Chris Gallagher - Director

Chris brings twenty years experience to her position having initiated, mentored, and facilitated writing programs at a national and state level and across many genres. She is a former Director of the Victorian Writers' Centre, a peer advisor to the Literature Board of the Australia Council, and the Chair of the newly formed national organisation, Writing Australia.  Chris is an artist in her own right having produced documentary and drama celebrating Australian stories. She has also been Director of the Australian Script Centre in Hobart and Industry and Cultural Development Officer for Screen Tasmania. Her passion for the arts, her management skills and her vision have equipped her to take the Centre into new and exciting territory, with significant increases in major festival partnerships, regional services, and membership numbers during her tenure. Chris has lived in Tasmania for twelve years and has two daughters. 

Marion Stoneman - Office Administrator

Marion is Administration and Membership Co-ordinator for the Tasmanian Writers' Centre, serving the needs of more than 450 Tasmanian writers. Marion Stoneman has, for five years, convened the only writing group on Hobart's Eastern Shore. Her poetry has been published in Blue Giraffe and the Poet's Republic. She has held an administrative position with Island Magazine and a work placement with one of Tasmania's foremost independent publishers, Pardalote Press. She brings over twenty years experience in customer service and financial management working in small business. Marion holds a Diploma in Education, a Graduate Diploma in Librarianship and additional studies in Professional Writing and Editing. She is currently studying French at tertiary level.

Esther Ottaway - Publications & Communications Co-ordinator

Esther is a Tasmanian poet whose first book, Blood Universe, was released in 2006 to national acclaim. For ten years she worked as a consultant in marketing and public relations with major Tasmanian and national organisations. She has extensive experience in strategy development, writing, editing and production. Esther's poetry has been commissioned for and featured in the Sydney Writers Festival, the Queensland and Tasmanian Poetry Festivals, and the Australian Regional Poetry Festival. Her awards include the 2009 Tom Collins Poetry Prize and 2006 Australian Young Poet of the Year (Poets Union Fellowships), as well as several arts grants and residencies. Her poems are on-line at A Pod of Poets for Radio National's Poetica program, and published in anthologies and journals. Esther is a former member of the Board of Island literary magazine.

Jo Collins - Finance and Website

Jo has many years experience in administration and business managerial roles, having run her own small business for four years as well as similar roles in other small businesses. Jo has also been involved with the film industry (primarily in costume) in Sydney and Tasmania for the past ten years. She is currently also part of the Wide Angle Tasmania admin team.

Helen Thomas - Media Liaison

Helen Thomas is a freelance radio documentary producer and a media consultant based in Hobart. She began her career as a print journalist on the North-West Coast of Tasmania. She has written about post-war in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Dubrovnik (Croatia), and most recently produced a 20-minute radio documentary for ABC Radio National on the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Helen is co-presenter of two community radio shows on Edge Radio, Radio Amnesty and Image of Africa.

Pictured (a little squinty!) at the Writers' Centre literary festival day in Swansea, 2010, for the festival From France to Freycinet: left to right, Jo Collins, Helen Thomas, Chris Gallagher, Marion Stoneman, Esther Ottaway