Speakers 2024
Michael Robotham
Before becoming a novelist, Michael Robotham was a former feature writer and investigative reporter working in Britain, Australia and America, and with clinical and forensic psychologists as they helped police investigate complex, psychologically driven crimes. His debut thriller, The Suspect, introduced clinical psychologist Joe O’Loughlin and sold more than a million copies around the world. The first of a nine-book series, The Suspect is being adapted for the screen by World Productions (makers of Line of Duty and Bodyguard), starring Aidan Turner. Michael’s standalone thriller The Secrets She Keeps was adapted for TV by Network 10 and the BBC. A second series is coming in 2022.
Michael is the only Australian to twice win the UK’s prestigious Gold Dagger Award for best crime novel, for Life or Death and Good Girl, Bad Girl as well as the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for When She Was Good.
Lying Beside You is the third book in his bestselling Cyrus Haven and Evie Cormac series.
Wendy Harmer
Wendy Harmer is one of Australia’s most versatile entertainers – broadcaster, author, journalist and stage performer.
As a stand-up comedian she performed her one-woman shows at the Melbourne, Edinburgh, Montreal and Glasgow Mayfest Comedy Festivals, in London’s West End and the Sydney Theatre Company. Wendy enjoyed huge popularity leading Sydney radio station 2Day FM’s top-rating Breakfast Show for 11 years was the co-host of ABC’s 702 Sydney morning show from 2016 -2021.
She has hosted, written and appeared in a variety of TV shows including ABC’s The Big Gig.
A former political journalist, Wendy is the author of eight books for adults including her bestselling novel Farewell My Ovaries, Love and Punishment and Nagging for Beginners, a how-to guide for women. She has also written two teen novels, I Lost My Mobile at the Mall and I Made Lattes for a Love God.
Wendy’s children’s book series about Pearlie the park fairy have sold more than 700,000 copies in Australia and internationally since the first title Pearlie in the Park was published in 2003. A stage show of the books adapted by Wendy played at the Seymour Centre in Sydney and toured regional NSW in 2005 and then nationally in 2007. The animated television series based on Wendy’s Pearlie books, co-produced by Sticky Pictures and Canadian broadcaster Nelvana, premiered on Network Ten in October 2009 and aired on Nickelodean Australia and in 11 other countries around the world. Wendy developed the series as Creative Producer and wrote multiple episodes.
Stuff, a four-part television documentary series which Wendy produced, wrote and presented, premiered on ABC TV in March 2008. In late 2008 Wendy and Angela Catterns recorded a 16 part podcasting series for ABC Radio Local called Is it Just Me? which returned for a second season in 2009. Together they debated and discussed their observations and conclusions on everyday life. The podcasts are available for download from the ABC Radio Local website. Wendy teamed up again with Angela Catterns on ABC News Radio with a new show called It’s News to Me, which recapped the week’s events. Wendy is currently the morning host on ABC Radio National. She has been a columnist on many publications including the Good Weekend and The Sunday Telegraph.
Wendy and her husband Brendan have two children and live on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
William McInnes
William McInnes is a large mammal who plays golf enthusiastically but also rather badly. He’s also an actor. In 2006 William was awarded the Sydney Morning Herald, Sun Herald and The Age Australian Star of The Year Award. Equally at home in theatre, film and television, comedy and drama, he has played countless lead and supporting roles in some of the most successful and memorable productions this country has had to offer and has multiple AFI and Logie nominations for this extensive body of work.
William is the author of thirteen books; Fatherhood, Full Bore, Holidays, A Man’s Got to Have a Hobby (winner of a 2006 Australian Book Industry Award), Cricket Kings, That’d Be Right, The Making of Modern Australia, The Laughing Clowns and The Birdwatcher.
William’s fifth book, Worse Things Happen at Sea, co-written with his late wife Sarah Watt, was awarded the 2012 Indie Non Fiction Book of the Year. William’s latest book Christmas Tales was published in 2020.
Benjamin Stevenson
Benjamin Stevenson is an award-winning stand-up comedian and author. His first novel, Greenlight, was shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Award for Best Debut Crime Fiction, and his second novel, Either Side of Midnight, was shortlisted for the International Thriller Writers Award for Best Original Paperback.
Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone, his third novel, was a huge bestseller and has so far been sold in twenty-seven territories around the world. It will soon be adapted into a major HBO TV series. It was shortlisted for the Dymocks Book of the Year 2022, ABIA General Fiction Book of the Year 2023 and BookPeople’s Fiction Book of the Year 2023, as well as being named as one of The Sunday Times’ best crime novels of 2022.
His new novel, Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect, was released in October 2023.
Benjamin has sold out live shows from the Melbourne International Comedy Festival all the way to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and has appeared on ABC TV, Channel 10 and The Comedy Channel.
Karly Lane
Karly Lane lives on the beautiful mid-North Coast of New South Wales, and she is the proud mum of four children and an assortment of four-legged animals.
Before becoming an author, Karly worked as a pathology collector. Now, after surviving three teenage children and with one more to go, she’s confident she can add referee, hostage negotiator, law enforcer, peacekeeper, ruiner-of-social-lives, driving instructor and expert-at silently-counting-to-ten to her resume.
When she isn’t at her keyboard, Karly can be found hanging out with her beloved horses and dogs, happily ignoring the housework.
Karly writes Rural and Women’s Fiction set in small country towns, blending contemporary stories with historical heritage. She is a passionate advocate for rural Australia, with a focus on rural communities and current issues. She has published twenty-two books with Allen & Unwin.
Brendan Watkins
Brendan Watkins was eight years old when his parents told him he was adopted.
When he was in his late twenties, he started searching for his birth parents and eventually discovered the identity of his birth mother: he was told she was a Catholic nun. And she wanted nothing to do with him. For the next thirty years he had no clues as to the identity of his birth father.
In 2018, a DNA test provided the answer: he was the son of a Catholic priest. His father had studied in a Trappist monastery in Ireland, had returned to Australia and become a well-known outback missionary. After decades of searching, and obstruction from the Catholic church, the whole truth was finally exposed. Brendan Watkins’ birth parents were a Catholic priest and a nun. Tell No One reveals the moving story of that incredible discovery and explores the questions, anxieties and reflections arising from his hidden past.
In late 2018, after a diverse career in the entertainment and not-for-profit sectors, he took a year off to investigate and record his story. Five years later, his debut memoir explores this astounding ancestry. He has two children, a loving partner and he swims, a lot. He lives in Melbourne, Australia.
“Tell No One“. A stunning memoir of one man’s search for his birth parents, which uncovered an astonishing global scandal at the heart of the Catholic Church: The son of a priest and a nun, uncovers long-buried secrets.
Longlisted for the 2023 Walkley Longform Journalism Book Award.
Nikki Mottram
Nikki Mottram writes crime fiction and has a background in child protection. She has a psychology degree from The University of Queensland and has worked in London and Australia in positions protecting and promoting the welfare of children at risk of harm. She has been published in the Boroondara Literary Awards anthology and shortlisted for the Fish Short Story Prize and the Hal Porter Short Story Competition. In 2018, she was the recipient of a Katharine Susannah Pritchard Writers’ Centre Fellowship. She grew up and resides in Toowoomba, and brings to her work an understanding of rural communities.
Crows Nest was published in 2023 by UQP.
Dinuka McKenzie
Dinuka McKenzie is an Australian writer and book addict. Her debut crime fiction novel, The Torrent, won the HarperCollins Australia 2020 Banjo Prize and was published in February 2022. She is represented by Alex Adsett Literary.
Dinuka has since written the sequels Taken (2023) and Tipping Point (2024).
When not writing, Dinuka works in the environmental sector and volunteers as part of the team behind the Writers Unleashed Festival. She lives in Southern Sydney with her husband, two kids and their pet chicken.
Kate Mildenhall
Kate Mildenhall is a writer and teacher. Her debut novel, Skylarking, was longlisted for Debut Fiction in The Indie Book Awards 2017 and the 2017 Voss Literary Award. Her bestselling The Mother Fault was longlisted for the 2021 ABIA General Fiction Book of the Year and shortlisted for the 2020 Aurealis Awards. Kate teaches creative writing and co-hosts The First Time podcast – which features conversations with Australian writers – and is currently undertaking a PhD in creative practice at RMIT University. Kate lives in Hurstbridge on Wurundjeri lands, with her partner and two children. The Hummingbird Effect is her third novel.
Claudine Tinellis
Claudine Tinellis is a Sydney-based author, podcaster and presenter. A former corporate lawyer, Claudine ventured into the world of publishing in 2014 as the editor of Coastal Chef: Culinary Art of Seaweed & Algae in the 21st Century and in the years since has dedicated herself to writing fiction.
Claudine is also the host and producer of Talking Aussie Books – a popular podcast bringing readers and writers of Australian fiction together. With more than 200 different authors interviewed to date (including some of our Words Out West talent), Talking Aussie Books has been ranked number one Australian reading and writing podcast (Feedspot) for 2022 and 2023.
Matthew Ryan Davies
Matthew Ryan Davies is a freelance copywriter and editor, mostly for the healthcare sector. He ghostwrites non-fiction books, edits university textbooks for medical and nursing students, and writes scripts for educational videos and documentaries. Matthew was on the board of the Emerging Writers Festival for five years, with a two-year stint as chair. He lives in Melbourne with his wife and two grown children.
The Broken Wave (due November 2023) will be his second novel through Pan Macmillan for the adult market. This new novel, The Broken Wave, is about an American novelist who travels to the Victorian seaside town of Queenscliff for the funeral of an old friend, triggering memories of a childhood trauma he has been suppressing. It moves between 1992 (when the main character was a 12-year-old boy living in Queenscliff) and 2018 when he returns for the funeral. It deals with grief and unresolved trauma but also the ever-lasting bond of childhood friendships.
His first adult novel, Things We Bury, was published in July last year. Set in regional Victoria, Things We Bury tells the story of three siblings who return to their hometown after their dad tries to take his own life. It explores mental health in small towns, the complicated bonds between siblings and how buried secrets can reverberate across generations. Things We Bury has been optioned for a TV series.
Matthew’s first novel, This Thing of Darkness, was published in 2018 for the Young Adult market.
Mardi Sands
Mardi Sands is addicted to words and enjoys using them in many different ways. Mardi lives in the Wandoan / Taroom district where she and her husband manage a cattle property. They have three adult children and six grandchildren.
Mardi believes that there are opportunities everywhere and that one should take advantage of anything that life offers, even if not what was expected.
Mardi’s life has led in many different areas, including Kindergarten Supervisor, and writing in a variety of styles. Of special interest, the many years volunteering with the University of the Third Age leading their Autobiography and Journalling Course twice a year.
In 2020 Mardi fulfilled a lifetime desire for a University education and graduated from the University of Tasmania with a Diploma of Family History, working from a computer from home.
Mardi is a storyteller and enjoys sharing her love of story, and belief that all have a story to tell.
Michael Atkinson (Outback Mike)
Michael Atkinson is an extreme adventurer who creates award-winning documentaries, YouTube videos and books about his solo survival expeditions. Living on the edge in wild places with minimal equipment, Mike is forced to overcome constant major challenges. These lead to genuine storylines and a totally authentic viewer/reader experience.
Before filming and writing, Mike backpacked around the world, studied science, flew Army helicopters and Airforce aeroplanes, and lived in Saudi Arabia as a flying instructor for British Aerospace. He instructed survival and learnt bush skills from Aboriginal people in varied environments across Australia, while cramming in adventures outside of ‘work’ like a solo ski crossing of Iceland and a desert crossing with his own camels.
For his latest expedition Mike escaped the predicament of 1846 shipwreck survivor, James Morrill. The resulting 50-day journey up the Great Barrier Reef in a homemade dugout canoe is the subject of his first book, Modern-Day Castaway, which will be released as a feature film in 2024.
Mike was also a contestant on the hit SBS TV series, Alone Australia, where he survived alone for 64 days in the Tasmanian wilderness. When not adventuring Mike loves to be out camping with his wife Melinda and teenage children, Tom and Zara.
Lucas Proudfoot
Lucas Proudfoot is one of Australia’s most dynamic children’s entertainers. Just ask any of the hundreds-of-thousands of kids around the country who have danced, sung, jumped and giggled along at one of his live shows. A proud First Nations man and dad, Lucas shares stories through music, books, live performances and TV appearances.
Lucas signed with Sony Music Publishing Global in 2022. He became an ambassador for the Australian Literacy & Numeracy Foundation in 2022. He has had special guest appearances on ABC’s Play School program and performed to approximately 500 000 children over the last 10 years in schools and kindergartens.
Lucas began his career as a musician and was lead singer in the award-winning band, Max Judo. The band toured the US college circuit from 2008-2009 and was twice awarded “Band of the Year” in the Deadly Awards.
Prior to performing full-time, Lucas was a professional long-board surfer. During the 2000-2004 World Longboard Tour, he reached a ranking of 9th in the world.
Lucas grew up on the Tweed Coast of New South Wales, Bundjalung country. He now lives on the Gold Coast, South-East Queensland.
Rory Mather
Rory is a picture book and rhyme enthusiast. He loves potatoes, dogs and sticky date pudding, and he adores his wife and daughter.
Rory is the author of several children’s books.
When Rory was a kid, he lived on a sailboat with his family. They sailed around the world, and while Rory never saw mermaids or pirates, he can confirm that whales have bad breath. Rory now lives in South East-Queensland with his family and an ever-growing collection of picture books.
Jacqueline Harvey
Jacqueline Harvey has had a passion for storytelling since she was a child. These days, having written more than 50 books she is one of Australia’s most popular authors for children. Best known for her various series fiction including Alice-Miranda, Kensy and Max and Clementine Rose her sales number close to two million copies. In 2022 she released a picture book called That Cat, which is illustrated by one of her former students, Kate Isobel Scott, and aimed at a young audience. The Daring Tale of Gloria the Great, about a wayward chicken is the duo’s second offering released in September 2023 and garnering rave reviews. The pair has the first in a new picture book series about a sheep called Kevin coming in February 2024.
Jacqueline has also released a new junior fiction series in 2022 called Willa and Woof – perfect for readers making the transition to longer chapter books. There are currently six titles available.
Jacqueline has received numerous short-listings and awards including in the Children’s Choice awards (YABBA, KOALA and KROC) and Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) while her picture book, The Sound of the Sea was a CBCA Honour Book in 2006. Kensy and Max: Breaking News was shortlisted in the 2021 Red Dot Book Awards in Singapore. In 2023 Willa and Woof: Mimi is Missing was shortlisted for the Speech Pathology Book of the Year in the 5-8 years category. In 2021 Jacqueline was awarded the KOALA Legend and in 2023 the Alice-Miranda series was inducted into the YABBA Hall of Fame.
A highly experienced Deputy Head, teacher and presenter, Jacqueline has delivered thousands of talks and workshops for children and adults at schools and festivals around the world. Her books have been translated into many languages and are available in over 80 countries.
Jacqueline was a National Ambassador for Australia Reads and The Reading Hour in 2020 and again in 2021 and is also a proud Ambassador for Dymocks Children’s Charities and Room to Read. She is the current Patron of Somerset Storyfest – one of the longest running and most prestigious literature festivals for children and young people in Australia. She was recently one of three finalists in the University of Wollongong Alumni of the Year for Arts and Culture.
Alice-Miranda Friends Forever, the animated feature film by SLR Productions in partnership with Screen Australia, ZDF Enterprises and Channel Nine premiered in Australia in November 2019 and is currently airing on STAN, Nine Now and iTunes. A second movie, Alice-Miranda A Royal Christmas Ball premiered on STAN in October 2021 and 9GO! in December 2021.
With a reputation for creating books that are filled with adventure, mystery, humour and heart Jacqueline is currently working on several exciting new projects including more books in the Willa and Woof series, picture books and a standalone mystery novel. She has narrated over a dozen audio books as well.
Chris Kennett
Chris Kennett is a Bendigo based digital illustrator with over 20 years of experience.
Working his way from animation through to children’s books, Chris has managed to work on some truly “out of this world” projects including the beloved Star Wars series of Little Golden Books.
His most recent projects include the hugely popular first reader series School of Monsters with Sally Rippin, the Nerd Herd series with Nathan Luff and Cross Bones with Jack Henseleit.