About Us

We recognise Australia’s First Peoples as the first storytellers and value their stories as a core component of Australia’s cultural identity.

We value Northern Territory writing and storytelling and recognise the unique contribution they make to the nation’s literary wealth.

We value the creativity and illumination that comes with diversity, and encourage writing and storytelling from people and places across Australia (and beyond).

We create opportunities and remove barriers to allow more people to access literary activities.

We work to provide the best and most relevant activities and services for our members and sector.

Cerys Lloyd lives in Mparntwe with her family. She has worked as a corporate lawyer for many years and more recently as an advocate for Indigenous land rights. Cerys is enthusiastic about bringing the vibrant writing community of the NT together to share work.

Bernadette Ryan grew up in rural Victoria and moved to Melbourne to work in the music industry. Her career spanned from booking venues to managing artists. Following a year abroad in the UK and Sicily, she moved to Mparntwe to immerse herself in the world of books while working at Red Kangaroo Bookshop. Now residing on Larrakia Country, she recently served as a program officer for NT Writers Centre and contributed to the advisory committee for the 2024 NT Writers Festival.

Christopher Raja was born in Calcutta. He is the author of a memoir, Into the Suburbs: A Migrant’s Story (UQP, 2020), a play The First Garden (Currency Press, 2012), and a novel, The Burning Elephant (Giramondo, 2015). Christopher has been twice shortlisted for the Northern Territory Chief Minister’s Book of the Year award. He was the 2021 UTS Copyright Agency New Writer’s Fellow, and his memoir was Highly Commended in the National Biography Award 2021.

Sally Bothroyd was the Executive Director of the NT Writers Centre from 2015 – 2019 and served as President. Sally has a BAHons from the University of Melbourne, and a Masters in Filmmaking from the Victorian College of the Arts. She has lived in Darwin for more than 10 years, and has previously worked as a journalist and has some experience in fringe theatre production, film-making and teaching. Her first novel, Brunswick Street Blues was published in March 2022 (HQ Australia). 

Brian Tucker worked as an accountant and auditor for over thirty years. He has held the role of Treasurer for a number of arts organisations including the Queensland Writers’ Centre for over 10 years. He is now retired but continues to be actively involved in supporting arts organisations with financial and governance advice.

Sally Bothroyd – see Secretary.

 Skye Lavelle is a young, digital freelance artist born and raised in Darwin. As the mascot and logo designer for TROPiCON and a local artist stallholder, she is very involved in youth art community. She has experience with marketing, coordinating with artists, and applying art in various contexts. She is an aspiring writer and is passionate about expanding her skillset as a professional artist, building strong communities, and learning more about project management.

Janet Marles is the Manager of Operations and Research Strategy at Charles Darwin University. She is a teacher, oral historian and holds a PhD in memory and narrative from Griffith University.

Vijay Daniels was a news broadcaster in India for over two decades and has interacted with eminent journalists and personalities in the arts. In Darwin, he was a Community Correspondent for ABC and read news as a casual. He is currently writing a screenplay supervised by Mary Anne Butler, and he has produced a number of short films as an independent producer.

Glen Hunting is a local writer, with published works in prose, poetry and other articles. Glen is a strong supporter of community writing, volunteering weekly to support emerging writers, advocating for writing opportunities, and co-hosts a monthly spoken word evening in Alice Springs called Desert Voice, Centre Voice.

SezzaJai Sykes is a writer and beekeeper. They write mainly about bees, beauty and belonging in the natural world and the importance of looking after all our relations. They’ve worked in community development, high performance sport, education and business development. They are delighted to be threading all these skills into this role to advocate, support and promote storytelling, in all its forms, inspired by this place.

Louise Omer is a writer, bookseller and arts worker with an incredible working knowledge of the literary sector in Australia, Ireland and the UK. She has supported festival programming at Adelaide Writers’ Week, Melbourne Writers Festival and Edinburgh International Book Festival. She has recently delivered literary events like Gather Together at Red Kangaroo Books, where she works as a bookseller. She is in love with the local arts scene that arises from Arrernte Country’s rich tradition of storytelling, and brings a community engagement perspective with a social justice bent. She believes that stories can open our minds, help us embrace new ways of thinking, and change the world, and she brings this perspective to the upcoming festival.

Shele Parker Black is a writer, educator and community arts producer. Her poetry has been published in the Australian Poetry Anthology and Cordite. Her first play, Sorry Darling, So Sorry, which Parker Black wrote, directed and acted in, took the Darwin Festival Award in 2019. She has been the recipient of Totem Theatre’s Short Play mentorship (2018) and Varuna Writers’ House Online Mentorship (2020). Parker Black is the founder of Writers’ Block, an annual emerging writers’ retreat that takes place in Wagait Beach. She is also the founder of Poetry for the Public, a free poetry distribution service targeting regional areas of the Northern Territory.

Ilse Pickerd lives and raises her family on Arrernte country. A love of storytelling has led her to a vocation in community arts and radio broadcasting sectors of Central Australia and the Kimberley. In her own visual arts practice, she won the 2018 Advocate Art Award Exhibition Prize and has exhibited through the NT Regional Museums Program at The Residency. She began her working life in the natural sciences and as an ecologist, and finds peace in the natural world around her. 

Fiona Carter holds a Masters in Management and Cultural Policy from the University of Warwick (UK). She has been a manager at several arts organisations in the NT, including Corrugated Iron Youth Arts. She is passionate about Asia and completed an Asialink Management Residency in Indonesia in 2003. Amongst other things, she now produces independent arts projects, linking Asian and NT artists.