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 channeling 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.
His work is forthcoming in Kaleidotrope and Andromeda Spaceways.
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 a few places, including Escape Pod, Aurealis, Heartlines and Andromeda Spaceways, and he won the 2024 Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Short Story.
In another life he was a steppe nomad and he still has a soft spot for goat curry.
Harvey Weir
(she/her)
Harvey is a trans author, artist, and childrens’ literacy advocate living and working on unceded Wurundjeri land in Naarm. She finds beauty and meaning in all forms of art, leaving her with far too many work-in-progress projects and far too little time.
She is the Kids’ Book Specialist at Readings Doncaster, where she is slowly improving the music taste of her millennial coworkers. She interviews fellow artists with the hope of building stronger connections within and between communities of people who make beautiful things. She is a lifetime DM, an avid home cook, and nurses a fanatic obsession with all mediums and forms of art.
You can find her work published in Farrago, Inkspot, Gnome Magazine, AUSTRAL 2024, and here on the Meridian Australis website. You can also find her musical collaborations with Xavier Clarke on Spotify.
Andrew Nathan Roberts
(he/him)
Andrew Nathan Roberts is a Melbourne-based writer who has enjoyed creating fantastical stories since a childhood friend lent him a battered copy of the choose-your-own-adventure book The Warlock of Firetop Mountain when he was seven. He hasn’t looked back since.
Andrew has previously worked as a journalist and videographer across Australia and Ireland and currently works in the not-for-profit communications space.
He has previously been published in Aurealis and Andromeda Spaceways Magazines.
Jason Schembri
(he/him)
Jason Schembri (he/him) is a queer writer exploring what we leave unsaid. Born in Malta and raised in Western Sydney, he now calls Melbourne home. His work appears in Stirring Literary, Neon Mariposa (Best of the Net nominee), and the AUSTRAL and Float anthologies.
His bio haunts him to this day.
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.
William Rotor
(he/him)
Writes whatever he wants. Impossible to stop.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Isaac Clifford
(he/him)
Isaac is an erstwhile banker and disenchanted writer hailing from rural Tasmania. Isaac tends to oscillate between science fiction, dying earth, magical realism, and straight literature.
When he is not writing, Isaac enjoys chess, reading, hiking, experimental jazz, hypochondria, and cartography.
Ciar Fhearchair
(they/he/she)
Ciar Fhearchair 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.
Honor Rush
(she/her)
Honor is a graduate student at the university of Melbourne studying a Masters in Creative Writing and Publishing. Her published work includes history essays, personal essays and short stories.
As a pantser looking to evolve into a plotter, Honor is honing her writerly voice and story telling skills – and also providing tasty baked goods.
Michaela Teschendorff Harden
(she/her)
Michaela is a writer and editor based in Melbourne/Naarm. She is a graduate from the University of Melbourne, holding a Master in Creative Writing, Editing and Publishing.
She has been enamoured with the written word from the moment she could read, and has always loved the creative ways in which human nature and real-world views are illuminated through speculative fiction.
When not writing, Michaela can be found reading, desperately trying to maintain her Japanese language skills, or playing video games. Her every move is watched over by her insane cat. Her book reviews can be found in Aurealis magazine.
Thomas K. Slee
(he/him)
Thomas K Slee is an author and engineer based in Melbourne with a spreadsheet full of ideas that are growing increasingly impatient to be written.
He loves cynical science fiction, weird fantasy, cold war thrillers, and discovering something new and beautiful where he least expects it. Oh, and big dumb action movies – the more glistening muscles, explosions and incomprehensible plotting the better.
His debut novel, Project Gateway, is a technothriller that combines most of the above, and is available now if you know where to look.
Henry Neilsen
(he/him)
Henry is an Aurealis award nominated sci-fi/horror writer, musician and recovering tech enthusiast based in Melbourne, Australia. His work has been featured in Aurealis Magazine and TL;DR press, and he self-published his first novel in early 2025. His stories usually interrogate the conceit of technology as a saviour, and focus on the characters who aren’t the benefactors of technological progress.
His debut novel SUNWARD SKY is available from most major retailers. He writes about tech and culture on his substack “Of Books and Bots” and watches too many reels on his Instagram.
Emily Mercurio
(she/her)
Emily is a fiction writer with a soft spot for fantasy, horror and anything a little strange or magical. She loves all nerdy things like tabletop roleplaying, board games and video games, and is rarely seen without a cup of tea in hand.
Emily has joined Meridian with the aim to reignite her love of writing for the sheer joy of it, no big plans in mind – yet.