Historical Fiction

David Dyer has had a life-long obsession with the Titanic and has become an expert on the subject. In 2009, he was awarded a Commonwealth Government scholarship to write The Midnight Watch as part of a Doctorate in Creative Arts at the University of Technology, Sydney. The doctorate was conferred in November 2013. David's research for The Midnight Watch took him to many and varied places around the world including libraries and sites of interest in New York, Boston, London and Liverpool.

Dyer grew up in a coastal town in NSW, Australia, and went on to train as a ship's officer at the Australian Maritime College, travelling Australia and the world in a wide range of merchant ships. He graduated from the college with distinction and was awarded a number of prizes, including the Company of Master Mariners Award for highest overall achievement in the course. He then returned to the University of Sydney to complete a combined degree in Arts and Law. From the mid-1990s until early 2000s David worked as a litigation lawyer in Sydney, and then in London at a legal practice whose parent firm represented the Titanic's owners back in 1912. In 2002 David returned to Australia and obtained a Diploma in Education from the University of New England, and commenced teaching English at Kambala, a school for girls in Sydney's eastern suburbs.

Dominique Wilson was born in Algiers to French parents. She grew up in a country torn by civil war, until she and her family fled to Australia. She is the author of the novels That Devil's Madness (2016) and The Yellow Papers (2014), both published by Transit Lounge, and her short stories have been published nationally and read on ABC Radio. She was founding co-managing editor of Wet Ink: the magazine of new writing, and Chair of the Adelaide branch of International PEN. Dominique holds a Masters and a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Adelaide.

London-born Australian Lesley Truffle has travelled extensively and worked in London and Japan. Her first novel Hotel du Barry was published in February 2016 and she is currently working on her second novel Sacha Torte.

At present she’s living in a garret in Melbourne. She’s worked as a secondary teacher, photographer, hotel maid, fringe actor and in art galleries, bars, nightclubs and other jobs too ghastly to mention. 

While exhibiting her art photography in Melbourne galleries Lesley realised she wanted to create imaginary stories and interior monologues, and returned to writing. Her fiction piece, ‘A Man of Fashion’, was published in Scarlet Stiletto – The Second Cut in 2011, and ‘Memoir of a Trollop’was performed by Baggage Theatre Company in 2013.

Alexander Bennetts is a writer and editor, who studies Creative Writing at RMIT in Melbourne. His work has been published in The Lifted Brow, Stilts, Funny Ha Ha and Voiceworks. He was born on a steamboat in the mouth of the River Derwent