Our Authors
We pride ourselves on being an inclusive community, and we welcome writers from all backgrounds.
Dominic Deveny-Borg
(he/him)
Dom (he/him) is a writer, artist, student of East Asian languages and part time spiritual vagabond. Enamoured by the fantastical worlds Ken Liu, Ursula Le Guin, John Crowley and Seth Dickinson, he started writing midway through his tumultuous teens and never looked back.
A passionate English Teacher, Dom has always held a great interest in conveying knowledge to others, be it linguistic, spiritual, or literary. Between assaulting his keyboard and channelling his inner wizard, he can be found practicing his Chinese at the spiciest restaurants in Melbourne, roaming the streets in flowing robes, or psychoanalysing his friends – often all at the same time.
Arden Baker
(he/him)
A science fiction aficionado and avid writer, Arden (he/him) has been creating speculative fiction for as long as he could hold a pen. He describes himself as a lapsed translator, having worked abroad and locally in the communications industry to keep the lights on. He has been published in Aurealis, Heartlines and Intrepidus Ink.
When he’s not reading Banks or Asimov, he’s musing on cyberpunk dystopias or brewing some mead.
Harvey Weir
(they/them)
Harvey Weir is a writer and editor living in Northcote. They got into writing when they realised pages don’t talk back, and they write short stories, poetry, scripts, songs and novels. They love theatre, magical realism, Australian fiction and anything speculative – except Harry Potter.
They also edit for Farrago and run writing workshops, work at two bookstores and spend their spare time cooking, playing Dungeons and Dragons, and listening to Cat Stevens.
If they could recommend one book it would be Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie, but then they’d stare at you angrily for limiting them to just one book.
Andrew Nathan Roberts
(he/him)
Andy is a Melbourne-based writer who loves creating new worlds and challenging his characters to contend with their deepest, darkest fears and desires. His writing moves from high fantasy, to grungy science fiction, to hardboiled crime thrillers with elements of both. There ain’t a genre he’s not willing to make speculative.
When not writing about necromancers, drug-dealing street kids from a crumbling forgeworld, or private investigators with pet dragons, Andy works in the communications industry creating video-based work.
Jason Schembri
(he/him)
Jason is a queer Melbourne-based writer with a hunger for exploring identity, history, and the darker side of humankind. His writing often straddles the nebulous line between literary and speculative fiction.
When not reading or writing, Jason works as a sometimes-photographer-sometimes-editor-sometimes-3D-printing-guy, and his free time is spent tending to his many needy chihuahuas.
His bio remains his most elusive piece to date.
Lilla Zielke
(she/her)
Lilla (she/her) is a writer and EAL teacher, living on Wurundjeri land. She fell in love with the words of Emily Rodda at ten years old, and has been a lost cause since.
She loves to weave queerness, folklore, and an excessive number of textile metaphors into her stories.
Edward Hodge
(he/him)
Edward Hodge grew up on the Bellarine Peninsula in Point Lonsdale.
He is a writer and editor currently based in Naarm, with broad interests ranging from music to astronomy.
His writing style is rooted in both literature and commercial fiction. He currently works in the accessibility sector as a full-time editor.
Ebony Eve
(she/her)
Ebony has listed ‘writing’ as the pinnacle of her personality since she understood the word. She weaves between writing fiction and fantasy stories with poetry playing a heavy role in her style.
When she isn’t trying to depict complex emotions in poetic ways she can be found with her head buried in a book, playing D&D, or undertaking ill-advised DIY projects around the house.
Zelda Harper-Balsamo
(she/her)
Zelda is a Melbourne-based writer and artist with a particular interest in all things comics. Born (and named) to be obsessed with fantasy and science fiction, her works focus on the mundane inner dialogue of characters in a not-so-mundane world.
In between word vomiting her thoughts on a page and cooking up a storm, Zelda can be found practicing elaborate amateur circus burlesque in her thoroughly damaged living room.
Hazel/Ben Astell
(they/them)
Ben/Hazel Astell is a Naarm/Melb based author and journalist who often describes themselves as a fan of animals and the occult.
Their stories are psychedelic odysseys through human nature, hyper violence and societal horror.
They also love Banh Mi and ice coffee, have 2 pets and aspire to be a travel-food show host.
Caleb Whittaker
(he/him)
Caleb Whittaker started his writing journey at the age of ten with a self-published novel based on his first Dungeons & Dragons game, a solo campaign run by his cousin after school. Caleb now works on the other side of the game screen as a professional Dungeon Master, and his childhood world still inspires his stories on both table and page.
His goal as a storyteller is to create worlds that immerse, excite, and inspire, filled with characters and messages that endure long after the final word. He believes that the best stories are born from shared experiences, be that through artistic collaboration or human community.
Ishan Morris-Grey
(he/him)
Ishan has told stories and written them down from as far back as he can remember and has always been drawn to fantasy for its imaginative takes on real world issues, and its transportive, immersive capabilities. Some of his favourite speculative fiction authors are Neil Gaiman, Ursula Le Guin, Steven Erikson, Neal Stephenson.
He values fiction which displays empathy and compassion for all beings, and he is especially passionate about representations of neurodivergence, as an autistic and ADHD person.
Blake Beyer
(he/him)
Blake Beyer is a poet and writer from Albury, on Wiradjuri country, NSW. He is currently living in Naarm/Melbourne with his husband and studied English literature at the Australian National University.
He has always loved fantasy and science fiction and had a tumultuous relationship with literature. He is inspired to write by the people he loves and always strives to write something they would like or reminds him of them.
He has been previously published in Shout magazine.
Cat Nadel
(she/they)
Cat is a community organiser and emerging writer from Melbourne. Obsessed with imagining worlds where we survive the climate crisis, Cat’s writing explores themes to do with power, nature and the messy beauty of human relationships.
Cat is a finalist for Osborne and Fawkner’s Pearl Prize Writing Award and their work has previously been published in Overland Literary Journal.
When not writing, Cat can be found facilitating a strategy meeting, climbing a mountain to look at a bird, or having a D&M in a beer garden.
A. M. Bueman
(they/them)
A. M. Bueman is a reader, daydreamer, and bird enthusiast based on Yalukit Willam country, in Narrm/Melbourne. Sometimes, they even write there.
As reader and writer both, they are fascinated by the potential of fantasy and science fiction to imagine different worlds and ways of being. They love to explore humanity and inhumanity, the nature of truth, and the changing world. Their writing moves between horror and wonder, tragedy and hope.
When not immersed in the pages of a good book, they can be found cooing at pigeons, screeching at seagulls, and occasionally studying.
William Rotor
(he/him)
Writes whatever he wants. Impossible to stop.
Isaac Clifford
(he/him)
Isaac is a disenchanted banker and wannabe writer hailing from the Middle-of-Nowhere, Tasmania. Overly opinionated and strikingly incompetent, his attempts at literary science fiction usually result in general confusion.
When not writing, Isaac would like to be reading, playing tennis or chess, cross-country hiking, or in a substance-fuelled haze, but he is presently trapped beneath the 300 odd books he has nowhere else to store.
Ciar Fhearchair
(they/he/she)
Ciar Fhearchair (they/he/she) is a science fiction author. He is interested in how we measure what is a person and what is not, and what we do with those that fall someplace in between. His work is about voyeurism, disautonomy, predestination, and transformation.
When not writing, he can be found speedrunning video games, playing loud angry music, or transfixed in the import aisle at Coles.
Sage Hunter
(he/him)
Sage is a Melbourne based prose writer who aspires to occasional moments of poetry and by most standards takes books far too seriously.
Currently defined primarily by his distaste for automobiles, he mistrusts summaries almost as much as consistency.
Luke Weavell
(he/him)
Luke Weavell is an aspiring writer from the Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne. He’s a third-year student, currently studying his Bachelor of Creative Writing at Deakin University.
Luke’s stories typically lean toward the fantastical, taking inspiration from high fantasy to cosmic horror. He also loves a lore-dump and will defend them to his dying breath.
He has been fortunate enough to be published in WORDLY Magazine and Verandah Literary Journal.