About

I am a writer and journalist living in Nowra on the South Coast of NSW. I have spent my career working with reporters and editors in rural and regional newspapers, and I am passionate about the role of regional journalists in reflecting country life and advocating for their communities. Apart from straight journalistic pieces I also enjoy writing travel stories and my articles have been published widely. I also like writing fiction (more about that below) and my novel in progress, set at a country newspaper, was selected as a finalist in the 2021 Harper Collins Banjo prize.

Writing awards

2021

  • My novel in progress was selected as a finalist in the 2021 Harper Collins Banjo Prize. 
  • A novella longlisted in the Seizure Viva Novella competition
  • Second prize in the StoryFest Short Story Competition
  • Nature writing piece selected as a finalist in the Unyoked Nature Writing Competition to be published in a forthcoming anthology
  • Short Story highly commended in the EM Fletcher Writing Competition, to be published in a forthcoming anthology

2019

  • Story “Gossip” published in Baby Teeth Journal
  • First prize in the ASA Flash Fiction Competition
  • First prize in the open section of the  2019  Katharine Susannah Pritchard Short Story competition.  

2017

  • First prize in the Wollongong Writers Festival Short Story Competition. No Dams was published in Mascara literary magazine.

Writing residencies

My creative writing has been selected for fellowships;  Varuna LitLink residency and  shortlisted for the Varuna’s Publisher Introduction Program. Two week fellowship at Katharine Susannah Pritchard Writers Centre in Perth, (awarded 2019 and 2021) . A second, earlier manuscript was selected for the Queensland Writers Centre/Hachette Manuscript Development Program and also received the Varuna LitLink residency. In 2016 I was fortunate to be selected randomly to spend three weeks at the The Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig in Ireland as part of a reciprocal arrangement with Varuna, The Writers House.