Begin, End, Begin

Danielle Binks is an editor, book blogger, literary agent, and youth literature advocate. The short story in a #LoveOzYA anthology is her first book publication, and marks her as an emerging voice in the Australian YA landscape.

Michael Pryor has published more than thirty novels and fifty something short stories. He is one of the co-publishers of Aurealis, a premier Fantasy and SF magazine. He has been shortlisted for the Aurealis Award seven times, and seven of his books have been CBCA Notable books.

Lili Wilkinson is the award-winning author of ten YA novels, including Scatterheart, Pink and Green Valentine. After studying Creative Arts at the University of Melbourne, Lili established the website, the Inky Awards and the Inkys Creative Reading Prize at the Centre for Youth Literature, State Library of Victoria. She has a PhD in Creative Writing, and lives in Melbourne with her husband, son, dog and three chickens.

Gabrielle Tozer is an award-winning author based in regional New South Wales. Her latest works include The Unexpected Mess of It All, which won the 2025 ACT Literary Award for Young Adult Fiction, beloved picture book Before We Met (illustrated by the award-winning Sophie Beer) and Can’t Say it Went to Plan. Over the years, Gabrielle has received honours including the State Library of Victoria’s Gold Inky Award for her debut YA novel, The Intern, and appeared on the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Notable List for Older Readers for Remind Me How This Ends. Gabrielle loves sharing her passion for creativity with readers and aspiring writers, and has worked as a mentor for the Regional Arts Network’s Horizon program, Regional Arts Australia’s Regional Scribes program and the ABC’s Heywire initiative. Gabrielle is currently working on four new books for HarperCollins.

Melissa Keil has lived in Minnesota, London and the Middle East, and now resides in her hometown of Melbourne. Her YA novels, Life in Outer Space and The Incredible Adventures of Cinnamon Girl have both been shortlisted for the CBCA Book of the Year and the Gold Inky awards.

Amie Kaufman is a New York Times and internationally bestselling author of young adult fiction. Her multi-award winning work is slated for publication in over 30 countries, and has been described as “a game-changer” (Shelf Awareness), “stylistically mesmerising” (Publishers Weekly) and “out-of-this-world awesome” (Kirkus). Her series include The Illuminae Files, The Aurora Cycle, the Other Side of the Sky duology, The Starbound Trilogy, the Unearthed duology and The ElementalsTrilogy. Her work is in development for film and TV, and has taken home multiple Aurealis Awards, an ABIA, a Gold Inky, made multiple best-of lists and been shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. Raised in Australia and occasionally Ireland, Amie has degrees in history, literature, law and conflict resolution, and is currently undertaking a PhD in Creative Writing. She lives in Melbourne with her husband, daughter and rescue dog, and an extremely large personal library.

Kostakis is an award-winning author, but his real claims to fame are a Twitter spat with Guy Sebastian, and that time a member of Destiny’s Child said his name.

Ellie Marney is a teacher and author of the Every series (Every Breath, Every Word, Every Move), a highly-awarded YA crime trilogy. She advocates for and promotes Australian YA literature through #LoveOzYA, hosts an online book club - #LoveOzYA book club - and is a Stella Prize Schools Ambassador. She lives near Castlemaine, Victoria, with her partner and four sons.

Jaclyn Moriarty grew up in Sydney, lived in the US, the UK and Canada, and now lives in Sydney again. She is the prize-winning, best-selling author of the Ashbury-Brookfield books (including Feeling Sorry for Celia and Finding Cassie Crazy) and the Colours of Madeleine trilogy (A Corner of White, The Cracks in the Kingdom and A Tangle of Gold).

Alice Pung is the current Artist in Residence at Janet Clarke Hall, the University of Melbourne, and Adjunct Professor at RMIT University’s School of Media and Communication. She is the bestselling author of the memoirs Unpolished Gem and Her Father’s Daughter, and the essay collection Close to Home, as well as the editor of the anthologies Growing Up Asian in Australia and My First Lesson. Her debut novel Laurinda won the Ethel Turner Prize at the 2016 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. Her second novel, One Hundred Days, was shortlisted for the 2022 Miles Franklin Award, and has been optioned for a film. She is the author of children’s books including Millie Mak the Maker and Be Careful, Xiao Xin! (ill. Sher Rill Ng), When Granny Came to Stay (ill. Sally Soweol Han) and the Meet Marly books (ill. Lucia Masciullo). Alice was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for services to literature in 2022.

Danielle Binks is an editor, book blogger, literary agent, and youth literature advocate. The short story in a #LoveOzYA anthology is her first book publication, and marks her as an emerging voice in the Australian YA landscape.