CHAIR
NEIL CAMERON is a theatre director, teacher, author and consultant. For over thirty four years he has run successful festivals, arts events and celebrations in Germany, Belgium, Holland, Canada, the United States, Japan, New Zealand and all over Australia. His award-winning productions are well known for their creative community involvement and their exciting use of large-scale imagery, fire and music. In recent years, Neil has focused on sharing his extensive practical knowledge and cultural insight through teaching, writing and consultancy.

SECRETARY
IRENE MCGUIRE has been a bookseller for over 30 years. In 1982 she opened Writers & Co The Literary Bookstore in Toronto. As a bookseller she served on the board of the Canadian Book and Periodical Council and in 1991 was made an honorary member of the League of Canadian Poets for her services to Canadian poetry. In 1996 she joined Fullers Bookshop in Hobart and in addition to regular bookselling activities, she ran the Book Discussion Groups for 10 years. Retired from bookselling, she has most recently been a judge for The Tasmanian Book Prizes.

MEMBERS

TIM THORNE - NORTHERN REP - is the author of thirteen volumes of poetry, the most recent being Yeah No (PressPress) in 2012. He inaugurated the Tasmanian Poetry Festival, which he directed until 2001. Thorne has been writer-in-residence with the Miscellaneous Workers Union and the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, and has worked as a poet in schools, universities and prisons. He was awarded the Stanford Writing Scholarship, 1971; New Poetry Award, 1973; Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship for poetry, 1978; the Gleebooks Poetry Sprint, 1995; the Grand Archer Poetry Mug, 2002; the Launceston Poetry Cup, 2006 & 2008; the William Baylebridge award, 2007; and the Christopher Brennan Award, 2012. He has also received support from the Australia Council, Arts Tasmania and the Eleanor Dark Foundation. 

CAROLINE DEAN grew up surrounded by writers and writing. She is a sociologist committed to social justice principles and in her current work assists communities, workplaces and individuals to understand the dynamics between power and bullying. Professionally she encourages others to use writing as a means of developing personal agency. She has successfully implemented numerous writing and arts projects in prison environments. She is the founder of non-profit organisation Challenge Bullying which aims to eliminate the harm caused by workplace bullying. In the mid 90s Caroline was the coordinator of the Tasmanian Writers Centre.
Recently, she and her family setup the Dean Foundation in honour of her writer parents, Geoff and Elizabeth Dean. The foundation aims to promote short story writing by running an annual national short story competition.

SHARON CONNOLLY
Sharon Connolly has 30 years experience in the Australian screen sector as a writer, script editor, director, producer and manager. She has worked in film, television and digital media, in drama, documentary and educational production. Sharon co-founded Yarra Bank Films, for which she produced and directed documentaries including Red Matildas and Land Bilong Islanders. She has edited scripts for award winning films and telemovies including Return Home, A Matter of Convenience and Japanese Story. Sharon has held senior positions with Film Victoria, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Film Australia, where as Executive Producer she was associated with many high profile programs including Australian Biography, Mabo – Life of an Island Man, Gorgeous and Federation. She was Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Film Australia from 1997 until 2004. In 2005 she was appointed Executive Director of Sydney PEN, an association of writers affiliated with PEN International. She returned to television production in 2007 as Story Editor of ABC TV’s Compass series. Since 2010 she has worked as a development and policy consultant in the screen sector. Sharon has been a member of the boards of Film Victoria, Film Australia, Screen Tasmania, Metroscreen, the Australian Documentary Conference and Wide Angle Tasmania. 

CAITLIN RICHARDSON
Caitlin is a recent Bachelor of Arts graduate who enjoys writing poetry, scripts and prose. She majored in English and Sociology, and in 2010 studied Creative Writing on exchange at the University of East Anglia. Since her return, Caitlin has volunteered as an English language tutor for new migrants and contributed regularly to the University of Tasmania’s student magazine, Togatus, and other local publications. Last year, Caitlin wrote a series of plays for the Port Arthur Historic Site as part of a Creative Writing Honours project run through the University's Cultural Environments and Heritage Program. Caitlin is currently working with Blue Rocket Productions and hopes to explore dramatic writing further in the future. 

REES CAMPBELL
Rees Campbell is an endemic Tasmanian; and writes from and of her love of this island. Rees combines her passions of conservation and education by teaching Community Services with the Tas Polytechnic, constantly participating in a range of environmental activities including beach education and rehabilitation projects, and facilitating a local writers group. She lives at “Tiabunna”, a private wetland and bush wildlife sanctuary on the north-west coast she and her husband Col are reclaiming from human invasion.
She writes, and has been published in a range of genres including poetry, essay, short-story and non-fiction. A Thousand Pleasures a Million Treasures is a beachcombers guide to our coastal environment. Her latest book Brazenly Pure is a genre bending eclectic celebration of wild Tasmania through poetry, photography, informative essays and children’s art.

RALPH CRANE
Ralph Crane has previously served as a member of the Tasmanian Arts Advisory Board (2004-2007) and on various Arts Tasmania committees and working groups. He was born and raised in Preston, England, and educated at the University of Wales, Swansea, the University of Victoria, Canada, and the University of Tasmania. He worked at the University of Otago and the University of Waikato in New Zealand for fourteen years, before returning to the University of Tasmania—where he is Professor of English—in 2004. He has published widely on colonial and postcolonial fictions, and is the author or editor of eighteen books, including scholarly editions of several Anglo-Indian texts and Deep South: Stories from Tasmania (Text, 2012), which he co-edited with Danielle Wood.

LIFE MEMBERS OF THE TASMANIAN WRITERS' CENTRE

Honouring services for literature in this state.

Christopher Pearce
Janet Grecian
Elizabeth Winfield
Robyn Mathison
Marjorie Luck
Geoff Dean
Tim Thorne
Robyn Friend
John Bryson
Pete Hay
Ralph Wessman