Anna Solding is an expert chocolate ball maker. That doesn’t necessarily help her in her day job as a publisher at MidnightSun, but it’s something she is immensely proud of. Anna is also the co-founder and current director of the Australian Short Story Festival. She has travelled the world as a publisher and published many books that have been shortlisted for awards. Some of them have even won. 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 as well as an avid short story lover. She is hoping that this year’s festival in Adelaide, after the break in 2020, will be a wonderful event full of enthusiastic writers and readers coming together to celebrate their love of stories.
Jo Case
Jo Case is an Adelaide-based writer, editor and bookseller who is currently associate publisher at Wakefield Press. She has been deputy editor of Australian Book Review, books editor of The Big Issue and associate editor of Kill Your Darlings. A former program manager of Melbourne Writers Festival, Jo was a co-founder of the Feminist Writers Festival and a founding board member of the Stella Prize. Her first book, Boomer and Me: A memoir of motherhood, and Asperger’s (2013) was shortlisted for the inaugural Russell Prize for Humour Writing. Her short stories have been published in Best Australian Stories, The Big Issue Fiction Edition and Sleepers Almanac. Her personal essays have been published in the anthologies Mothermorphosis (MUP, 2015) and Rebellious Daughters (Ventura Press, 2016). Her reviews have been published in the Age, Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian, Australian Book Review and The Monthly. She writes a regular books column and reviews for Adelaide’s InDaily.
Lauren Butterworth
Dr Lauren Butterworth is a writer, academic, and producer with creative work published in a variety of outlets including Meanjin, Verity La, Wet Ink, Midnight Echo and more. She is host and producer of the podcast Deviant Women, which tells the stories of subversive, daring, and outrageous women in history and mythology. She is also a live-storytelling enthusiast and is co-director of The Hearth, a live readings event in Adelaide, and has written and performed in multiple five-star productions for Deviant Women. When not creating, she teaches academic writing at Flinders University.
Gillian Hagenus
Gillian Hagenus is an Adelaide-based writer, reader, and expert daydreamer. She is currently completing a Masters degree in creative writing at the University of Adelaide, specialising in Australian Gothic short fiction which never fails to unsettle her most dedicated reader (ok yes, it’s her mother). She works part time as an editor at MidnightSun Publishing and has had her short stories published in Voiceworks and SWAMP. Gillian is never not craving blueberry muffins.
