Writers
Last Year > 2019
We are very pleased to have the following authors confirmed for 2019. We are currently accepting interest from all outback writers to attend the 2019 Festival. Please email your details to winton@outbackwritersfestival.com.au.
Fiona McArthur
Crafting her new trade writing 35 Harlequin romance novels and drawing from her life as a rural midwife, Fiona McArthur shares her love of working with women, families and health professionals in her books. In her compassionate, pacey fiction, her love of the Australian landscape meshes beautifully with warm, funny, multigenerational characters as she highlights challenges for rural and remote families, and the strength shared between women. Happy endings are a must.
Fiona is the author of non-fiction book Aussie Midwives, and lives on a farm with her husband in northern New South Wales. She was awarded the NSW Excellence in Midwifery Award in 2015.
Jaye Ford alias Janette Paul
From a career in journalism in radio, television and print, Jaye finally decided to just write. In 2011, her first book, Beyond Fear, was published by Random House Australia. It was the highest selling debut crime novel in Australia in 2011, won two Davitt Awards for Australian women crime writers (Best Debut, Readers’ Choice) and was shortlisted for Best Adult Crime. Jaye has written another four crime novels with her latest Darkest Place written in 2016.
What made her switch to romance novels as Janette Paul will be revealed at the Festival.
Benjamin Lindner
W.Benjamin Lindner is a criminal barrister who has appeared for the defence of those charged with terrorism offences, murder, drugs, sex and those who play rock & roll. He has appeared on behalf of asylum seekers on Nauru. His practice has extended from working in Alice Springs for the Aboriginal Legal Service to teaching advocacy to lawyers in Samoa, New Guinea, Bangladesh and at the Victorian Bar Reader’s Course.
Lindner’s long-standing fascination with the life and times of Waltzing Matilda has culminated in ‘Waltzing Matilda – Australia’s Accidental Anthem’. There, he explores the How, Why, When and Where A.B. ‘Banjo’ Paterson collaborated with his fiancée’s friend, Christina Macpherson…having only met her a matter of days before they spawned a song.
Dan Kelly
Dan is the General Manager of Boolarong Press. Boolarong has been publishing great Queensland and Australian stories for over 40 years. It has published over 1,300 titles and has currently over 400 books in print. Boolarong is a sister company to Watson Ferguson & Company which has been printing books since 1868.
Dan has been runnning both businesses for 15 years and has himself been responsible for commissioning books such as Aboriginal Campsites of Greater Brisbane. The Brisbane River Guide, Outback Miners and the republishing of many of Boolarong's favourite books.