Melanie Saward
Melanie Saward is a proud descendant of the Bigambul and Wakka Wakka peoples. She is a writer, editor, and university lecturer based in Tulmur (Ipswich), Queensland. She is the managing editor of Djed Press, and her writing has been published in Flock, Overland, Kill Your Darlings, New Australian Fiction 2022 and 2019. Her debut novel Burn will be published by Affirm Press in September 2023.
If you like author Melanie Saward here is the list of authors you may also like
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Rohan Wilson
Rohan Wilson lived a long, mostly lonely, life until a lucky turn of events led him to take up a teaching position in Japan where he met his wife. They have a son who loves books, as all children should. They live in Launceston but don't know why.
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Rohan holds degrees and diplomas from the universities of Tasmania, Southern Queensland and Melbourne. The Roving Party is his first book. He can be found on Twitter: @rohan_wilson. -
Holly Brunnbauer
Holly Brunnbauer is a multi-award-winning emerging fiction author with numerous accolades in writing competitions across Australia, New Zealand and the U.S.
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Holly writes stories filled with heart, humour and hijinks. Her signature style includes a strong commercial voice, quirky cast and putting the 'com' in rom-com.
She first caught the writing bug via blogging and later transitioned into copywriting. Holly's now a sought-after virtual assistant for published and aspiring authors.
Based in rural Victoria, she spends her time with her husband, two rambunctious boys and a cheeky pug, planning and building their off-grid country home. The outdoors is her happy place. -
Angie Faye Martin
Angie Faye Martin is a writer and editor of Kooma, Kamilaroi and European heritage. With a Bachelor of Public Health from the Queensland University of Technology and a Masters of Anthropology from the Australian National University, Angie spent many years working in policy roles in state and federal government before launching Versed Writings in 2019. Her work has been published in Meanjin, Garland, The Saltbush Review and The Rocks Remain. She is a member of the First Nations Australia Writers Network and accredited with the Institute of Professional Editors. Melaleuca is her debut novel.
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Thomas Mayo
Thomas Mayo is a Kaurareg Aboriginal and Kalkalgal, Erubamle Torres Strait Islander man. He is the Assistant National Secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia. Thomas is a signatory of the Uluru Statement from the Heart and has been a leading advocate since its inception in May 2017. He is the Chairperson of the Northern Territory Indigenous Labor Network and a director on the Australians for Indigenous Constitutional Recognition board. Thomas is the author of six books, including the bestselling The Voice to Parliament Handbook: All The Details You Need with eminent journalist Kerry O’Brien (Hardie Grant, 2023).
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Jenna Lo Bianco
Jenna Lo Bianco is a writer, educator, PhD Candidate, and advocate for Italian language education in Australia.
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With nearly 60 publications to her name, Jenna is trusted nationally and internationally to write about all things ‘Italian’. She is a Fellow of the International Specialised Skills Institute and Italian Australian Foundation, regular contributor to Segmento Magazine, and has written and consulted in educational publishing for more than a decade.
A romantic at heart, Jenna writes contemporary romances set in Italy that read like a fictional slice of ‘la dolce vita’, but are steeped in candour and truths – both the convenient and inconvenient – drawing upon her personal life experiences in Italy, and her intimate knowledge of the Ita -
Karina May
Sydney-based, Karina May, is a former magazine journalist turned digital marketer, avid romance reader and writer of lively love stories that span the
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globe.
When she’s not dreaming up her next shirtless love interest, you’ll likely find her rescuing her kindle from the bath, or out guzzling espresso martinis in the
name of research (someone’s gotta do it!) -
Sara M. Saleh
Sara M Saleh is an award winning writer and poet of Palestinian, Egyptian, and Lebanese heritage, who has shared her work on stages from Brooklyn to Bangalore. Her work has been published in English and Arabic across dozens of literary platforms including Haymarket anthologies and the Guardian, and explores the experiences of Arab-Muslim women navigating faith, family, and cultural expectations amid dispossession and displacement.
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Sara’s debut novel Songs For The Dead And The Living (Affirm Press, 2023) was shortlisted for the US Khairallah Prize for Literature and the Multicultural NSW Award at the NSW Premier's Literary Award, and co-won the Australian Society of Author’s Barbara Jefferis Award 2024.
She made history as the first poet to wi -
Nina Kenwood
Nina Kenwood is the author of The Wedding Forecast, Unnecessary Drama, and It Sounded Better In My Head.
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Christian White
Christian White is an Australian author and screenwriter. His debut novel, The Nowhere Child, won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript. He co-created the television series Carnivores, currently in development with Matchbox Pictures and Heyday TV, and co-wrote Relic, a psychological horror feature film to be produced by Carver Films (The Snowtown Murders, Partisan).
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Born and raised on the Mornington Peninsula, Christian had an eclectic range of ‘day jobs’ before he was able to write full-time, including food-cart driver on a golf course and video editor for an adult film company. He now spends his days writing from his home in Melbourne where he lives with his wife, the filmmaker Summer DeRoche, and their adopt -
Louise Milligan
Louise Milligan is a multi-award-winning investigative journalist for ABC TV's Four Corners, the Australian national broadcaster's flagship current affairs documentary program. She is the author of two bestselling non-fiction books: Cardinal, The Rise and Fall of George Pell and Witness, An Investigation into the Brutal Cost of Seeking Justice. Her books have been awarded multiple prizes, including the Walkley Book Award, the Davitt Awards Best Non-Fiction Crime Book, the Melbourne Prize for Literature People's Choice Award, the Victorian Premier's Literary Award's People's Choice prize, the Sir Owen Dixon Chambers Law Reporter of the Year Award, a Press Freedom Medal and a shortlisting for the Stella Prize. Louise's journalism, particularl
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Shankari Chandran
Shankari Chandran uses literary fiction to explore injustice, dispossession and the creation of community.
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Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens is her third novel, published by Ultimo Press in 2022 and short-listed for the Miles Franklin Literary Award 2023. Her first novel, Song of the Sun God, was also re-published by Ultimo Press in 2022.
Before turning to fiction, Shankari worked in the social justice field for a decade in London where she was responsible for projects in over 30 countries ranging from ensuring representation for detainees in Guantanamo Bay to advising UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Her work helped her understand the role and limitations of international humanitarian law in conflicts. It also showed her what happens to society -
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 -
Robbie Arnott
Robbie Arnott was born in Launceston in 1989. His writing has appeared in Island, the Lifted Brow, Kill Your Darlings and the 2017 anthology Seven Stories. He won the 2015 Tasmanian Young Writers’ Fellowship and the 2014 Scribe Nonfiction Prize for Young Writers. Robbie lives in Hobart and is an advertising copywriter.
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Amy Hutton
Amy is an award-winning author and former TV producer who spends her days writing swoony love stories.
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Her debut rom-com Sit, Stay, Love was chosen as one of Kobo’s best romances of 2023, and her follow up Love from Scratch was an Editor’s Pick in the 2024 Spotify Wrap.
She is a Romance Writers of America prize winner and the recipient of several other honours from national and international writing organisations.
Amy is in a longterm relationship with Disneyland. She loves to travel, adores anything Star Wars, and has a fierce and unwavering commitment to Hallmark Christmas movies.
When not busy toying with her character’s emotions, she’s probably hanging with her rescue dog Buffy, or lost in the pages of her latest favourite romance read.
GHOS -
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Jo Dixon
Jo writes stories full of imperfect characters dealing with unsettling situations, and making fatal mistakes. There is intrigue and mystery, the moodiness and underlying threat of the wild environment, and provocative twists and turns.
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Jo lives in rural Tasmania, where she wrangles an ever-growing collection of animals, and is attempting to transform blackberry-infested paddocks into beautiful gardens. She's learned to be somewhat useful at lambing (thank you YouTube), to plant trees, and to grow raspberries and rhubarb. She can also (sometimes) recall the botanical names of perennials and know which ones the wallabies will devour and which ones they ignore. -
Jane Harrison
Jane Harrison is descended from the Muruwari people and is an award-winning playwright, author and Festival director. Jane directed the Blak & Bright First Nations Literary Festival in 2016 and 2019.
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Her first play Stolen played across Australia and internationally for seven years. Rainbow’s End was produced in 2005, 2009, 2011 and 2019 and won the 2012 Drover Award. Her novel Becoming Kirrali Lewis won the 2014 Black & Write! Prize, and was shortlisted for the Prime Minster’s Literary Awards and the Victorian Premier’s Awards.
Her latest play The Visitors premiered at Sydney Festival in 2020 and will be adapted into a novel, to be released by Harper Collins in 2023.
Jane believes in the power of stories in strengthening cultural connection. -
Melissa Lucashenko
Melissa Lucashenko is an Australian writer of European and Goorie heritage. She received an honours degree in public policy from Griffith University in 1990. In 1997, she published her first novel Steam Pigs. It won the Dobbie Literary Award for Australian women’s fiction and was shortlisted for both the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Award and the regional Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Steam Pigs was followed by the Aurora Prize–winning Killing Darcy, a novel for teenagers, and Hard Yards, which was shortlisted for the 2001 Courier-Mail Book of the Year and the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Award. Too Flash, a teenage novel about class and friendship, was released in 2002. Her latest novel is Mullumbimby published by UQP. Melissa l
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Anita Heiss
Professor Anita Heiss – bio
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Anita is a proud member of the Wiradjuri nation of central New South Wales, and is one of Australia’s most prolific and well-known authors, publishing across genres, including non-fiction, historical fiction, commercial fiction and children’s novels.
Her adult fiction includes Not Meeting Mr Right, Avoiding Mr Right, Manhattan Dreaming, Paris Dreaming and Tiddas. Her most recent books include Barbed Wire and Cherry Blossoms which was longlisted for the Dublin International Literary Prize and was named the University of Canberra’s 2020 Book of the Year.
The anthology Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia which Anita edited, was named the Small Publisher Adult Book of the Year at the 2019 Australian Book Industry Awards -
Tony Birch
Tony Birch is the author of Ghost River, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing and Blood, which was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. He is also the author of Shadowboxing and three short story collections, Father’s Day, The Promise and Common People. In 2017 he was awarded the Patrick White Literary Award. Tony is a frequent contributor to ABC local and national radio and a regular guest at writers’ festivals. He lives in Melbourne and is a Senior Research Fellow at Victoria University.
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Tim Winton
Tim Winton was born in Perth, Western Australia, but moved at a young age to the small country town of Albany.
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While a student at Curtin University of Technology, Winton wrote his first novel, An Open Swimmer. It went on to win The Australian/Vogel Literary Award in 1981, and launched his writing career. In fact, he wrote "the best part of three books while at university". His second book, Shallows, won the Miles Franklin Award in 1984. It wasn't until Cloudstreet was published in 1991, however, that his career and economic future were cemented.
In 1995 Winton’s novel, The Riders, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, as was his 2002 book, Dirt Music. Both are currently being adapted for film. He has won many other prizes, including the Miles -
Jenna Lo Bianco
Jenna Lo Bianco is a writer, educator, PhD Candidate, and advocate for Italian language education in Australia.
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With nearly 60 publications to her name, Jenna is trusted nationally and internationally to write about all things ‘Italian’. She is a Fellow of the International Specialised Skills Institute and Italian Australian Foundation, regular contributor to Segmento Magazine, and has written and consulted in educational publishing for more than a decade.
A romantic at heart, Jenna writes contemporary romances set in Italy that read like a fictional slice of ‘la dolce vita’, but are steeped in candour and truths – both the convenient and inconvenient – drawing upon her personal life experiences in Italy, and her intimate knowledge of the Ita -
Chris Sarra
Born in Queensland’s Bundaberg in 1967 as the youngest of 10 children to an Italian father and an Aboriginal mother, Chris Sarra is now the head of the Stronger Smarter Institute at QUT. He was formerly the principal of Cherbourg State School. He has had an extensive career in education, completing a Diploma of Teaching, a Bachelor of Education, a Master of Education and a PhD in Psychology.
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Diane Clarke
The Bracelet is Diane’s second novel. Her debut, The Photograph, was published by Wings ePress Inc. in 2024. Her other writing credits include flash fiction and short stories published in several anthologies including the Sydney Hammond Memorial Short Story Competition – 2nd place (2019) and longlisted (2020).
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Though happily settled in Brisbane, Australia, since 1996, much of her inspiration comes from the UK. Using stunning locations as the backdrop, her novels feature restless women craving truth, identity and love. She propels her female protagonists into complex family predicaments where they must deal with the agony of missing siblings, absent fathers or ethical dilemmas.
When not writing she takes long walks in the Australian bush, upcy