Mentoring with novelist Kelly Gardiner

What you’re bidding for: Two one-hour mentoring sessions on writing fiction for young adults or middle-grade readers. This will suit emerging and aspiring writers, or more established writers who need a little one-on-one support.

Your mentor: Kelly Gardiner writes historical fiction, fantasy, and crime fiction for all ages. Her latest series is The Firewatcher Chronicles and her other books include 1917, shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Young People’s History Prize; Act of Faith and The Sultan’s Eyes, both shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards; and the Swashbuckler pirate trilogy. Goddess, a novel based on the life of the queer, sword-fighting cross-dressing opera star, Mademoiselle de Maupin, is being adapted for the screen.

Kelly taught creative writing at La Trobe University for many years and supervised PhD projects by some of Australia’s leading writers for children and young adults. She now writes full-time.