Sydney Writers' Centre: Course presenters

Meet our team
At the Sydney Writers' Centre, you learn from the best. Scroll down to meet our team of excellent and experienced presenters who are all committed to helping you achieve your writing goals.

Valerie Khoo is an award-winning feature writer whose articles appear regularly in The Sydney Morning Herald. Before becoming a freelance writer eight years ago, she was features director of CLEO. Valerie is also the journalist behind the popular Enterprise blog of smh.com.au and theage.com.au

She has worked at the three publishing giants - ACP Magazine, Pacific Magazines and EMAP - and currently works as a freelance editor for several consumer and corporate publications. Her work has also appeared in publications such as Vogue, SHE, Australian Financial Review magazine, and The Age.

Valerie is author of five books. She is a former accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers but switched careers many years ago when she finally gave in to her passion for writing. She hasn't looked back. Valerie taught "Feature writing for magazines" for five years at the University of Sydney's Centre for Continuing Education. Many course participants end up successfully publishing their work.

To watch a video interview with Valerie about writing as a career and how to transition into it, click here.

Judy Skatssoon is the features editor at Australian Associated Press (AAP). An experienced journalist, Judy has also been a successful freelance feature writer. She has contributed to a diverse range of publications including The Sydney Morning Herald, life etc, Medical Observer, Sydney's Child, Women's Health, ABC Online and many more.

After studying a Bachelor of Arts (Communications), majoring in journalism and writing, at UTS, she began her career as a cadet with AAP. She was also a regular feature contributor for Medical Observer Weekly during her two year freelance stint. Judy held a variety of positions including state political correspondent and national medical correspondent. She writes on a wide range of issues including the arts, health, politics, technology, women's issues, business and more.

Recently, Judy has also been a lecturer and tutor in journalism at UTS and is passionate about helping students discover the world of journalism and writing.

Dr Pamela Freeman is author of 18 books, the most recent of which, Blood Ties (Book 1 of the Castings trilogy) is being published in the US, UK and Germany as well as Australia. The second book, Deep Water, will be published in August 2008. She also has a new children’s book, Victor’s Challenge, coming out in July in the UK and Australia.

Pamela started as a children’s writer, and many of her books have been shortlisted for the State Literary Awards, the Children's Book Council Book of the Year Awards, the Koala Awards and the Wilderness Society Environment Awards. Pamela – who is also an accomplished script writer – has taught creative writing at the University of Technology, Sydney for many years.

She has also been a guest lecturer at the University of Sydney and taught writing workshops around Australia for the National Book Council and various State Libraries. Pamela has a Doctor of Creative Arts in Writing from the University of Technology, Sydney.

She is best known for her series of fantasy novels, The Floramonde Books (The Willow Tree's Daughter, Windrider & The Centre of Magic), and for an associated junior novel, Victor's Quest (being reissued in July 2008), as well as for Pole to Pole, a non-fiction book about Arctic and Antarctic animals.

Pamela has published numerous short stories and has spoken at various writers' festivals around the country. Her most recent book for young people, The Black Dress, a fictional account of the childhood of Mary MacKillop in the Australia of the 1840s-1860s, won the NSW History Prize for Young People.

You can visit Pamela’s websites here and here.

To watch a video interview with Pamela about writing as a career, click here.

Cathie Tasker is a fiction editor with over 25 years experience. Her specialisations are in science fiction, children’s and young adult fiction and genre adult fiction.

She is also a judge for the Aurealis Awards, fantasy novel section. Cathie trained as a librarian, in literature, and in marketing. Her academic qualifications are: libraries and literature (BA in Library Science & Literature), children’s literature (half of a Graduate Diploma in Children’s Literature), and marketing (Graduate Diploma of Marketing).

She worked in public libraries for seven years, and has spent over 25 years in book publishing, both in editorial and marketing, in children’s publishing, and in adult fiction and manuscript assessments. Her publishing background has been at Scholastic Australia, HarperCollins and now at Koala Books.

Judith Ridge is well-known in Australia and internationally for her involvement with writing for children. Judith has worked with the Children’s Book Council, as an editor at ABC Children’s Books and the NSW School Magazine and freelances as an editor for Random House. Judith edited Handle with Care: Making Friends with Animals by Paul McGreevy – one of Halstead Press' all-time top sellers. She has also edited Piccolo and Annabelle 4: The Steamer Demons by Stephen Axelsen (Random House) and numerous books for ABC Books.

For the past two years, Judith has taught “Writing for Children” at the University of Sydney MA in
Creative Writing. She has also been a tutor in children’s literature at Macquarie University.

Judith says: “I love everything about children’s literature. And I love working with people who enjoy writing for children. It’s not my job to tell you what to write, but I’ll help you take a piece of your writing and make it the best it can be.”

Patti Miller has taught creative writing, with a particular focus on autobiographical writing, for 20 years. At the Sydney Writers' Centre, you learn from the best – and we believe Patti is the best life writing teacher in Australia.

She is the author of Australia 's best-selling autobiographical writing text, Writing Your Life and of The Last One Who Remembers (life-writing), Child (novel) and Whatever The Gods Do.

She is published regularly in newspapers and magazines including essay pieces in the Good Weekend, SMH and is available for speaking engagements to clubs and other groups. She has
a BA (Communications) and MA (Writing) from UTS. Many of her former students have been successfully published. Her new writing book, The Memoir Book was released by Allen & Unwin
in May 2007.

Geoff Bartlett is an author, journalist, actor and producer. He has filed articles and interviews for over 20 major newspapers and magazines around the country, including The Sydney Morning Herald, Courier Mail, Canberra Times, West Australian and Australian Style.

Geoff has worked as a freelance travel writer and photographer for magazines and websites for the last six years. His current areas of focus are the islands of the South Pacific and Asia. He is a regular contributor to Pacific Island Paradises and Asian Paradises.

In 1999, Geoff's first book, was published in Australia and New Zealand through Harper Collins. Comedians in the Mist was a series of interviews with top Australian comedians.

In the electronic media, Geoff has written for Good News Week, Backberner, Life Support, The Comedy Channel and 2MMM. He also writes regularly for the finance and travel industries. His latest books are Cattitude, released in 2006 and Mutterings which was published in 2007.

Gayle Bryant is a Sydney-based freelance journalist. Although she writes on a range of topics, Gayle has made a name for herself specialising in personal finance and technology. Her work has appeared in a range of publications in Australia and England including The Australian, BRW Magazine, The Sydney Morning Herald, Australian Financial Review as well as a number of financial and property web sites including moneymanager.com.au and domain.com.au.

Gayle has been freelancing for the last 15 years and has also edited a number of custom magazines for major financial institutions including Macquarie Bank, TD Waterhouse, Aon and Ernst & Young. She has a B.A. (Communications).

Valerie Khoo (see above)

Luisa Volpato is director of Voilà Communications - a boutique PR and events consultancy. Luisa has over 15 years experience in public relations and marketing. Her key areas of expertise include: media relations, strategy development, events management, publicity and promotions, writing and publications, sponsorship and TV production.

Luisa has worked as an account director/manager for international public relations companies such as Burson-Marsteller London and Edelman Sydney, across consumer, healthcare and corporate clients.

She has also worked in the government, not-for-profit and charity sectors including the role of
assistant public relations manager for The Children's Hospital, Westmead. Prior to setting up her own company, Luisa was second in charge of a medium-sized PR and events agency with beauty, lifestyle and fashion clients.

Luisa is a published writer and has worked as an associate editor for a publishing company. Since 2004, Luisa has been a presenter in corporate communications with the University of Sydney's
Centre of Continuing Education.

Katrina Lobley is an experienced journalist and editor. With 18 years' experience in the publishing industry, Katrina spent five years as a sub-editor on The Sydney Morning Herald.

Recently, she has been in demand as a freelance editor for a range of corporate and consumer publications. She has also worked with corporations to develop in-house style guidelines and editorial policies. Katrina has experience in training corporate groups and government departments.

Mel Wilkinson is the founding director of Manhattan Communication, a corporate writing agency which provides editorial solutions to firms in the financial services sector.

She specialises in writing, editing and proofreading corporate collateral such as tender documents, annual reports, brochures, website content, newsletters, newspaper editorial, advertising copy, adviser and employee communication and sector reports.

Mel has been a guest lecturer at the Financial Services Institute of Australia and has also published numerous articles in magazines and newspapers including The Australian Financial Review, The Australian, Charter Magazine, Company Director Magazine, Asset Magazine and Vive Magazine.

She has worked with financial PR firm Savage & Partners, (an Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide company) where she was a key advisor to Cochlear Ltd, Hudson and JPMorgan. Prior to this she worked for global investment bank Goldman Sachs JBWere where she worked in corporate finance, research and private client stock broking.

Dr Rose Moxham writes for adults and children and has published short stories and two young adult novels. Her most recent work is a novel, Teeth Marks (Allen & Unwin), April 2007.

She has served as a judge for the NSW Premier's Literary Awards (2000) and on the committee of the NSW Premier's Reading Challenge.

Rose has designed, developed and delivered undergraduate and post-graduate courses in writing and editing (non-fiction and fiction) at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) and Macquarie University since 1997. In her capacity as lecturer in Writing and as a supervisor of numerous MA Writing candidates, she has vast experience in manuscript assessment.

She has reviewed peer textbooks on writing techniques (eg. Hazel Smith, The Writing Experiment,
Allen & Unwin 2004) and mentored various authors.

Rose has worked as a freelance reader and part-time editor for publishing houses including Random House, McGraw-Hill.

Elana Bowman is our ideas coordinator. Elana is the glue that holds the centre together, she coordinates enrolments, schedules courses, and liaises with students and presenters. She is also the brains behind our blog, coordinates our podcast program, works on marketing and partnership - and brings you all the great competitions and giveaways we organise for you.

Tracy Tan is the new media coordinator of the Sydney Writers' Centre. With a Bachelor of Science (Media and Communications) from the University of New South Wales under her belt, she coordinates the technological side of our online courses, blog, website, podcasts, Facebook and more. She has been with the centre since it was founded and loves reading, writing - and technology!

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