Application are now open!

KYD offers a unique, comprehensive and structured editorial mentorship program designed to support early-career writers. Writers across Australia can apply to work with these experienced, award-winning writers, editors and teachers, with valuable insights into both the publishing industry and the creative regime required to craft a long-form manuscript.

Applications for the February–Jun 2025 mentorship round are now open and will close at 11.59pm (AEST) on Sunday 29 September 2024. Find out how to apply here.

 Sara M Saleh

Genre: Essays collections, adult fiction, poetry

‘My art has only been possible thanks to a series of collective, communal generosities. Mentoring fellow writers is how I add my link to the chain, supporting them so they may share their stories. I’ll be passing on my inherited (and hard earned!) wisdoms, and learning from them, too.’

Sara M Saleh is a writer, human rights lawyer, and the daughter of Palestinian, Lebanese and Egyptian migrants based on Bidjigal land. Her writing has been published widely and showcased at festivals, exhibitions, and events around the world. Sara made history as the first to win both the 2021 Peter Porter and the 2020 Judith Wright Poetry Prizes. Her debut novel Songs for the Dead and the Living (Affirm Press, 2023) was shortlisted for the 2024 NSW Premier’s Awards, and her poetry collection The Flirtation of Girls/Ghazal el-Banat (UQP, 2023) won the 2023 Anne Elder Award, and was also shortlisted for multiple national and international prizes. Working within her communities, Sara has tirelessly organised generative initiatives and events to uplifted hundreds of storytellers over the last decade.

Jack Heath

Genres: Crime fiction, middle-grade action-adventure

‘I’ve made every mistake it’s possible to make as a writer. I was published young, and my early career was a string of enthusiastic missteps. I’ve spent much of my time since then visiting schools, encouraging non-readers to read, and non-writers to write. But my favourite thing is meeting emerging authors who are as passionate as I was, and helping them find their voices more gracefully than I did.’

Jack Heath wrote his first book in high school and got a publishing contract at age 18. He’s now the award-winning author of 40 books, including Kill Your Husbands and 300 Minutes of Danger. His work has been translated into 10 languages. He lives on Ngunnawal/Ngambri country in Canberra.

Laura McPhee-Browne

Genres: Short story collections, adult fiction

‘I love reading new work from fellow fiction writers, and find engaging with a project as it is forming to be such a treat, as well as a privilege. Writing, revising and publishing my own short fiction and novels has been such a transformative and challenging experience, and the support I have received from other writers has helped me keep going. One of my favourite things about being a writer is sharing and learning about craft and process. I feel lucky to have the opportunity to engage in this formally with others.’

Laura McPhee-Browne is a writer, social worker, and counsellor living on unceded Wurundjeri land. She has published two novels, Cherry Beach and Little Plum, with Text Publishing. She is currently writing her third novel, and working as a counsellor advocate at the Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture.

Yves Rees

Genres: Memoir, narrative non-fiction, essay collections

‘To be a writer, you must write. To write, you must somehow silence all the voices saying that art doesn’t matter, that your work doesn’t matter, that you’re a derivative imposter (and who has time for art, anyway—in this economy?), and sit down at the damned desk and do the thing. That’s where mentoring comes in. Everyone needs a mentor, not because they need a teacher, but because they need a cheerleader, a champion, someone to insist—again and again and again—that you have something to say. That you are a writer. Basically, writing is a confidence game, and mentors keep us faking it until we (hopefully) make it.’

Dr Yves Rees (they/them) is a writer and historian from Naarm. They are a Senior Lecturer at La Trobe University, co-host of Archive Fever podcast, and author of Travelling to Tomorrow: the modern women who sparked Australia’s romance with America (NewSouth, 2024). They are also co-editor of Nothing to Hide: Voices of Trans and Gender Diverse Australia (A&U, 2022) and author of the memoir All About Yves: Notes from a Transition (A&U, 2021). Their writing has featured in Meanjin, Sydney Review of Books, Griffith Review, Australian Book Review, Overland, The Guardian and The Age. Rees won the 2020 Calibre Essay Prize.

Miles Allinson

Genres: Literary fiction, essays collections, creative non-fiction

‘As a writing teacher (and a father) the joy of working with emerging writers is, perhaps chiefly, the joy of being surprised by another person’s imagination: the strange and unexpected depths, the excitement of (sometimes painful) discovery, the delight of an open and hungry mind encountering the world through language. Learning to trust our own strangeness (our own fugitive obsessions) is maybe half the job of being a writer. The other half is just words: words, sentences, paragraphs, rhythm and tone. The mystery of that stuff.’

Miles Allinson is a writer from Naarm (Melbourne). His first novel, Fever of Animals won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript in 2014 among other prizes. His second novel In Moonland won the Age Book of the Year Prize for Fiction in 2022. He teaches novel writing at the Faber Academy.

Julie Koh

Genres: Short story collections, adult fiction (literary/experimental/speculative/satirical)

‘When I first set out to become a writer, I found myself embarking alone on a journey that would be filled with trial and error. Through this mentorship program, I hope to share the insights I’ve gained to help early-career writers navigate a smoother path to publication and beyond. I’m looking forward to taking a deep dive into my mentees’ works in progress, assisting them to refine their unique voices, break through their blocks, and kick their drafts into shape.’

Julie Koh is the author of two short-story collections: Capital Misfits and Portable Curiosities. She was named a 2017 Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist. Her short fiction has been published in ten countries and she has represented Australian literature internationally at the invitation of the Australian Embassy in Beijing and the Australian Consulate-General, Chennai. Julie has written radio plays for ABC Radio National and the libretto for the opera Chop Chef. She has also judged more than a dozen literary awards including the 2018 Stella Prize and the 2022 and 2023 Steele Rudd Awards. She has been a peer assessor for Creative Australia and a reader for the Oxbelly Fiction Writers program. She is the current Fiction Editor for Westerly.

Maggie MacKellar

Genres: Memoir, nature writing, narrative non-fiction, essay collections

‘The reason I’m a writer is because of the writers who have mentored me. I was lucky enough to sit for hours at Drusilla Modjeska’s kitchen table and have her talk through my work. Drusilla taught me the power of engaging with what is on the page. She taught me about how drafts work, about stepping stones and how some sentences are more important than others. Most crucially she gifted me belief in my work. I am excited to have the opportunity to work with new writers and see them move from raw drafts to a polished piece of work that says something powerful. Over the course of my career, I’ve published in academic journals, lifestyle magazines, newspapers and now a weekly newsletter. I’ve written five books. Just writing that down I realise I’ve got an eclectic writing resume; I’m delighted to have the opportunity to share what I’ve learned.’

Maggie MacKellar is an historian and writer who has published two books on the history of settlement in Australia and Canada and three memoirs, When It Rains, How To Get There and Graft. When it Rains won the Peter Blazey Fellowship and was shortlisted for the 2010 Queensland Premier’s Non Fiction Award, The Victorian Premier’s Non Fiction Award and 2010 The Age Book of the Year. Graft has been longlisted for the 2024 NIB Award, Stella Prize and shortlisted for the Prime Ministers Literary Award. Maggie lives on the banks of the Tamar River with her partner. She runs the much-loved newsletter The Sit Spot.

Find out more about the KYD Mentors Program here.

Previous mentors include Melina Marchetta, Briohny Doyle, J.P. Pomare, Stephanie Bishop, Ceridwen Dovey, Emma Viskic, Omar Sakr, Tara June Winch, Jock Serong, Mark Brandi, Emily Bitto, Melanie Cheng, Claire G. Coleman, Sophie Cunningham, Carly Findlay, Sarah Krasnostein, Benjamin Law, Bri Lee, Kate Mildenhall, Peter Polites, Heather Rose, Graeme Simsion and others.