Solitary Women

Inga Simpson is the author of Willowman, The Last Woman in the World, Mr Wigg, Nest, Where the Trees Were, as well as Understory: my life with trees and, for children, The Book of Australian Trees, illustrated by Alicia Rogerson. Inga’s novels have been short and longlisted for numerous awards, including the Miles Franklin and Stella Prize, while Understory was shortlisted for the Adelaide Writers Week award for nonfiction. Inga has PhDs in creative writing and English literature, with her most recent thesis exploring the history of Australian nature writing. Her short stories and essays have been published in Wonderground, Chicago Quarterly Review, Griffith Review, Openbook, Review of Australian Fiction, Clues, Writing Queensland, and The Dictionary of Literary Biography.

Annabel Abbs is a writer of fiction and non-fiction. Her first novel, The Joyce Girl, tells the story of James Joyce's daughter, won the Impress New Writer Prize, was translated into 10 languages and is currently being adapted for the stage. Her second novel, Frieda: The Real Lady Chatterley, was a Times Book of the Year 2018, and was translated into seven languages.

Her memoir and history of wild walking women, Windswept, was published to great acclaim in June 2021. Her third novel, The Language of Food, tells the story of poet and cookery writer, Eliza Acton. It has been translated into 20 languages, and is currently being adapted for the screen by CBS Studios.

Annabel has a degree in English Literature from UEA and is a Fellow of the Brown Foundation. She grew up in Wales but now lives in London and Sussex where she spends her time cooking, walking, reading and writing.

Jacqueline Maley is a columnist and senior writer for the Sydney Morning Herald and Age newspapers, where she writes about politics, people and social affairs. In 2016, she won the Kennedy Award for Outstanding Columnist and in 2020 she won a Kennedy Award and a Walkley Award. She is also the recipient of the NSW Council of Liberties Journalism award. The Truth About Her is her first novel. She lives in Sydney.

Sally Piper’s debut novel Grace’s Table was shortlisted for a Queensland Premier’s Literary Award and she was awarded a Varuna Publishing Fellowship for her manuscript. Her second novel The Geography of Friendship was shortlisted for an Australian Book Industry Award and will be developed into a 6-part TV series by Aquarius Films and Dollhouse Pictures. Her third novel Bone Memories was published in 2022. She has had short fiction and non-fiction published in various online and print publications in Australia and the UK, including Griffith Review, The Saturday Paper, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Weekend Australian.