The Brisbane Writers Workshop showcases professionals who support writers in literary, corporate & government settings. Our experts seek to:

• Enhance our writing community
• Connect writers with editors, resources & submission calls
• Support & promote local authors
• Provide workshops which explore fresh terrain

If you’d like to contribute as a presenter or a guest speaker, drop us a line at info@brisbanewriters.com

Lauren Elise Daniels is an awarded poet, editor, author and mentor.  Her poetry, travel writing, essays and articles have been published internationally, commencing with 1st place in the 1987 Newport Poetry Contest in Rhode Island, USA. Through the 1990s, she attained her BA in Writing from Fairfield University, worked for Ziff-Davis Publishing, and completed her MFA with Emerson College where she studied under Andre Dubus III and Sam Cornish. She relocated to Australia in 1999 and has edited over 100 fiction and non-fiction titles, many of which have attracted awards and recognition.

The manuscript for her novel, Serpent’s Wake: A Tale for the Bitten, shortlisted with The Half the World Global Literati Award, placed 4th in the People’s Choice Award, and was published in 2018 with Interactive Publications. In 2020, she co-authored the best-selling Winning Short Story Competitions: Essential Tools for Serious Writers with Cate Sawyer. She was on the editing team with Aiki Flinthart and Geneve Flynn for Relics, Wrecks and Ruins which won best anthology in the 2021 Aurealis Awards.  Click here for a full bio.

A senior consulting editor for Interactive Publications and Hawkeye Publishing, Lauren is a professional member of IPEd., a StokerCon panelist, served on the Board for the Erica Bell Foundation, and a literary judge for IP Picks and Hawkeye. She was a Youth Arts Queensland mentor, and taught writing at The University of Queensland, TAFE, Tasmanian Writers Centre and Brisbane State High School. She teaches workshops across Brisbane City, Sunshine Coast and Moreton Bay Libraries and for the Queensland Writers Centre. Contact her at lauren@brisbanewriters.com

Geneve Flynn is an award-winning speculative fiction editor and author. She has two psychology degrees and only uses them for nefarious purposes. She co-edited Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women with celebrated New Zealand author and editor Lee Murray. The anthology won the 2020 Bram Stoker Award® and the 2020 Shirley Jackson Award for best anthology. It has also been shortlisted for the British Fantasy Award, Aurealis Award, and Australian Shadows Award. Black Cranes is listed on Tor Nightfire’s Works of Feminist Horror and Locus magazine’s 2020 Recommended Reading List. Her poetry appears in the Tortured Willows. Bent. Bowed. Unbroken.  anthology edited by Lee Murray, nominated for the 2022 Stoker Award.

Geneve was assistant editor for Relics, Wrecks, and Ruins, a speculative fiction anthology which features authors such as Neil Gaiman, Ken Liu, Robert Silverberg, James (SA) Corey, Lee Murray, Mark Lawrence, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Angela Slatter. The anthology is the legacy of Australian fantasy author, Aiki Flinthart, and is in support of the Flinthart Writing Residency with the Queensland Writers Centre.

Geneve’s short stories have been published in various markets, including Flame Tree Publishing, Things in the Well, and PseudoPod. Her story, “They Call Me Mother,” appears in Classic Monsters Unleashed with some of the biggest names in horror, including Joe Lansdale, Jonathan Maberry, and Ramsey Campbell. Check out her website at www.geneveflynn.com.au

Carolyn Martinez is a children’s picture book and adult non-fiction author of six published titles. She is the director and publisher of Hawkeye Books, a traditional publishing house. Carolyn has a MA, Writing, and founded Brisbane Book Authors – a non-profit social networking group for published authors. She is a member of the Alliance of Independent Authors, and the Queensland Writers Centre. She also established The Sydney Hammond Memorial Short-Story Writing Competition, and the Hawkeye Publishing Manuscript Development + Publication Prize.

Her highest selling books are Finding Love Again and Places to Poop. Niche, but close to her heart, is The Umbilical Family – a picture book celebrating diversity; adoption, IVF donation, and surrogacy.

Carolyn is a champion for helping authors prioritise publish and publicise their work. As she says ‘books are low margin; you’ve got to be smart’. Read more: Chasing Publicity for your Book.

Joshua Brockbank completed his BA in Journalism from the Queensland University of Technology in 2012. He assessed manuscripts and compiled readers’ reports for Interactive Publications and has worked as a journalist for The Westender and Brisbane Arts Guide.

During his degree, Joshua shifted his focus from journalism to creative writing. Crime fiction, realism and magical realism are among his favourite genres, with an interest in the links between literary cannon and popular fiction.

Joshua works as a freelance manuscript assessor with a track record in novels and memoir. He contributes his passion for good books and knowledge of journalism, editing and publishing to Brisbane Writers Workshop.

Pamela Jeffs is an Australian speculative fiction author with over 90 published works of short fiction. She holds a Bachelor Degree in Interior Design (BIntDes) from the University of South Australia and has over 20 years’ experience in a broad range of architectural design fields including exhibition design. The opportunity to work with artists of all kinds has resolved for her a strong philosophy on how architectural principals can underpin any form of art, and in particular, the art of writing.

She has published three short story collections, co-authored an anthology with Aiki Flinthart titled The Zookeeper’s Takes of Interstellar Oddities and published 70+ short stories in various national and international magazines and anthologies including Relics, Wrecks and Ruins, by CAT Press and Lawless Lands: Tales from the Weird Frontier by Falstaff Books. She has been shortlisted for multiple awards throughout her career including numerous Aurealis Awards and an Honorable Mention in the Writers of the Future Competition. Her short stories and collections are repeated finalists in the Aurealis Awards. Pamela has previously presented online courses for the Rainforest Writers Retreat and is a member of the Queensland Writers Centre.

Zachary Ashford is the Aurealis-nominated author of When the Cicadas Stop Singing. His new book, The Morass: Servant of the Fly God is available through Crystal Lake. His debut novel, Polyphemus, is out through Darklit in November 2023.

Zachary is an educator, occasional speaker, and cat-lover. His books usually feature Australian characters, tonnes of page-turning conflict, and an assortment of lizard-people, killer marsupials, giant crocodiles, mutations, living dead things, sentient hive-mind flies, demons, and highway-patrolling serial killers. There’s usually a guy in a metal shirt too. You can also find him on Twitter, Instagram, and Tiktok.

Anna Bartlett is an author, editor and manuscript assessor. She has a BFA in Creative Writing Production, and from 2008-2014 worked as the Children’s and Young Adult editor at Interactive Publications. During that time she edited nearly 30 books and served on the IP Picks judging panel.

Anna’s historical novel for 8-12 year olds, A Penny in Time, was published in 2011. Since then she has taken part in school visits and readings both locally and interstate. She has also collaborated on the text of a picture book, Lyli Meets the Stone-Muncher, with Swiss author and illustrator Céline Eimann.

In the past Anna has also appeared on editor panels, as well as running workshops on writing children’s and young adult picture books and novels.

Selina Shapland is a writer and fiction coach with a passion for fiction and story structure. Since 2008, she has written two paranormal adventure manuscripts, edited numerous novels and memoirs, and published 72 articles with Weekend Notes Brisbane. She studied extensively with David Farland, Margie Lawson, Dean Wesley Smith and Aiki Flinthart‘s online study programs and currently offers an online character development class.

Through Queensland University of Technology, Selina also completed Dr Tony Draper’s leadership coaching program with The Forton Group. With a passion for supporting writers to achieve their goals, she has achieved certification with the Author Accelerator Fiction Book Coaching program.

When Selina isn’t reading, writing and coaching, she is hanging out with her animal companions and developing her portraiture skills.

Emma Rennison is a British-Australian author and mother of two children diagnosed with multiple epiphyseal dysplasia and scoliosis. She has one bionic hip and writes about her family’s experiences of disability, as well as short works of fiction.

Her first published story, ‘No Guts, No Glory’, won the 2020 Editor’s Choice Award in the Rainforest Writers Retreat anthology, Short Stories of Science and Space. She was runner-up in The Jennifer Burbidge Prize 2021 and shortlisted for the Newcastle Short Story Award 2021. In 2022 she had a memoir piece published on SBS Voices as part of their Emerging Writers’ Competition. She is currently working on her first novel.

You can find her at www.emmarennison.com and on Instagram @emmajrennison and Facebook @emmarennisonauthor

Kylie Fennell is a Brisbane-based Speculative Fiction Author, Accredited Trainer and Practising Marketer and Communications Specialist with 25 years’ experience. She has self-published a young adult fantasy series and other books under her own imprint, Lorikeet Ink.

Kylie’s creative writing has been recognised via several awards and programs including longlisting twice for Queensland Writers Centre (QWC) Adaptable Competition, and shortlisting and wins in QWC’s Flash Fiction, Australian Writers Centre Furious Fiction, GenreCon’s short story competition and several leading anthologies.

Kylie loves helping writers create and manage their brand, as well as navigate the publishing world. She offers one-on-one mentoring and coaching sessions for aspiring and emerging authors. 

Raelene Purtill is studying a Bachelor of Creative Industries, majoring in Creative Writing and Publishing at the Petrie campus of the University of the Sunshine Coast. She enjoys science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, biography and creative non-fiction and several of her short stories have been published in local and national anthologies.

Raelene loves to encourage writers and facilitates the Strathpine Writers Group, a monthly meeting of wordsmiths. She is a happy writing conference attendee (read junkie) and in 2014, she organised and ran the River City Writers Conference, a one-day networking event.

A regular at the acclaimed Writers Rainforest Retreat, Raelene has presented there to attendees on the benefits of vision boards for writers.

Margie Riley was raised on a farm in rural Wiltshire, UK, and emigrated to Australia a long time ago. She works as an editor, proofreader, beta reader, writer and workshop presenter. Her background in recruitment and the not-for-profit sector gave her invaluable editing experience. She studied editing at The University of Queensland and TAFE and is an Associate Member of IPEd.

Margie’s had short stories published, is working on The Novel, and writes about her extended family and animals. You’ll find her latest story published in 2020’s Stories of Hope: Bushfire Relief Anthology.

Margie belongs to a book club of long-standing, a writers’ group and a writing group. She’s been married for over forty years — they had two sons. She lives in a semi-rural southeast Queensland, where they grow veggies, fruit trees and a few weeds.

Janet Reid is a Brisbane-based children’s author and teacher who enjoys visiting classrooms, libraries and bookstores for writing workshops and readings.

She has a Diploma of Arts (Writing) from The University of Queensland, loves going to conferences and retreats where she networks with other writers, sharpens her skills, and re-energises her writing. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the Queensland Writers Centre, CBCA Qld, and Book Links Qld.

Janet won the IP Picks (Junior Fiction) competition two years in a row, and had her novels, The Ruby Bottle and Granny Rags published. Her early reader, Trouble for Toby, (Wombat Books) was released in 2018 and is listed on the 2018, 2019 and 2020 Victorian Premiers’ Reading Challenge and the New South Wales Premiers’ Reading Challenge book lists. Her short stories have been published in various anthologies and at the moment, she is working on a middle-grade historical fiction story set in 1890s Brisbane.