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Rajith Savandasa is a graduate of the Hachette Manuscript Development Program. Mark Smith’s first book was plucked from the slush. Anna Daniels won an unpublished manuscript award. Three authors reveal their unique routes to publication.
Brisbane Writers Festival
2016 Highlights
Presented by State Library of Queensland
Pathways To Publication
Anna Daniels
Anna Daniels is a freelance presenter for 612 ABC Brisbane. She has had great success as a comedic storyteller, writing and presenting stories for The Project, particularly from rural and regional Australia. Anna kicked off her broadcast career by winning the ABC’s Comedy Segment of the Year Award for her interview with Russell Crowe. She was shortlisted for The Australian/Vogel Literary Award in 2016, and her debut romantic comedy novel Girl In Between will be released by Allen & Unwin in June next year.
Kelly Higgins-Devine
Award-winning ABC Local Radio broadcaster Kelly Higgins-Devine is a preternaturally curious human being who loves seeking out great personal stories. Kelly worked in commercial radio for many years at the start of her career, but has been with the ABC since 1999, first as a journalist, senior sub-editor and newsreader and then as a presenter when she hosted either the Afternoons or Drive program since 2004. Kelly is currently working on her first novel, a children’s book loosely based on the free-range childhood shenanigans of her father and his siblings in 1950s rural Victoria.
Mark Smith
Mark Smith lives on Victoria’s Surf Coast where he writes and runs outdoor education programs for young adults. His writing has won a number of awards and has appeared in Best Australian Stories, Review of Australian Fiction and The Big Issue. The Road to Winter is his first book.
Rajith Savanadasa
Rajith Savanadasa was born in Sri Lanka and now lives in Melbourne. He turned to creative writing in the final year of an engineering degree, which he followed up with the Professional Writing and Editing course at RMIT University. He was shortlisted for the Asia-Europe Foundation short story prize in 2013, the Fish Publishing short story prize in 2013, received a Wheeler Centre Hotdesk Fellowship in 2014 and was part of the QWC/Hachette Manuscript Development Program in 2014. Ruins is his debut novel. Rajith is also the founder and primary contributor to Open City Stories, a website documenting the lives of a group of asylum seekers in Melbourne.