Historical Fiction

Mirandi Riwoe is the author of Sunbirds. Her novel, Stone Sky Gold Mountain, won the ARA Historical Novel Prize and the Queensland Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Stella Prize and longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. Her novella The Fish Girl won Seizure’s Viva la Novella and was shortlisted for the Stella Prize. Her short fiction and novellas can be found in the collection The Burnished Sun. Mirandi has a PhD in Creative Writing and Literary Studies (QUT).

Melissa Ashley is the author of historical fiction novels The Naturalist of Amsterdam, The Bee and the Orange Tree, The Birdman's Wife, which won the Queensland Literary Awards Fiction prize and the ABA Booksellers Choice Award. She has published a collection of poetry, The Hospital for Dolls, as well as short stories, essays and academic articles. Melissa is passionate about historical women's forgotten lives, particularly in science. Melissa teaches creative writing in private and institutional settings and lives in Brisbane with her family.

Melanie is a writer, editor and researcher. Her debut novel Meet Me at Lennon's (UQP) won the 2018 QLA's Glendower Award for an Emerging Writer. Her work has been published in Kill Your Darlings, Griffith Review, Arena Magazine, Overland, Hecate, TEXT and elsewhere. She is a winner of the 2022 Griffith Review Emerging Voices competition and the 2024 winner of the UQ Creative Writing Fellowship. She teaches at the University of Queensland.