The Ties that Bind Us (Online)

Kate Mildenhall is the author of Skylarking (Black Inc., 2016). She is a writer and teacher who has taught in schools, RMIT University, State Library Victoria, and with Teachers Across Borders in Cambodia. Skylarking is her debut novel, based on the true story of Kate and Harriet, best friends growing up on a remote Australian cape in the 1880s, and the tragic event that befalls them.  Skylarking was named in Readings bookstore’s Top Ten Fiction Books of 2016 and longlisted for Debut Fiction in The Indie Book Awards 2017.  Kate lives in Hurstbridge, Victoria, and is currently working on a new novel.

Kimberley Starr is an Australian novelist and teacher whose novels have won and been shortlisted for multiple literary awards, including the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award and the Text Publishing YA Prize. She lives with her sons and their labrador in semi-rural Victoria and is currently completing a PhD in Creative Writing. Kimberley’s latest novel, Torched, was published by Pantera Press in March 2020. Her debut novel, The Kingdom Where Nobody Dies, won the 2003 Queensland Premier’s Literary Award for Best Emerging Author. She has a degree in mediaeval literature, and travelled through Turkey and Israel to research The Book of Whispers.

Sarah Klenbort grew up in a house in Atlanta with too many books and not enough cleaning products. She’s lived in Beijing, New York, Wales, Sydney and Brisbane. Sarah teaches creative writing at the University of Queensland and Memoir at Toowong Library and the Queensland Writers Centre. Her writing has appeared in The Guardian, Best Australian Stories, Overland, Island, Eureka Street, and other journals and anthologies in the UK, US and Australia.

Kirsten Alexander lives in Melbourne, grew up in Brisbane and was born in San Francisco. Her first novel, Half Moon Lake, was a NYT bestseller. Riptides is her second novel.