Upcoming
Applications are now open for the 2026 round of Island mentorships.
These mentorships are available to Tasmanian writers. They are free to apply for and participate in. Successful mentees receive ten hours of tailored guidance, advice, and support from some of Australia’s most accomplished writers. Five mentorships are available, in poetry, personal essays, short fiction, comics and - for First Nations writers - short stories and poetry. See below for more information about this year’s mentors, and find out how to apply.
Leigh Rigozzi
Leigh is a visual artist and graphic storyteller. He has edited and published several anthologies of comic art and is a current director of the Comic Art Workshop.
Genres: comics and graphic novels
Esther Ottaway
Esther is the winner of the $25,000 Tim Thorne Prize for Poetry and People’s Choice in the Tasmanian Literary Awards. She is published internationally in Rattle (US), Mslexia (UK), and other journals, and has been short- or long-listed in the Montreal, Bridport, MPU International, Woorilla and other prizes. Esther has three collections, edited Puncher & Wattmann’s landmark disability anthology, and has guest-edited Australian Poetry Journal. She lives in Hobart/Nipaluna.
Genre: Poetry
Jessie Cole
Jessie is a writer from Northern NSW/Bundjalung Country. She’s the author of four books: two novels and two memoirs. Her books have been recognised in various prizes, including the ALS Gold Medal and the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award. She also writes short fiction and personal essays, which have been published widely. She’s a regular contributor to the Guardian.
Genre: Personal essays
Jennifer Kremmer
Jennifer won the Vogel Literary Award and then become lost in childrearing. She is currently working between literary and speculative short fiction and was recently guest fiction editor for Island. She likes the way writing can both touch on or be part of and also escape genre-isation. Jennifer’s preferred reading is anything with clear wordcraft, sharp imagery and/or a desire to illuminate something missed in the everyday.
Genre: short stories
Julie Janson
Julie Janson is a Burruberongal woman of Darug Nation, living on the South coast of NSW. Her writing career began while teaching in remote Northern Territory Aboriginal communities. She is a novelist, playwright and poet: Novels: Compassion (Magabala Press 2024), an Indigenous historical novel, shortlisted Miles Franklin Literary Award 2025; Madukka the River Serpent (UWA Publishing 2022), longlisted Miles Franklin Award 2023; Benevolence (Magabala 2020; Harper Collins in USA and UK). Julie is co-recipient of the Oodgeroo Noonuccal Poetry Prize 2016 and the Judith Wright Poetry Prize 2019 and runner up in the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize 2025. My Kaathi Sister, a collection of poems, was published by Five Island Press 2026.
Genres: Poetry and short stories for First Nations writers
Past
Tasmanian writers mentorships 2025
In 2025, Island offered four mentorships for Tasmanian residents, led by winners of the 2025 Tasmanian Literary Awards: Kate Kruimink (Fiction), Maggie MacKellar (Nonfiction), Pam Schindler (Poetry), and Johanna Bell (Books for Young Readers and Children).
These mentorships were free to apply for and participate in. Successful mentees received ten hours of tailored guidance, advice, and support from some of Tasmania’s most accomplished writers.
The successful applicants were Katy Rogers (young readers), Pip Jones (fiction), Nadia Mahjouri (nonfiction) and Craig White (poetry).
Kate Kruimink
Kate is a writer from Lutruwita. Her books have been recognised in various prizes, including the Vogel and the Tasmanian Premier's Literary Award. She writes short stories, poems and essays, which have been published widely, and she also works as the Fiction Editor for Island Magazine.
Genres: short stories and literary fiction
Maggie MacKellar
Maggie 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. Maggie lives on the banks of Kanamaluka/River Tamar in Tasmania. She runs the much-loved newsletter The Sit Spot.
Genres: nature writing and life writing/memoir
Pam Schindler
Pam lives by the sea at Blackmans Bay, lutruwita/Tasmania. Her work has appeared in Australian magazines and anthologies and in her two collections, A sky you could fall into (Brisbane: Post Pressed, 2010) and say, a river (Port Adelaide: Ginninderra Press, 2023). Say, a river was awarded the Tim Thorne Prize for Poetry in the 2025 Tasmanian Literary Awards.
Genre: poetry
Johanna Bell
Johanna is the author of seven children's picture books and a verse novel for adults. She has won multiple awards including the CBCA Picture Book of the Year, the Environment Award for Children's Literature and a Tasmanian Literary Award for Writing for Young Readers and Children. Her books are out with Allen & Unwin, UQP and Thames & Hudson and her poetry has appeared in Overland, Griffith Review, Australian Poetry, Borderlands and Island.
Genres: development of a picture book by an author, illustrator or author-illustrator.
Recent
Masterclass with Charlotte Wood
For Deepening and Liberating Your Creative Life
Saturday 20 September 2025 9:30 AM - 1:00 PM (includes a 30 mins break)
Room 309
The University of Tasmania River’s Edge Building
2 Invermay Road
Launceston
Adult $80 and $60 concession (+$0.50 ticket fee)
This workshop explores three central creative strategies Charlotte discovered during her doctoral studies in creativity. Under Charlotte’s guidance, you will try out three experiments: Heat seeking – finding the beating heart of your material; Making surprising connections – bringing unlike ideas together; Disruption & overturning – solving problems and generating energy.
Our thanks to the University of Tasmania for providing the venue for this event.
Proudly part of this year’s Junction Arts Festival.
Charlotte Wood is the author of seven novels and three books of non-fiction. Her last novel Stone Yard Devotional was shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize. It was described by the UK Guardian as ‘a quiet novel of immense power’, as ‘extraordinary’ by The Washington Post and ‘an exquisite, wrenching novel’ by The New York Times. It has been praised by authors Anne Enright, Sigrid Nunez, Tim Winton, Karen Joy Fowler, Hannah Kent and Paula Hawkins among others.
Poetry Masterclass with Sarah Holland-Batt
Sat 29 March
10:00 am - 1:00 pm
Vanessa Goodwin City Room
The Hedberg, Hobart
Adult $80 and $60 concession (+$0.50 ticket fee)
Sarah is an award-winning poet, editor and critic. Her books have received a number of Australia’s leading literary awards, including the Stella Prize for her most recent book, The Jaguar, and the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Poetry for her second volume, The Hazards. She is also the author of a book of essays on contemporary Australian poetry, Fishing for Lightning, collecting her poetry columns written for The Australian. She is presently Professor of Creative Writing at QUT.
Photo by John Feder
Our thanks to the University of Tasmania for kindly providing the venue for this event.
This event is part of Tasmania Reads, an annual week-long celebration of reading and stories in all forms.
Sarah Holland-Batt is an award-winning poet, editor and critic. Her books have received a number of Australia’s leading literary awards, including the Stella Prize for her most recent book, The Jaguar, and the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Poetry for her second volume, The Hazards. She is also the author of a book of essays on contemporary Australian poetry, Fishing for Lightning, collecting her poetry columns written for The Australian. She is presently Professor of Creative Writing at QUT.
Photo by John Feder