Ingrid Bartkowiak

Ingrid is an artist and illustrator based in Brisbane, Australia. Working in both watercolour and oils, her practice revolves around her fascination with nature and its intricacies. Ingrid completed her Bachelor of Fine Art in 2019 at the Queensland College of Art.

Engaging with native flora and fauna, her illustrations are whimsical and encourage an appreciation for Australia’s nature. They often feature both realistic illustrative elements, merged with abstraction and blocks of vibrant colour. There is a focus on detailing and pattern, with one of Ingrid’s earlier interests being in the visual tropes of the arts and crafts movement.

Ingrid Bartkowiak is the illustrator for Deborah Frenkel’s Naturopolis (September 2022). Her website is ingridbartkowiakart.com.

Connah Brecon

Connah Brecon, originally from the UK, is an author-illustrator based in Victoria, Australia, where he lives with his wife and daughter and cat and plants.

Connah has written and illustrated six picture books, and illustrated many more stories written by Australian authors. While it is true that dogs like books, Connah illustrates books mostly for people, some of whom happen to be temporarily short.

If he wasn't illustrating children’s books, Connah would like to trade places with David Attenborough, although he would prefer a younger David if at all possible.

Connah is the illustrator of Great and Small (July 2022). His website is connahbrecon.com.

Mardi Davies

Mardi Davies is a graphic designer, author, illustrator and 226th member of the (secret) international society of ‘Mardi’s’. She has extensive experience in graphic design including magazines, advertising, all forms of print and digital media, book cover and interiors, and promotional marketing materials.

Mardi worked previously in animation at Disneytoon Studios Australia as a clean up artist and inbetweener on 9 feature length films, and has built up a body of work in the illustration industry including working with online education platforms, full colour illustrated journals and related products, book cover finished art and interior black and white illustration.

Her picture book Found You! was published in 2014 by Ford St Publishing. Mardi’s love of the ocean and creatures within, has led her to living on the NSW mid north coast and continues to inspire her personal illustration brand mixing traditional watercolour and gouache with digital illustration and composition. Mardi illustrated the cover of Candice Lemon-Scott’s Ocean Warriors middle grade fiction, due out March 2022. She also does typsetting for each of our books. Her website is www.mardidavies.com.

Sarah Davies

Sarah Davies is an artist, illustrator and storyteller living on Whadjuk Noongar Boodjar (Perth) who is passionate about science, the environment and helping diverse kids find their voices through art and literature. Sarah is a proud disabled rainbow human who is mother to a sassy 15 year old, door-opener to three cheeky felines, and corn-provider to a flock of feisty chooks.

Sarah has a Diploma in Fine Art and a BA in Sociology and Community Development. She loves researching, writing and illustrating non-fiction topics, but is just as happy in the world of stories and poetry where anything is possible. Sarah’s art practice includes watercolour, ink, and acrylic painting as well as digital art, drawing and printmaking. She illustrated the picture book and app Pippa and Dronie (Shemaps 2019), both a celebration of diversity in STEM. Sarah designed the cover of Tracey Hawkins’ middle grade novel, The Riddle of Tanglewood Manor (Storytorch Press, February 2022). Her website can be found at www.studiosarahdavies.com

Juliette Dudley

Juliette Dudley is an established illustrator and designer, having also designed the cover of Capital Yarns by Sean Costello. She has worked for The Canberra Times, HerCanberra and today freelances as an illustrator in branding and design, having started her own design company, Poyo Studio. 

Her first illustrated picture book Our Bush Capital was published by Storytorch Press in 2020.

Deborah Frenkel

Deborah Frenkel is a human (Homo sapiens). She lives in Melbourne with her young family and a number of ringtail possums (Pseudocheirus peregrinus) who occasionally drop by.

When she’s not writing for kids, she’s usually copywriting for TV commercials, billboards, and the labels of shampoo bottles. Kids, thankfully, are usually more appreciative.

Naturopolis (September 2022) is Deborah’s first illustrated children’s picture book, and her second, The Sydney Harbour Fairy was released by Affirm Press in 2023.

Deborah’s website can be found at deborahfrenkel.com.

Tracey Hawkins

Tracey Hawkins is an award-winning author of children’s books and adult non-fiction. She has lived in the ACT since 1983, where she formerly worked as a policewoman for the Australian Federal Police Force and raised her family. Tracey writes for children of all age groups. Her books include stories about monsters, wild adventures, being lost in Alaska, sports, ocean adventures, history and her favourite - mystery.

Hidden beneath her stairs, Tracey keeps a secret stash of skeletons and an interesting collection of fake arms, legs and hearts for her crime workshops for children. Tracey has won awards for her picture books, including a CBCA Notable for Leaping Lola.

Tracey is an ambassador for the Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge and a May Gibbs Children’s Literature Trust Fellow. The Riddle of Tanglewood Manor, a historical mystery middle grade novel, was released by Storytorch Press in February 2022.

More information can be found on Tracey’s website at traceyhawkins.com.au

Candice Lemon-Scott

Candice Lemon-Scott is an award-winning Australian author, editor and presenter. She has published 13 books for children, and written one for adults and her books have been published in Australia, the US, the UK and China. Her quirky style, fast-paced narratives and originality appeal to young readers in particular.

Candice’s first series, Jake in Space, is a six-book series of space adventure stories about turbo space cars, hurtling asteroids and evil villains.

Candice loves wildlife and animals and has always been surrounded by a range of pets throughout her life, including dogs, cats, rabbits, fish, birds (including a duck) and various lizards. She was first moved to write her second series, Eco Rangers, after helping with a couple of koala rescues from her own backyard. The first book Eco Rangers: Pelican in Peril was the Honor Book Award winner in the Green Earth Book Award and her second book Eco Rangers: Microbat Mayhem was shortlisted in the Wilderness Society’s Environmental Award for Children’s Literature. She continues to be inspired by her own children, Krystalin and Aliena, who love and care for nature and wildlife. A trained wildlife carer, Candice enjoys writing about the adventures of the young Eco Rangers, Ebony and Jay.

Ocean Warriors: The Rise of Robo-Shark is a middle grade environmental adventure, and was released by Storytorch Press in March 2022.

Candice’s website is candicelemonscott.com.au.

Alison McLennan

Alison McLennan is children’s author based in Brisbane, a proud member of SCBWI and Writelinks, a mother of two and a professional voiceover artist. She has written four picture books including Hotel For Bees (State Library of Qld 2020), Growing Pains (EK Books 2021), Great and Small (Storytorch Press, July 2022) and Birdie Lights Up The World (EK Books 2023). Her short stories have appeared in the School Magazine and the Spooky Stories Anthology. Her graphic novel, A Flood in the Village was published by Library for All as part of their Natural Disaster Education Series.

Her illustrated children’s picture book Great and Small is a celebration of ability, diversity and the power of inclusion. It will be published by Storytorch Press in July 2022. More information can be found on Alison’s website at alisonmclennan.org.

Samantha Tidy

Samantha Tidy is a writer of adult, young adult and children's fiction. Recent children’s titles include The Day We Built the Bridge (MidnightSun, February 2019) and Our Bush Capital. Her adult novel, The Happiness Jar won the ACT Writing and Publishing Award for Fiction (2014) and was Runner up for the FAW Christina Stead Award (2013). Earlier titles include The Blue Polar Bear (Children’s Picture Book, 2005), The Flying Dream (Children’s Picture Book, 2005) and Cappuccino Diva (novel, 2003).

Her first ever award nomination was as Runner Up to the T.A.G. Hungerford Award for Fiction (2000) - an acknowledgement of her first novel, which set her on her path as a writer. In 2008, she was a research fellow at the Bibliotheque nationale de France (BnF), where she lived in a 400-year-old convent for 3 months, spent time looking at her favourite French maps of Australia, enjoyed long lunches and ate way too much cheese.

Samantha has three picture books due out in 2023 with other publishers: Cloudspotting illustrated by Susannah Crispe (Windy Hollow Books, March 2023); Reach High Wollemi illustrated by Rachel Gyan (CSIRO Publishing, August 2023); and When Grandma Burnt Her Bra, illustrated by Aśka (EK Books, September 2023). 2025 will see the release of The Day We Built the Opera House, illustrated by Fiona Burrows (MidnightSun Publishing).

You can find out more on her website at samanthatidy.com.

Cate Whittle

Cate writes fantasy and adventure fiction for children and young adults and has published six books and has three more on the way. She writes about relationships and rediscovery (and dragons and magical worlds), seeking to empower her young readers to become problem-solvers and to see their world in a positive light. Cate also has short stories and articles in anthologies and magazines – one of her favourites being about the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park in the US and how that transformed and re-established the native environment there (Pearson Magazines – Challenge Issue 2, 2009: An Old Enemy).

Fascinated by the natural world, Cate is fortunate to live on a bush block in a beautiful rural valley near the nation’s capital. She loves to walk and take photographs and make art, and, curious about her own backyard, has a passion for encouraging curiosity in others about the world around us and how we can interact more positively with nature, the people we meet, and different cultures and world views for a hopeful future. Cate truly believes that information is the key to understanding, and that the world can only be a better place if we open our eyes and hearts to the diversity around us and learn to live in sync with nature and with one another.

Cate is the author of the Trouble junior fiction series about a girl and her troublesome dragon, published by Omnibus Scholastic, and two middle grade magical realism adventures, Wyrd and Emergency Rescue Angel, with the same publisher. Trouble and the New Kid (2017) was shortlisted in the CBCA Book of the Year Awards for that year. Cate also has two books coming out in the next couple of years with Scholastic Australia, Millie, The Littlest Puppy, and Millie and Miss Sparrow’s School of Dance.

Storytorch Press is proud to have published Starberries and Kee a solar punk middle grade fiction in May 2023. You can find out more about Cate by visiting her website at catewhittlewrites.com.