About

I live and work in Meanjin/Brisbane, Australia, on Turrbal and Jagera Country. I am a former nurse and nurse educator, specialising in neurosurgical critical care, and worked in both Australia and the UK. My long nursing career taught me much about the vulnerabilities of people, but also the fortitude of those faced with extreme adversity. It is a career that continues to inform my writing, most notably when developing strengths, flaws and frailties in characters.

My debut novel Grace’s Table (UQP 2014/Legend Press UK 2019) was shortlisted for the 2011 Queensland Premier’s Literary Award - Emerging Queensland Author category and in 2013 I was awarded a Varuna Publishing Fellowship for the manuscript. 

My second novel The Geography of Friendship (UQP 2018/Audible Audiobooks/Legend Press UK 2019) was shortlisted for the 2019 Australian Book Industry Awards - Small Publishers’ Adult Book of the Year category and selected as an Australian Women’s Weekly Great Read.

My third novel Bone Memories (UQP 2022/Bolinda Audio 2022) was a finalist in the 2023 Queensland Literary Awards for a Work of State Significance and the Courier-Mail People’s Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award, was longlisted for the 2023 International Dublin Literary Award and longlisted for the 2023 Sisters in Crime Davitt Award.

My short fiction and non-fiction has appeared in various online and print publications in Australia, the UK and Ireland, to include a prize-winning short story in the One Book Many Brisbanes anthology, Griffith Review, The Saturday Paper, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Weekend Australian and other literary magazines and journals.

I have been interviewed for radio, been a guest panellist at literary festivals, moderated panels, judged literary awards and delivered many author talks and readings. I am an active member of the Queensland writing community, where I present workshops and seminars, lead in-conversations and mentor other writers.

I hold a Master of Arts (Research) in Creative Writing from Queensland University of Technology. During my post-graduate studies I tutored on the QUT Creative Writing program.

The development of my third novel was generously supported by a grant from the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.

I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which I live and work, and pay respect to Elders, past and present, and all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.