Alexi Abel (Young Adult) NSW

Alexi is an eighteen year-old undergraduate arts student at the University of Sydney. It has been his ambition to become a professional author ever since he heard Duncan Ball give an author’s talk at his primary school. His fierce passion for fantasy kindled an idea for a fantasy series at eleven years of age, which has since evolved into The Circle of Eleven – a sweeping fantasy adventure that doesn’t always take itself seriously. An earlier version of the manuscript for the first book, They Told Me I Should Save Their World (then called Powers and Prophecy) was shortlisted in the Australian Children’s Book Council 2008 Frustrated Writers Mentoring Program. Alexi has little doubt that writing fantasy for a living would be the perfect job.

Fiona Britton  (Fiction) NSW

Fiona Britton works as a performer and a freelance editor. During the week, she entertains children in Sydney hospitals with the Clown Doctors; at the weekend she works for a local street theatre company, with whom she’s travelled the world. She also edits and writes at home. Writing has always been a part of her life. Her first novel is in first draft and awaiting further development.

Melissa Bruce (Young Adult Fiction) NSW
 
Melissa completed an MA in Creative Writing (UTS),  a Diploma in Directing (NIDA) & a B.Ed. (Deakin).  She began her career as a theatre director, (STC, STCSA,…)  lifting words off the page onto the stage. Inspired by real life drama & a passion for writing, she is now returning words to the page.  In 1997 she established MB Performance Consulting; coaching to improve written & spoken communications. She also teaches creative writing at UTS. Melissa has had short stories, poems & articles published, plus short stage & radio plays produced.  She lives close but not too close to ‘The Gap’.
 
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Aleesah Darlison  (Children's) NSW

Aleesah loves writing stories with humour and heart for children and young adults. A number of her short stories have appeared in The School Magazine and Little Ears. She has won awards in various writing competitions, most notably the 2008 Mary Grant Bruce Award for her short story, The Trouble With Zen Treehorn. Aleesah runs a regular children’s writers’ workshop at the NSW Writers’ Centre and is a book reviewer for The Sun Herald. Her current project is for readers aged 8 - 12 years. When not chasing her writing rainbow, Aleesah looks after her three energetic children.

Tanya Davies (Fiction) NSW

Originally trained in London as a dancer and actress, Tanya is a freelance journalist and environmental writer. Her articles have appeared in Body+Soul, Madison, Options, and she writes a fortnightly column for Canberra City News. As well as having completed a manuscript for young adults, "Sarah's Song", she is developing a number of other ideas for young people, and also producing The Climate Change Cookbook for Halstead Press. "At the Hour of the Morning Drink", a love story, is her first piece of adult fiction.
 

Pat Dudgeon (Non-fiction) WA

Pat Dudgeon from the Bardi people of the Kimberley is a psychologist. She headed up the Centre for Aboriginal Studies at Curtin for some 19 years. As well as leadership in Indigenous higher education, Pat Dudgeon has also had significant involvement in psychology and Indigenous issues for many years. She is actively involved with the Aboriginal community and has a commitment to social justice for Indigenous people and has many publications in the areas of psychology, education and women's issues. Currently she is a Research Fellow at the School of Indigenous Studies at the University of Western Australia, where she intends turn her career into research and writing.

Kathryn Fletcher (Children's) NSW

Kathryn (Kit) was born in New Zealand and studied psychology before moving to Sydney where she retrained as a graphic designer. She then worked as a designer and advertising copywriter in London and edited a company magazine there. Since returning to Australia she has been dividing her time between designing and writing and has written several short stories for adults and for children and two novel manuscripts for children. Kathryn has been shortlisted twice for the Children’s Book Council of Australia Frustrated Writers’ Award. She won the NSW Writers’ Centre Inner City Life Literary Short Story Competition in 2007. And she was runner-up in the Fish Publishing International Short Story Prize 2008. Kathryn will be working on her first children’s novel during the mentorship.
She lives in Sydney with her husband and son.

Sheryl Gwyther (Children's) QLD

Sheryl was born and raised in north Queensland with a passion for reading. Before becoming a children’s writer she worked in many jobs as a means to travel. This is Sheryl’s second ASA Mentorship. Her first in 2002 resulted in Lothian Books’ publication of Secrets of Eromanga. In 2008 Sheryl received a May Gibbs Children’s Literature Trust Residency Fellowship. Her articles are in Comet and Explore magazines and a short chapter book will be released by Pearson Australia in 2010. She enjoys writing adventure novels with a touch of fantasy. Her other great passions are painting and printmaking. Currently, Sheryl lives in Brisbane.

Adair Jones (Fiction) QLD

An American by birth, Adair Jones arrived in Brisbane in 1996 for what was to be a three year adventure.  She’s now an Australian citizen working to establish a writing career.  Her novel, Flesh, a story of betrayal and its aftermath, is represented by the Curtis-Brown Literary Agency. She’s written a column for Arts Hub called “The Write Style” on what an emerging writer can learn from avid reading.  She also maintains the blog Word Search, which reflects on all things literary.  Additionally, she regularly contributes stories, articles and reviews to a variety of publications. Her story ‘One Hundred Points’ is a winner of this year’s One Book, Many Brisbanes competition.

Nancy Knudsen (Non-fiction) NSW

Nancy was born in Queensland. After training as a school teacher, she spent some time working in television there before operating businesses in travel and aviation in Sydney. She is now a sailing journalist, as cruising editor for the online weekly sailing magazine Sail-World and also writes freelance for other magazines. A long-time lover of words, she is a recent entrant into the professional world of writing, with a graduate certificate of journalism from Deakin University. She is currently working on converting the episodic story of her recent sailing circumnavigation of the world into a cohesive book, prelude to a more ambitious biographical work centred around Far North Queensland in the early 1900s.