The The NSW Writers' Centre

Mentors – Speculative Fiction

Nick Bleszynski has spent 30 years writing/directing award-winning documentary films for the world’s biggest broadcasters. He has written the bestselling Shoot Straight You Bastards, You’ll Never Take Me Alive (shortlisted for the 2006 Ned Kelly True Crime Prize), Bloodlust and is about to publish The Pricker. With a wealth of teaching and mentoring experience (London University, Aberdeen Arts Centre, Sturt University, NSW TAFE, NSW Writers’ Centre and Sutherland & Bankstown Community Colleges), Nick is ideally placed to help aspiring authors realize their true potential. He is comfortable helping writers with modern fiction, non-fiction, speculative fiction and scriptwriting/project proposals, but specialises in books with a historical background, which is the basis of his own projects. www.blackrosemedia.com.au

Nick is available to work in person as well as via phone, email or Skype.

Terry Dowling is one of Australia’s most awarded and internationally acclaimed writers of science fiction, fantasy and horror. His books include Rynosseros, Blue Tyson and Twilight Beach (the “Tom Rynosseros saga”), The Man Who Lost Red, Antique Futures: The Best of Terry Dowling and Blackwater Days, and the best-selling computer adventures Schizm: Mysterious Journey and Mysterious Journey 2: Chameleon. Peter McNamara considers Terry to be “Australia’s premier fantasist”, while the multi-award-winning US genre newspaper Locus has called him “the most noted prose stylist in Australian speculative fiction” and “Australia’s finest writer of horror”.

Kate Forsyth has published more than twenty books for both adult and children, which have been published in thirteen different countries, including Russia, Japan, Italy, Spain, Poland and Indonesia. She has taught creative writing from primary to tertiary levels for over ten years, including ‘Writing for Children’ at Sydney University, and has run writing retreats in Fiji and Greece. She mentors for the ASA Mentorship Program, and for the NSW Writers’ Centre and the Central West Writers’ Group. www.kateforsyth.com.au

Kate is only available to work via email.

Catherine Hammond earned a Masters Degree in literature and creative writing (Boston) and a MA in philosophy (Fordham, New York), and taught English literature, creative writing and philosophical psychology in both Boston and Sydney, in tertiary institutes. She has authored two high school texts, a book of short stories, a biography and a public speaking aid. She edited and contributed to a breakthrough work entitled, Creation Spirituality and the Dreamtime (Millennium, Sydney). As a free lance editor, she now assesses manuscripts and edits for both publishers and individual writers, and has been a mentor at the NSW Writers’ Centre for several years, also conducting courses at the Centre. Catherine is a frequent speaker at various workshops and writers’ groups, focusing in the past year on opportunities in online and e-publishing.

Catherine is available to work in person as well as via phone, email and Skype.

Emily Maguire is the author of three novels and two non-fiction books. Her articles and essays have been published widely including in The Monthly, Sunday Life and The Sydney Morning Herald. Emily has been twice highly commended for the Kathleen Mitchell Award for novelists under 30 and was a finalist for the 2006 International Dylan Thomas Prize. In 2010, she was named as a Sydney Morning Herald Young Novelist of the Year. Emily has an MA in literature, teaches creative writing to children and teenagers and frequently mentors beginning and emerging writers. www.emilymaguire.com.au

Emily is available to work in person as well as via phone.

Keith Stevenson has been working as an editor in the speculative fiction genre for ten years, firstly as editor of Australia’s longest running SF and Fantasy Magazine, Aurealis, and more recently as publishing editor with coeur de lion publishing (www.coeurdelion.com.au), a Sydney-based speculative ficition publisher whose publications have won numerous awards and accolades here and overseas. Keith is also a spec fic reviewer and the host and producer of the Parsec Award nominated Terra Incognita Australian Speculative Fiction Podcast (www.tisf.com.au). A published speculative fiction author, Keith brings his critical skills as a publisher editor, reviewer and writer immersed in the SF, Fantasy and Horror genres to the mentorship program. www.keithstevenson.com

Keith is available to work in person as well as via phone, email or Skype.