We are thrilled to have these amazing authors appearing at our festival!
Tony Birch is an award-winning author and poet. He is the author of four novels, five short fiction collections and two poetry books. His most recent book is the novel, Women and Children (UQP).
An activist, historian and essayist, Tony is currently the Boisbouvier Chair in Australian Literature at the University of Melbourne.
Sulari Gentill is the author of Five Found Dead, The Mystery Writer (won an Edgar Award), The Woman in the Library (USA Today bestseller), After She Wrote Him (won the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Novel and short-listed for the Davitt Award) and the multi-award-winning Rowland Sinclair Mysteries.
Sulari lives in a small country town in the Australian Snowy Mountains where she grows French Black Truffles and writes. She remains in love with the art of storytelling.
Margaret Hickey, award-winning author and playwright with a PhD in Creative Writing, hails from North East Victoria. Her novels include An Ill Wind, Cutters End, Stone Town, Broken Bay, The Creeper, and she published a short story collection Rural Dreams. She was also judge of the short story category of the High Country Words Writing Competition, 2025.
Professor David Lindenmayer is a world-leader in forest and woodland ecology and conservation biology. He has published 50 books and 1550 scientific articles.
His awards include: the Order of Australia (AO), the Eureka Science Prize (three times), Whitley Award (11 times), the Serventy Medal, and the Whittaker Medal, the MacFarlane-Burnett Medal for Life Sciences from the Australian Academy of Sciences.
Maggie MacKellar is the acclaimed author of Graft, When it Rains, How to Get There, Core of My Heart, My Countryand Strangers in a Foreign Land. Graft won the Tasmanian Premier’s Prize for Non-fiction and was long listed for the Stella Award.
A writer and historian, Maggie lives on the east coast of Tasmania/Lutruwita. She writes the much-loved newsletter The Sit Spot.
A. J. Mackinnon wrote the international bestseller The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow and The Well at the World’s End. His latest book is Quaint Deeds.
He has taught in schools around the world, sharing his passion for English Literature, mathematics, drama, art and philosophy. He now lives in the Victorian High Country of Australia, where he continues to love his teaching, his garden and various other creative projects.
Kate Mildenhall’s novels include The Hummingbird Effect (longlisted for the 2024 Stella Prize and shortlisted for the 2024 ABIA literary Fiction Book of the year), The Mother Fault and Skylarking. Her first children’s book is To Stir With Love illustrated by Jess Racklyeft.
She is creator and co-host of The First Time podcast.
Kate lives on Wurundjeri lands in Hurstbridge with her partner and two children.
Dr Dani Netherclift is the author of Vessel: The Shape of Absent Bodies, published by Upswell in 2024, and upcoming in North America by Assembly Press. Her shorter essays have been published in Heat, Meanjin, The Guardian, Westerly and more, winning various commendations. She was a winner of a 2025 Varuna Climate Fellowship for her work in progress, Preludes for an Ending.
She is president of Mansfield Readers & Writers Festival.
Jacinta Parsons is the author of A Wisdom of Age, A Question of Age and Unseen. A broadcaster, radio maker, writer and public speaker, she currently co-hosts The Friday Revue with Brian Nankervis on ABC Melbourne.
Jacinta has lived with Crohn’s disease for over 20 years and is an ambassador for the Crohn’s and Colitis Association and speaks and writes about the impact of living with chronic illness.
Ya Reeves’s first novel is Over This Backbone. A freelance outdoor and environmental educator from Far East Gippsland, she has worked in wild and beautiful places across Australia. She currently resides in North East Victoria, at the base of Mount Bogong, where she divides her time between educating tertiary and high school students, writing and adventuring, at home and abroad, and runs as often as possible.
Jock Serong is an author, screenwriter and journalist whose seven novels have won awards in Australia and overseas. His non-fiction work is published by outlets including The Guardian, The Monthly, Patagonia’s Roaring Journals, Rolling Stone, Adventure.com and more. Jock is a board member of The Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas, and is the founding editor of Great Ocean Quarterly. His most recent novel is Cherrywood.
Rob Skinner’s memoir I’d Rather Not won two categories in the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards 2025:
the John Clarke Prize for Humour Writing (after the judges misunderstood his finely wrought work of tragedy) and
the People’s Choice Award.
Robert was born and raised on the Adelaide plains. He currently lives in Melbourne, where he works in a bookshop and plays football at the lowest level.
Mark Smith is the author of five novels: Three Boys Gone, The Road To Winter (a popular school text), Wilder Country(won the 2018 Australian Indie Book Award for YA), Land Of Fences and If Not Us.
Also an award-winning short fiction writer, his work has been published in Australia and overseas. He is the co-curator of Minds Went Walking: Paul Kelly’s Songs Reimagined and Into Your Arms: Nick Cave’s Songs Reimagined.
Jayne Tuttle, bestselling author of Paris or Die, My Sweet Guillotine and The Sea in the Metro, has worked as a copywriter, translator, actor and voiceover artist. Paris or Die also toured Australia and Paris as a solo theatre show. Fellowships include the City of Paris, La Napoule Arts Foundation, Bundanon, Le Centre les Récollets, and the Varuna, for which she was awarded the 2021 Eric Dark Flagship Fellowship.
Jayne co-owns The Bookshop at Queenscliff.
Karen Viggers is a novelist, veterinarian, adventurer and co-host of the Secrets From the Green Room podcast. She is the author of five internationally bestselling novels: The Stranding, The Lightkeeper’s Wife, The Grass Castle, The Orchardist’s Daughter and Sidelines.
Karen lives and works in Canberra with her ecologist husband. When she’s not hiking or caring for animals (both domestic and wild), she’s either reading or writing.
Andrea Barton is the award-winning author of the Jade Riley Mysteries: The Godfather of Dance and A Killer Among Friends, more to follow. She has also published short stories, picture books, stage productions and edited and contributed to anthologies about expat adventures.
She runs Brightside Story Studio, a book editing company, and is Vice President of Mansfield Readers and Writers.