wilder Country won the 2018 Australian Indie Book Award for YA. Mark is also an award winning writer of short fiction. He is the co-curator of Mind Went Walking, The Songs of Paul Kelly Reimagined and Into Your Arms, The Songs of Nick Cave Reimagined (both Fremantle Press). HIs first adult novel will be published by Pan Macmillan in January 2025
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Lynette Noni
Australian author Lynette Noni studied journalism, academic writing, and human behaviour at university before venturing into the world of fiction. She is the #1 bestselling and award-winning author of THE PRISON HEALER series, THE MEDORAN CHRONICLES, and the WHISPER duology. To date, her books have sold more than one million copies in over 20 countries across the globe.
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Ashley Kalagian Blunt
Ashley Kalagian Blunt is an author, speaker and podcaster. Her number one bestselling psychological thriller, Dark Mode, was published in Australia/NZ, the UK, South Korea and Germany. It was shortlisted for the 2024 ABIA General Fiction Book of the Year, the Ned Kelly Awards and the Danger Awards.
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Her latest thrillers are Cold Truth and Like, Follow, Die.
She has two earlier books, How to Be Australian, a memoir, and My Name Is Revenge, a thriller novella and collected essays. Her writing appears widely across Australian and international publications.
Ashley is a frequent speaker and panel moderator, and co-hosts James and Ashley Stay at Home, a podcast about writing, creativity and health. She has taught creative writing across Austr -
Jodi McAlister
By day, Jodi McAlister writes romance novels. By other time of day, Dr Jodi McAlister studies them. She's written romantic comedies for adults, romantasy and contemporary romance for young adults, and several academic books.
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For adults
If you're a reality TV lover, the Marry Me, Juliet series are the books for you. Even if you're not a reality TV lover, they might be the books for you - several reality TV haters have enjoyed them.
The trilogy all take place at the same time on the same season of a reality dating show called Marry Me, Juliet (which bears a very strong resemblance to The Bachelor). While they all stand alone and can be read in any order, they work best when read in order.
Start with Here For The Right Reasons (he's the series le -
Trent Dalton
Trent Dalton writes for the award-winning The Weekend Australian Magazine. A former assistant editor of The Courier-Mail, he has won a Walkley, been a four-time winner of the national News Awards Feature Journalist of the Year Award, and was named Queensland Journalist of the Year at the 2011 Clarion Awards for excellence in Queensland media. His writing includes several short and feature-length film screenplays. His latest feature film screenplay, Home, is a love story inspired by his non-fiction collection Detours: Stories from the Street (2011), the culmination of three months immersed in Brisbane's homeless community, the proceeds of which went back to the 20 people featured within its pages. His journalism has twice been nominated for
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Carl Merrison
Carl is a Jaru/Kija man from Halls Creek in the Kimberleys in Western Australia. Carl loves spending time out bush with his family; fishing, hunting and swimming in waterholes. He loves AFL- he is a Level 3 coach! Carl was awarded State Finalist of the Australian of the Year Award- Local Hero for Western Australia in 2016 for his work as lifeguard, football coach, Clontarf worker and youth mentor. Carl was the 2020 Black&Write Fellowship recipient for his series of picture books: Backyard Sports. He was a shortlisted author for the Western Australian Writing Fellowship.
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Chelsea Ichaso
Chelsea Ichaso writes twisty thrillers for young adults and is also the author of the adult thriller, So I Lied. Her novel, The Summer She Went Missing, earned a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly, a spot on Barnes & Noble’s Best of 2024 list, and was a 2025 TAYSHAS reading list selection. Her latest release, We Were Warned, is a Junior Library Guild Selection and has been featured on Marie Claire’s list of the 18 Most Anticipated Mystery Thrillers of 2025 as well as Goodreads Guide to 2025’s Biggest Mysteries & Thrillers. Chelsea currently resides in Southern California with her husband and children. When she’s not writing, she can be found cheering from the sidelines at her kids' soccer games or attempting to strum a tune on the guita
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Lyndall Clipstone
Lyndall Clipstone writes dark tales of flower-threaded horror. She currently lives in Adelaide, Australia, in a hundred-year-old cottage with her partner, two children, and a shy black cat.
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Scarlett Dunmore
Scarlett studied English and Creative Writing, eventually finding a love for YA literature. When she’s not writing, she can often be found watching scary films or exploring abandoned abbeys, old cemeteries and ruined castles in Scotland for inspiration.
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Emma Lord
Emma Lord is an award-winning Australian author with a love of all things sci-fi, fantasy and horror. She’s a sucker for a fictional apocalypse, but can’t shake a nagging suspicion she’d be among the first to die if a real one hit. Anomaly is her debut novel and incorporates everything she loves in a story: an apocalyptic setting, creepy monsters, and a young woman more powerful than she appears.
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Alina Bellchambers
Alina Bellchambers grew up in her family’s bookstore and spent her childhood immersed in fantastical worlds. She writes epic romantic fantasies featuring fierce female protagonists, morally grey characters, magic and seductive court politics.
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She has a psychology degree from Flinders University and a background in acting, modelling and public speaking. Alina writes on a forty-acre hobby farm in the picturesque Adelaide Hills of South Australia.
When not typing in her study, Alina enjoys hiking with her feisty dog Scamp, scuba diving and socialising with friends and family in her local community and abroad.
Alina loves connecting with readers and is most active on Instagram @alinabellwrites. -
Emma Clancey
Emma Clancey is a fantasy writer and medical student living in Sydney. In 2024, she was awarded the Ray Koppe/Australian Society of Authors Young Writers Fellowship. Emma's debut novel, This Dream Will Devour Us, is a YA fantasy thriller that blends her passions for magic and medicine. When not writing or horrifying her friends with unsolicited medical facts, she's likely jabbering about her latest reads on Instagram @emma.clancey.
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Karys McEwen
Karys McEwen is the current president of the Victorian branch of the Children’s Book Council of Australia. She is also a school librarian, and she is passionate about the role libraries and literature play in the wellbeing of young people. She has been a columnist for Books+Publishing and her work has appeared in library journals such
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as Synergy, Incite and Connections. All the Little Tricky Things is her debut middle-grade novel. -
Mette Jakobsen
Originally from Denmark, Mette Jakobsen now resides in Sydney. She is an adventurer, author and playwright.
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Mette has a PhD in Creative Writing and has graduated from NIDA’s Playwright
Studio. Her novels have been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize, topped
the Indie Book List, and mentioned on Oprah’s Booklist.
Mette has taught creative writing at universities and several of her plays have been
broadcast on ABC Radio National.
The Tower Series is her first YA title. -
Aviva
AViVA, is an Australian author and musician, who describes herself as a multidisciplinary artist. With international success, AViVA has garnered over 3 billion global streams on her music to date and has created a groundswell online, building a strong community of fans - her 'Outsiders'.
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Having always been a lover of stories and made-up worlds, she has fed her passion for self-expression with a healthy lifestyle of creativity and writing.
When not writing music or touring the world, AViVA can be found in her home library either nose deep in a good book, fingers busy writing at the keyboard or otherwise occupied in her art studio, sewing or making something else she's dreamt up.
Since breaking into the music world in 2017, she has explored the