Amy Lovat is the founder of Secret Book Stuff and current program manager of the Newcastle Writers Festival. She has a PhD in English and Writing from the University of Newcastle and lives with her partner Laura, two dogs, and thousands of books across unceded Awabakal and Gadigal Country in NSW, Australia. Her debut novel, Mistakes and Other Lovers was published by Pan Macmillan in 2023.
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For the past decade, I have been teaching creative writing at the University of Newcastle and UNSW, moulding bright young minds towards my true agenda: read more fucking books. Jokes. But not really. My novel manuscript was shortlisted for the Kill Your Darlings Unpublished Manuscript Prize, awarded a Residential Fellowship through the Varuna Writer’s House, and came runner-up for the Varuna Pitch-Me Prize.
I’m also a curator, working for the Newcastle Writers Festival and Mountain Writers Festival, and a former Program Manager for Writing NSW. In the past ten years, I’ve been a copywriter for for agencies, entrepreneurs, start-ups and big companies, including editing a series of six independently published ‘mini’ books about big topics like disability, sexuality, and identity.
And (I know, I’m tired too), I’ve worked as a research assistant for top-level academics, on projects such as the Royal Commission, the representation of women in the music industry, and queer representation in Young Adult literature.
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