Secrets and Grief

Sally Piper is the author of three novels. Her most recent Bone Memories was a finalist in the 2023 Queensland Literary Awards for a Work of State Significance, the Courier Mail People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award and was longlisted for the 2023 Dublin Literary Award and a Davitt Award. Her short fiction and non-fiction have appeared in various publications to include Griffith Review, The Saturday Paper, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Weekend Australian.

Kylie Ladd is the author of six novels, most recently I'll Leave You With This, published earlier this year by Penguin Random House and in the UK and US by Hodder & Stoughton. Her previous novel, The Way Back, is currently being developed for film. She has also co-edited and co-authored two non-fiction books, and holds a PhD in neuropsychology.

Emma Grey is the author of five books, including the romantic comedy, The Last Love Note. She wrote the novel in the wake of her husband’s death, as a fictional tribute to their love, an attempt to articulate the magnitude of her loss and a life-affirming commitment to hope. She has two YA novels, Unrequited: Boy band meets girl and Tilly Maguire and the Royal Wedding Mess. Together with ARIA-winning composer, Sally Whitwell, she wrote a musical based on Unrequited: Deadpan Anti-fan. Her non-fiction book about productivity, I Don’t Have Time, is co-authored with Audrey Thomas, and her first book was a parenting memoir, Wits’ End Before Breakfast! Confessions of a Working Mum. Emma lives just outside Canberra, where her world centres on her family, writing, photography and endlessly chasing the Aurora Australis.

Cass Moriarty’s novels include Parting Words (UQP 2017) and The Promise Seed (UQP 2015), longlisted for the 2017 Dublin International Literary Award, and shortlisted for both the 2016 Queensland Literary Awards (People’s Choice Award) and the 2013 QLA (Emerging Author category). The Saturday Paper has published her short fiction and her creative non-fiction. Her work explores the silences and secrets in families. She is a book reviewer and critic, a writing mentor, an Australia Council recipient, a Queensland Literary Awards judge, and she presents workshops and hosts literary conversations. Cass is a staunch supporter of Australian authors and believes in the power of a supportive literary community.

Charlotte Nash is the internationally published author of eight contemporary novels, most recently Twenty-Six Letters, On A Starlit Ocean, and Saving You. She has degrees in engineering and medicine, a PhD in creative writing, and is a multiple nominee for the Ditmar and Aurealis awards for short fiction. As a firm believer in unconventional pairings, she is an engineer by day and writes love stories by night. She teaches writing through the University of Queensland and, beyond books, she delights in great movies, through-hikes, and memorable dinner parties.