2022 Writing Mentorship Award Finalists

I was born in 1947, the eldest child of a much-decorated Regular soldier and an Italian partisan who met at the liberation of the walled city of Urbino in the Appenine foothills. They brought me up speaking only Italian until I went to school. I was educated at Brighton, Hove and Sussex Grammar

Originally from Hungary, I graduated from the University of Leeds with a BSc in Psychology and an MA in Human Resource Management, and I still live in the city with my partner. In my day job, I’m an HR professional. I love the challenges and the variety I experience through my work, but writing is

Alicia Evans was born and raised in the stunning desert that makes up most of New Mexico, USA. As a child her mother had to bribe her to read until she finally found her love of books at the age of ten. With every new book or series devoured, her love of reading evolved into a love of writing. She

I was born in Berlin, and grew up in the Army, moving from place to place. All of the work I've done in my adult life has been in the worlds of media/entertainment/storytelling. I started in the office of the Anna Scher Children’s Theatre in Islington in the early 1980s’, leaving to move to a small

I’m a CGI filmmaker by trade and throughout my career have helped visualise stories from Hollywood blockbusters like The Golden Compass to Alex Garland’s Annihilation. INTO THE LIGHT was inspired by a true life event of a woman, who stopped a man killing a young girl in public, whilst others passed

I am a UK-based scientist who spends my spare time writing speculative and historical fiction, often focusing on underrepresented voices in science and mythology. In 2021 I took the leap and started submitting work. Since then, I've won Globe Soup's short story competition and have other work

I find wonder in how our world works through studying the past to predict the patterns of our future. This might be due to my first passion and career as a weather forecaster, but it certainly does make life more interesting when I’m not hunched over my computer, madly typing to pin down my

Kylie A Hough lives on Yugambeh land where she is currently undertaking a Master of Creative Writing at Macquarie University. In 2015 Kylie received the Lucy Elizabeth Craigie Award, the Richard B Smith Memorial Prize, and the Australian Federation of Graduate Women Inc. (AFGW) NSW (Armidale) UNE

Penny is working on her first novel in Melbourne, where she lives with her family. At university she studied psychology, psychophysiology and bioethics. Past jobs have included karaoke hostess, English teaching in Tokyo and assessing ethics applications for research projects.

Tony Blankenship is a chef, spiritual seeker, and punk rocker. All the great insights in his book Self-Help Sucks, come from his own challenge of confronting and losing in his own struggle with addictive behavior. Using the principles and actions of the twelve-step program, Tony lays out his

Diane Hopkins is a nonfiction book writing coach for creative and ambitious women who have transformational stories and expertise to share. She has also helped her clients create powerful speeches as invited keynotes speakers at big events including business conferences and United Nations events

Diane Hopkins is a nonfiction book writing coach for creative and ambitious women who have transformational stories and expertise to share. She has also helped her clients create powerful speeches as invited keynotes speakers at big events including business conferences and United Nations events

Sarah was born and raised in a hippie surfer town in California before running away to New Orleans to read literature with vampires. After a hurricane and a degree, she found herself wandering around Los Angeles, dreaming of becoming a novelist in a script writer world. The heat was a tad too much

Jacquelyn de León was born in California but her family soon left the sunshine and beaches for the mountains of Washington state. Never living in one place for more than five years, Jacquelyn grew up with a traveler's heart and a belief that with new locations come new adventures. Her own adventures

Mirjam Dikken was born and raised in the Netherlands. Her interests not only landed her jobs as a chemical engineer, recruiter, and HR manager, but also brought her to travel and work around the world and live in India for 3.5 years. She now wanders around in the darker places of her imagination to

Sarah Nias grew up overseas and worked in translation before moving into a career in print production. Returning to education as a mature student, she studied for an MA in English which inspired her to take up her own writing. After participating in several online creative writing courses she was

Katherine Black was born and raised in Texas but has spent most of her life in England. Her background is in art history. She spent years working for arts charities before leaving it all behind for the glamourous life of a stay-at-home mum. Now that the children are getting older, she's pursuing her

Alice Deby is a debut author who loves retro rom-coms and writing all night. A former teacher and magazine editor, she now writes full-time, with an ambition to deliver many books for many readers. In 2021, she was Highly Commended in the Page Turner Awards, and a prize winner in the Romance Writers

My day job is validating computerised systems involved in drug manufacturing for pharmaceutical companies. It is a complicated and time-consuming process that sounds dull, but don't let that fool you; it is dull. However, my work does save lives (yes, really) because validation ensures that the

Unexpected journeys are the best kind. In 2018, my husband and I packed up and moved from the US to Spain. We live on a farm bordering the famed Camino De Santiago in Lugo, (Galicia) Spain, where I spend my days writing, painting, and counting pilgrims walking past the gate. Throughout my life, I

Mina Rose lives in the Seattle area. She loves self-care, astrology, tarot, yoga, cats, coffee, video games, and outer space (although she's never been). On a typical day you can find her burning incense and dancing in the kitchen. On a non-typical day you can find her sipping margaritas next to a

Claudia Bretag is an editor, teacher, retail assistant and aspiring author from Sydney, Australia. She is an active member of both Writing NSW and IPEd. Claudia is at her best in a cafe with a cup of coffee while her fingers tinker away at a keyboard to uncover a new chapter each day.

Orphaned at sixteen, I wasn't educated in the traditional sense, but I have always been a writer. I am dedicated to shining a light on experiences which have not always made it into print. I tell these with love, with brutal honesty and an eye for detail which was honed as a girl trying to make

I’m currently working as a lawyer in London, I have recently qualified as an associate in my firm’s litigation team and was given a qualification break in which I thought I would give this idea a real attempt. I am originally from the North-East and came to writing over the past few years, having

Victoria is a writer of sapphic thrillers and women's fiction, based in Cambridge, UK. Her novel, 'Darling Girl', won the 2022 'I Am In Print' thriller competition and a place on the Curtis Brown Creative Advanced Crime and Thriller course. She has had a number of flash fiction pieces published

I started writing as a reviewer for the New Musical Express. My poetry has been published in US and UK magazines such as South Bank Poetry, The Interpreter's House, The Moth and Magma. A poem was selected for an anthology about fatherhood (ed.Aurelien Thomas). An excerpt from my first novel, Good

Grace Swee is a Singaporean filmmaker and writer, based in New York City. Her first foray into storytelling was when, as a child, she would re-imagine herself in the stories she read of Enid Blyton’s fairy tales and magical lands. After a brief stint in copy-writing and editorial work, she packed

I'm secondary school teacher from County Cork, Ireland with a degree in English and History and a masters in education. I've always had an avid interest in writing but have only began to look at my writing in a professional capacity over the past two years. After attending a number of creative

I'm an unpublished, aspiring author, with a love for locked room mysteries and boundless imagination. My first full length novel was my first murder mystery story, written for the toughest critics of all - the women of my immediate family - as a Christmas present, thus answering the question; 'what

This is my first foray into the world of creative writing and my dream is to finish this work and have it published. I have a Political Science degree from Carleton University, in Ottawa, but have always aspired to a career as a writer of fiction. While this novel is fictional, it is my real

Britt Marie Box is a published non-fiction author and magazine columnist, a new fiction author and is currently studying for a BA(hons) degree in Creative Writing and English Literature.

I was born in Japan, but received all of my formal education in the U.S., graduating with an Applied Piano degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. I have spent most of my adult life in Tokyo, Japan--working as an interpreter for clients as diverse as condom manufacturers to diplomats to the