About the Mentors
Applications are now closed.
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 July–November 2025 mentorship round will close at 11.59pm (AEST) on Sunday 13 April 2025. Find out how to apply here.
Candice Fox
Genre: Crime fiction
‘I was mentored closely by a university lecturer, who sat with me and picked through an entire novel I’d written line by line. I learned more about being an author during that experience than I did in my entire subsequent six years at university. Getting personalised, close and intense evaluation of your work is one of the most critical things an aspiring author can get. I’d be thrilled to provide that for someone.’
Candice Fox is the author of eleven solo novels, three of which have won Australia’s prestigious Ned Kelly Award. She has multiple tv and film adaptations currently in production, with the adaptation of her bestselling Crimson Lake hitting screens as Troppo starring Thomas Jane and Nicole Chamoun in 2022. A third season of the hit show is currently in production. In 2015, Candice began collaborating with James Patterson. Every one of their seven novels together have been New York Times best sellers. Candice lives in Sydney with her family and is a volunteer rescuer of injured wildlife.
Melanie Cheng
Genres: Short stories, adult fiction
‘Writing can be such a lonely and isolating pursuit. As an emerging writer, all I wanted was another writer, preferably with more experience than me, to workshop my writing with. To be able to provide that to a new writer is a wonderful and exciting privilege.’
Melanie Cheng is a writer and general practitioner. She was born in Adelaide, grew up in Hong Kong and now lives in Melbourne. Her debut collection of short stories, Australia Day, won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript in 2016 and the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction in 2018. Room for a Stranger, her highly acclaimed first novel, which was longlisted for the 2020 Miles Franklin Literary Award, was published in 2019. Her latest novel is The Burrow.
Kate Mildenhall
Genres: Adult fiction (contemporary, historical, speculative)
‘I’ve had the privilege of being mentored by many extraordinary writers who have helped shape my craft and my headspace and most significantly, shared their own experiences of the joy and challenges of the writing life. I love mentoring for the opportunity it gives me to give back to the writing community, to play a small role in helping emerging writers hone their craft and voice and to share some of the strategies and advice that have been so generously passed on to me. Also—it means I get to read fabulous new work and meet excellent humans.’
Kate Mildenhall is the author of three novels—Skylarking (2016), The Mother Fault (2020) and The Hummingbird Effect (2023). The Hummingbird Effect was longlisted for the 2024 Stella Prize and shortlisted for the 2024 ABIA literary Fiction Book of the year. In 2024 Kate released her first children’s book To Stir with Love illustrated by Jess Racklyeft. She co-hosted The First Time podcast interviewing hundreds of writers including Tim Winton, Helen Garner, Richard Flanagan, George Saunders, Charlotte Wood and many more. Her fourth novel is forthcoming. Kate lives on Wurundjeri lands in Hurstbridge with her partner and two children.
Evelyn Araluen
Genres: Poetry, narrative non-fiction, essays
‘I’m excited to work with writers interested in expanding and refining their creative practice into new and perhaps unexpected territory. I don’t believe writing can be taught like any other discipline—all craft needs development and critique, but creative passion is a more complex and delicate thing. I always find mentorship teaches everyone involved in surprising ways.’
Evelyn Araluen is a Goorie and Koori poet, researcher and editor. She is a lecturer in Indigenous Arts and Cultural Development at the Wilin Centre, Victorian College of the Arts, a co-editor of Overland Literary Journal, and acting chair of the board of the Institute of Postcolonial Studies. She holds a PhD in the literature and philosophy of Aboriginal women and non-binary writers. Her debut poetry collection Dropbear (UQP) won the 2022 Stella Prize. The Rot, her second collection, will be published by UQP in 2025.
Mark Smith
Genres: Young adult fiction, adult fiction, short fiction
‘I have benefited enormously from the mentoring and support of other writers, both when I was starting out and when I was first published. I think it is important to pay it forward by offering the same support to other new and emerging writers. As a writing teacher, I love discovering new voices and it is a privilege to engage with writers as they embark on a new project.’
Mark Smith is the author of five novels: The Road To Winter, Wilder Country, Land Of Fences, If Not Us and Three Boys Gone. Wilder Country won the 2018 Australian Indie Book Award for YA and The Road To Winter is a popular text on school lists around the country. He is also an award-winning writer of short fiction whose work has appeared in Best Australian Stories, Great Ocean Quarterly, The Big Issue, Island, The Saturday Paper, The Victorian Writer and The Australian. He is the co-curator of Minds Went Walking, Paul Kelly’s Songs Reimagined and Into Your Arms, Nick Cave’s Songs Reimagined.
Sarah Krasnostein
Genres: All narrative non-fiction (biography, memoir, essay, long-form journalism, history)
‘Writing is inherently solitary but it shouldn’t be isolating. Regardless of their publishing experience, any writer undertaking a new project struggles with challenges. Discussing our work-in-progress with others helps us have the conversations with ourselves, and with our material, that move that work forward. My best teachers not only taught me how to think about the process and techniques of writing, but how to trust my judgment. It’s an honour to be able to do this for others while learning more about the world and our shared craft through the prism of their projects.’
Sarah Krasnostein is the best-selling author of The Trauma Cleaner, The Believer, Quarterly Essay 85: Not Waving, Drowning and On Peter Carey. She is a regular contributor to the Monthly and the Saturday Paper. The Believer was named by The New Yorker as a Best Book of 2022. The Trauma Cleaner is published in various translations. Her awards include Walkleys for long form feature writing and arts criticism, the Victorian Prize for Literature, NSW Premier’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction and the Australian Book Industry Award for Non-Fiction. She was a finalist for the Wellcome Book Prize (UK), National Biography Award, Melbourne Prize for Literature and Walkley Book Award. She holds a doctorate in criminal law and is admitted to legal practice in Victoria and New York.
Yassmin Abdel-Magied
Genres: Adult fiction, young adult fiction, memoir, essays
‘When I began writing I was deeply passionate about representation, both ‘writing the record’ and ‘righting the record’. I wanted to bring stories of my community to the world, through both memoir and fiction. My passion for story has evolved into a love of craft, and finding the best way to tell a story. It’s an honour to share my experiences as a writer with other emerging writers, and assist in navigating the art and industry on and off the pages.’
Yassmin Abdel-Magied is a Sudanese diaspora writer and broadcaster. The former engineer has published five books, most recently, Stand Up and Speak Out Against Racism (Walker, 2023), named a ‘Best Book of the Year’ by School Library Journal and the Guardian. Previous books include essay collection Talking About A Revolution (PRH, 2022), and two novels for younger readers, You Must Be Layla (Puffin, 2019) and Listen Layla (Puffin, 2021), longlisted for Book of the Year by The Children’s Book Council of Australia. She has a forthcoming adult novel and has most recently signed a two-book deal with Hachette UK for teen series, The Hidden Legacy.
Find out more about the KYD Mentors Program here.
Previous mentors include Melina Marchetta, Briohny Doyle, J.P. Pomare, Stephanie Bishop, Ceridwen Dovey, Sara M Saleh, Jack Heath, Laure McPhee-Browne, Yves Rees, Miles Allinson, Emma Viskic, Omar Sakr, Tara June Winch, Jock Serong, Mark Brandi, Emily Bitto, Melanie Cheng, Claire G. Coleman, Sophie Cunningham, Carly Findlay, Benjamin Law, Bri Lee, Peter Polites, Heather Rose, Graeme Simsion and others.