Get to know our team!
Festival Director
Anna Solding
Anna Solding is the co-founder and this year’s director of the Australian Short Story Festival. Anna is also the founder and director of independent publishing company MidnightSun Publishing. She has travelled the world as a publisher and festival director, partaking in delegations to China, Korea and India, and she has published many books that have been shortlisted for or won awards, both in Australia and internationally. Anna has attended the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and the London Book Fair. A writer and editor, Anna has a Masters and a PhD in Creative Writing from The University of Adelaide and is the co-founder of two literary magazines. Anna adores The Australian Short Story Festival and can’t wait to be treated to four full days of amazing literary discussions in Adelaide in November 2023.
Program Coordinator
Gillian Hagenus
Gillian Hagenus is a creative writer, editor and book devourer, who has discovered that the best way to get all her books signed and meet great writers is to help run literary festivals. She holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Adelaide and her stories have been published in various journals across Australia and overseas. In 2023 she is the editor of Strangely Enough, an anthology of short stories from emerging and established Australian writers, published by MidnightSun Publishing in partnership with the Australian Short Story Festival. In the time she hasn’t spent planning this year’s festival program, Gillian has been working at a hotel, collecting ghosts, strange customer requests, and a horde of lost property – all the better to tell stories with, my dear.
