Will Kostakis
Hi. A teacher-librarian yelled at me to update this, so here goes. Time to talk about myself in the third-person.
Will Kostakis is an absolute delight.
In the past, he has written everything from celebrity news stories that score cease and desist letters, to tweets for professional wrestlers.
Nowadays, he’s best known (but not particularly well known) for his award-winning YA novels.
His first novel, Loathing Lola, was released when he was just nineteen. His second, The First Third, won the 2014 Gold Inky Award. It was also shortlisted for the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year and Australian Prime Minister’s Literary awards, among others. The Sidekicks was his third novel for young adults, and his American debut. It went on
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Kay Kerr
Kay Kerr is an autistic author and journalist from the Sunshine Coast, Queensland.
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PLEASE DON'T HUG ME is Kay's first book, and was shortlisted for the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) Book of the Year for Older Readers. It was also a Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) 2021 Notable Book for Older Readers.
Her second novel, SOCIAL QUEUE, is a YA romance with an autistic girl at the heart of it. It was shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards, and also a CBCA Notable Book for Older Readers.
Her narrative non-fiction book, LOVE & AUTISM, is out now. It is an exploration and celebration of autistic lives, as well as a return to her journalistic roots. -
Megan Williams
Megan Williams won the 2022 Text Prize for her debut YA novel Let’s Never Speak of This Again. She lives in Brisbane with her husband and their three children.
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Trinity Nguyen
Trinity Nguyen is a Vietnamese American author and graduate of Franklin & Marshall College. She was born in Viet Nam and raised in Little Saigon, California, and learned English by reading too many young adult novels and never turning off closed captioning. Her debut novel, A BANH MI FOR TWO, is a national independent bookstore bestseller and a 2024 Goodreads Choice Award Nominee. Trinity currently lives in Los Angeles with her cats and the succulents from her mom’s garden.
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You can find Trinity on social media as @thetrinitytran on Instagram and Twitter, except for TikTok @eggtarts (because she refuses to retire the username), and otherwise trinity-nguyen.com. -
Sonora Reyes
Born and raised in Arizona, Sonora Reyes writes fiction full of queer and Latine characters in a variety of genres, with current projects in both kidlit and adult categories.
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Outside of writing, Sonora loves breaking their body and vocal chords by playing with their baby niblings, and dancing/singing karaoke at the same time. -
Gary Lonesborough
Gary Lonesborough is a Yuin man, who grew up on the Far South Coast of NSW as part of a large and proud Aboriginal family. Growing up a massive Kylie Minogue and North Queensland Cowboys fan, Gary was always writing as a child, and continued his creative journey when he moved to Sydney to study at film school. Gary has experience working in Aboriginal health, the disability sector (including experience working in the Youth Justice System), and the film industry. He was Bega Valley Shire Council Young Citizen of the Year, won the Patrick White Young Indigenous Writers' Award, and has received a Copyright Agency First Nations Fellowship. The Boy from the Mish is Gary's debut YA novel.
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Tobias Madden
Tobias is an author and editor from Sydney, Australia. Originally from Ballarat, Tobias worked for ten years as a performer, touring Australia and New Zealand with musicals such as Mary Poppins, CATS, Singin' in the Rain, and Guys and Dolls. In 2019, he edited and published UNDERDOG, the first #LoveOzYA short story anthology for previously unpublished Aussie young adult fiction writers. Also in 2019, he wrote the cabaret show Siblingship, which played to sold out audiences in Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra. Tobias is a passionate member of the #LoveOzYA and LGBTQ+ communities, and currently works in publishing as a Digital Marketing Executive and YA Publicist.
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Nina Kenwood
Nina Kenwood is the author of The Wedding Forecast, Unnecessary Drama, and It Sounded Better In My Head.
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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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Natalie Naudus
“A fave among audiobook listeners” (Buzzfeed), Natalie Naudus is one of the most beloved audiobook narrators working today. She has won an Audie award and nine Earphones awards, and maintains a robust social media following. She lives with her family on a mountain in Virginia. Gay the Pray Away is her debut novel.
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Ann Liang
Ann Liang is the New York Times and Indie bestselling author of the critically acclaimed YA novels This Time It’s Real, If You Could See the Sun, and I Hope This Doesn't Find You. Her books have sold into over twenty foreign territories. Born in Beijing, she grew up traveling back and forth between China and Australia, but somehow ended up with an American accent. She now lives in Melbourne, where she can be found making overambitious to do lists and having profound conversations with her pet labradoodle about who’s a good dog.
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Holden Sheppard
Holden Sheppard is an award-winning Australian novelist once described as "the lovechild of Rambo and Rimbaud". A country boy, a weightlifter and a self-proclaimed “bromosexual”, Holden has won acclaim for the raw, blokey honesty of his emotional novels about the modern experiences of Aussie men.
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Holden's bestselling debut Invisible Boys (Fremantle Press, 2019) - a confessional novel about young gay men growing up in rural Australia - picked up major accolades including the WA Premier's Prize, the Kathleen Mitchell Award and the Hungerford Award. In 2025, Invisible Boys was adapted as a critically acclaimed ten-episode television series for Stan Australia, which was the #1 most watched series on that platform nationally upon release.
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Kay Kerr
Kay Kerr is an autistic author and journalist from the Sunshine Coast, Queensland.
Buy books on Amazon
PLEASE DON'T HUG ME is Kay's first book, and was shortlisted for the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) Book of the Year for Older Readers. It was also a Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) 2021 Notable Book for Older Readers.
Her second novel, SOCIAL QUEUE, is a YA romance with an autistic girl at the heart of it. It was shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards, and also a CBCA Notable Book for Older Readers.
Her narrative non-fiction book, LOVE & AUTISM, is out now. It is an exploration and celebration of autistic lives, as well as a return to her journalistic roots. -
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Ellie Marney
Ellie Marney is a multi-award-winning, bestselling author of thrillers for teens and adults. Her titles include the New York Times bestseller None Shall Sleep, the Kirkus-starred sequel, Some Shall Break, and the electrifying finale All Shall Mourn. Ellie's other titles include ARA Historical Novel Prize-nominated The Killing Code and Australian library favorite Every Breath. Her debut adult thriller No One Is Safe is arriving 10th February 2026.
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Ellie has spent a lifetime researching in mortuaries, talking to autopsy specialists, and asking former spies how to make explosives from household items - now she lives quite sedately in south-eastern Australia with her family. Find sign-ups for her newsletter, The Black Hand, at her website, an -
Erin Gough
Erin Gough is a fiction writer whose short stories have been published in a number of journals and anthologies, including Best Australian Stories, The Age, Overland, Southerly and Going Down Swinging. Her work has been broadcast on radio. She has also worked as a freelance writer and columnist. Awards Erin has received for her short fiction include first place in the Banjo Patterson National Short Story Competition, the Wimmera Literary Competition, the University of British Columbia “Ubyssey” Literary Competition and the FAW Frank Page Award for Short Story Writing. She is a past recipient of the Varuna Eleanor Dark Flagship Fellowship for Fiction, an Australian Society of Authors Mentorship, a Bundanon residency and an Australia Council E
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Ali Novak
Ali Novak is a Wisconsin native and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s creative writing program. She started writing her debut novel My Life with the Walter Boys when she was only fifteen. Her work has received more than 150 million reads online.
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When she isn’t writing, Ali enjoys Netflix marathons, traveling with her husband Jared, and reading any type of fantasy novel she can get her hands on. You can follow her on Wattpad, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat @fallzswimmer.
Please note that I don't answer messages on Goodreads. Please feel free to contact me on Twitter or Instagram. -
Shannon Messenger
Hi! I'm the NYT and USA today bestselling author of the KEEPER OF THE LOST CITIES series and the SKY FALL series! And yes, I DO accept friend requests here--BUT! Please note: I *never* check my private messages here, so if you send me one, you won't get a reply. My real contact information is on my website: shannonmessenger.com
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Ransom Riggs
Hi, I'm Ransom, and I like to tell stories. Sometimes I tell them with words, sometimes with pictures, often with both. I grew up on a farm on the Eastern shore of Maryland and also in a little house by the beach in Englewood, Florida where I got very tan and swam every day until I became half fish. I started writing stories when I was young, on an old typewriter that jammed and longhand on legal pads. When I was a little older I got a camera for Christmas and became obsessed with photography, and when I was a little older still my friends and I came into possession of a half-broken video camera and began to make our own movies, starring ourselves, using our bedrooms and backyards for sets. I have loved writing stories and taking photograph
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Ambelin Kwaymullina
Ambelin Kwaymullina belongs to the Palyku people of the eastern Pilbara region of Western Australia. She is a writer, illustrator and law academic who works across a range of genres including YA, science fiction, verse and non-fiction.
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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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Alice Pung
Alice was born in Footscray, Victoria, a month after her parents Kuan and Kien arrived in Australia. Alice’s father, Kuan - a survivor of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime - named her after Lewis Carroll’s character because after surviving the Killing Fields, he thought Australia was a Wonderland. Alice is the oldest of four - she has a brother, Alexander, and two sisters, Alison and Alina.
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Alice grew up in Footscray and Braybrook, and changed high schools five times - almost once every year! These experiences have shaped her as a writer because they taught her how to pay attention to the quiet young adults that others might overlook or miss.
Alice Pung’s first book, Unpolished Gem, is an Australian bestseller which won the Australian Book Indus -
Patrick Ness
Patrick Ness, an award-winning novelist, has written for Radio 4 and The Sunday Telegraph and is a literary critic for The Guardian. He has written many books, including the Chaos Walking Trilogy, The Crash of Hennington, Topics About Which I Know Nothing, and A Monster Calls.
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He has won numerous awards, including the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize, the Booktrust Teenage Prize, and the Costa Children’s Book Award. Born in Virginia, he currently lives in London. -
Helena Fox
Helena Fox lives in Wollongong, Australia, where she runs creative writing workshops for young people. She’s a graduate of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College in North Carolina.
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She has travelled widely, living in Peru, Spain, the U.K, Samoa, and the US. Of all her adventures, Helena is proudest of the work she has done helping young people find and express their voice.
How It Feels To Float is her debut novel. -
Megan Williams
Megan Williams won the 2022 Text Prize for her debut YA novel Let’s Never Speak of This Again. She lives in Brisbane with her husband and their three children.
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Gary Lonesborough
Gary Lonesborough is a Yuin man, who grew up on the Far South Coast of NSW as part of a large and proud Aboriginal family. Growing up a massive Kylie Minogue and North Queensland Cowboys fan, Gary was always writing as a child, and continued his creative journey when he moved to Sydney to study at film school. Gary has experience working in Aboriginal health, the disability sector (including experience working in the Youth Justice System), and the film industry. He was Bega Valley Shire Council Young Citizen of the Year, won the Patrick White Young Indigenous Writers' Award, and has received a Copyright Agency First Nations Fellowship. The Boy from the Mish is Gary's debut YA novel.
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Kristin Cashore
Kristin Cashore grew up in the northeast Pennsylvania countryside as the second of four daughters. She received a bachelor's degree from Williams College and a master's from the Center for the Study of Children's Literature at Simmons College. She currently lives in the Boston area.
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Rafeif Ismail
Rafeif Ismail is an award-winning emerging multilingual writer based in Boorloo, WA (colonially known as Perth).
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Rafeif’s work explores the themes of home, belonging the so-called 'Australian' identity in the 21st century through the lens of a refugee and third culture youth of the Sudanese diaspora. Rafeif’s work has been published in anthologies and literary magazines across Australia and internationally, with a debut novel forthcoming.
Deeply committed to creating diverse works and spaces, Rafeif is the current managing director of Djed Press and a participant in the 2020 AFTRS Talent Camp.
Rafeif learned English by reading comic books and relearned her first language (Sudanese Arabic) through reading poetry. Rafeif saw Black Panther abo -
Leanne Yong
Leanne Yong is an Asian-Australian author of Singaporean and Malaysian heritage who loves writing the diaspora experience into contemporary and fantasy YA fiction. She started her career as an IT business analyst (boring) and is now an escape room creator (much more interesting). She has designed internationally recognised games with her partner that weave unique puzzle mechanics with narrative. She currently resides in Sydney for work, but Brisbane is where her home, family and heart (i.e. her cat) are. TWO CAN PLAY THAT GAME is her debut novel.
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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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Jay Carmichael
Jay Carmichael is the author of Ironbark, which was shortlisted for the 2019 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for fiction.
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A.J. Betts
I'm a Perth-based writer who writes realistic fiction for teenagers (14+) but adults enjoy them too. I'm also an English teacher, poet, writer of non-fiction texts, presenter and reader.
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Graham Akhurst
Graham Akhurst is an Aboriginal writer and academic hailing from the Kokomini of Northern Queensland. He is currently a Lecturer of Indigenous Australian Studies and Creative Writing at The University of Technology Sydney. His debut YA novel Borderland will be publishing in Australia with The University of Western Australia Press in 2023. He is a contributing editor at Kweli Journal, New York City. Graham was named the first Indigenous recipient of the Fulbright W.G Walker award as the highest-ranked postgraduate Australian applicant. His Fulbright funded the completion of an MFA in Fiction from Hunter College (CUNY). Graham also completed an MPhil and a first-class honours degree both in Creative Writing from The University of Queensland.
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