Ann Brodziak

Editor-in-Chief Ann enjoys reinventing herself. An ex-advertising copywriter, sometime voice-over actor, freelance writer, travel researcher and full-time wife, mother and grandmother, she has maintained a well-received personal weblog, The Thinking Woman's Diary, since May, 2004. This initially daunting but ultimately rewarding foray into web culture and web development helped spawn a new passion - the Western Australian youth poetry website Think Lyrical.

Ohio-born, Sydney-raised and educated at Ascham School and the University of New England, Armidale, Ann has been based in Perth since 1981. Her interests range from sailboats to books, music to photography and star-gazing to Australian Rules football. She has lived in 4 countries on 3 continents and travels whenever time and opportunity allow. While wanderlust beckons often, it is Australia - with its magnificent natural and human diversity - that continually feeds her spirit.

David Brodziak

After being born, Dave started to realise that there was more to life than just him. As with most infants, this realisation came as quite a shock, and one worth noting. Following that thought, his first epiphany, came a reasonable interest in what else there was, apart from him. It was initially just curiosity, but as he grew up his awareness of the world around him became a pleasure and a challenge, to understand both sides of the story, to read between the lines, and best of all, to spend a day in someone else's shoes.

Being raised by a loving and creative family, he inherited a love of words from writers, journalists and musicians and a practicality from sailors, cooks, engineers and doctors. Applying these tools to a fascination with the world, both past and present, became his greatest enjoyment. Through a Bachelor of Arts degree in creative writing (Curtin University), to studying advertising at the highly regarded AWARD School, to most recently writing freelance for corporate magazines and street press in his new home, Melbourne, writing has structured his life, but more importantly, drawn together his perceptions and emotions about the world around.

A keen surfer, sailor, photographer and traveller, and with a diverse history of part-time jobs, he has beaten a path through life thus far by following a passion for observing the way we live. He has been at his happiest while road-tripping across Australia, jumping on and off trains in Western Europe, discovering Tokyo's complex heartbeat, wandering barefoot in southern India and walking countless character-filled blocks through Manhattan - always taking the time to scrawl a few lines in one of his many notebooks.

Frances Courtney

Frances, with a B. A. and B. Ed. from the University of Western Australia, is a secondary English and English Literature teacher who has taught at a number of state and private schools. Her longest tenure was for 13 years at St. Hilda's, a Perth private girls' school.

She has a special interest in creative writing and while at St. Hilda's was co-editor of the creative writing magazine and involved in assisting and encouraging students to prepare original work for literary competitions such as the Tim Winton Short Story Competition and the state-run Quest for Excellence. A number of her charges proved to be winners.

Born and mainly educated in England, Frances also lived for some time in Sri Lanka and Jamaica. She moved to Perth in her late teens and brought with her a love of sailing, animals (her pets ranged from a horse to grass snakes), drawing, new people and new experiences. She is married with three grown-up daughters and a grandson and is currently venting her artistic talents at art classes where she's enjoying being a student again.

Alexander Kendrew

Alexander is a freelance writer and photographer. His written work has appeared in Inside Out, Hermes literary magazine, The Hub and Philament online magazine.

He grew up on the sun-kissed coast of Western Australia but didn't realise how lucky he was until he lived elsewhere. At school he dreamed of becoming a famous actor, so instead of concentrating on homework, spent much of his time auditioning, rehearsing and performing in various school plays. At the end of year 12, he moved to London for a year to do a drama tutorial at Guildhall School, but it was only a matter of months before grey clouds and dirty drizzle drove him back to the antipodes.

In Perth, Alexander completed a degree in Film and Television at Curtin University - a course he loved. However, it was the minor in creative writing with Elizabeth Jolley that whetted his appetite. On graduation, he went east with ambitions of breaking into the film industry but spent the next few years wandering aimlessly through Sydney's Eastern Suburbs.

With these wanderings came an urge to write a novel, but it wasn't until Alexander met novelist Sue Woolfe (who tells her students to "write dangerously and don't throw anything away") while doing a creative writing Masters at Sydney University that the light finally and glaringly switched itself on. It was with relief that writing - and a vague sense of fulfilling his destiny - began.

Alexander has since realised the life-long dedication it takes and is looking forward to many years of being able to hone his craft.

Dixie Price

After graduating from Graylands Teacher's College in 1970, Dixie pursued a career in Western Australian schools teaching art and primary classes during the 1970s and 1980s. A natural capacity for all things academic kept her on the road to higher learning - she studied Fine Arts at W.A.I.T (now Curtin University) in the 1970s and later pursued Classics (Latin), French and Italian at the University of Western Australia. She graduated from U.W.A. with a prize-winning double major in French and Italian in 2003.

Dixie has a real passion for English, Italian and French literature, particularly poetry, and is also an avid traveller. She likes to draw and write in her spare time and as a keen amateur horticulturalist has produced olive oil from her own trees.

She is Founding Chair of the charity art event, Don't Give up the Day Job, which raises funds for children with cancer. She has 3 children, one of whom is a writer.

Anthony Rose

One of Australia's most dynamic and successful music video and commercial directors, Anthony has directed over 100 videos and countless TV commercials, both here and internationally in a career spanning over 20 years.

His video hit list includes Human Nature, Paul Mac, David Campbell, Shannon Noll, Tina Arena, Mercury4, Anthony Callea, Casey Donovan, Infusion and Amiel - and commercial clients have been as varied as Coke, Rexona, Nivea and Candie's. He won the New York Advertising Award for Best Direction for his Bad Habits ad for Levi's in 1998.

With training from institutions such as the ABC and AFTRS (Australian Film, Television & Radio School), Anthony has enjoyed a lifelong involvement in all areas of film-making including documentary production (The Australian Boy, Children of the Barrier Reef), numerous short films and has written several feature film projects.

Anthony's passion for music and film began early in life - he played with a combined high schools orchestra for six years, including several seasons at the Sydney Opera House. He founded the Australian Children's Television School at age 14 - a Department of Education project that allowed him to travel all over Australia visiting schools and Aboriginal missions teaching the principles of television production.

In addition to a busy professional career, Anthony lectures in advertising and commercial film production at Sydney's Macleay College. In whatever spare time he manages to find he restores classic boats and automobiles.

Miranda Edmonds

Miranda grew up and went to school in Perth. She studied law and science at the University of Western Australia, then went on to practise corporate/commercial law and intellectual property law at one of Perth's leading law firms, Minter Ellison.

During that time, Miranda also developed a keen interest in film making. With her brother, Khrob, she has made a number of successful short films. She is currently doing a postgraduate degree in Film and Television Producing at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne.

Miranda has a passion for many areas of the arts and loves to travel. She has spent time abroad, living in Canada, France and New Zealand, and enjoys touring her home state of Western Australia where favourite destinations include the reef at Ningaloo, the forests of Denmark, the beaches at Busselton and the wheatbelt.