Dan Nixon (he/him):Owner & Director – Equally obsessed with stories as he is with mountains, Dan’s dream is to live and write beside a fire, atop a peak, and ski whenever he wants.
BonnieMcRae (she/her): Programs & Operations Director – Bonnie is a lover of all things story with a background in journalism and an incompatible talent for making things up. Though she didn’t make any of that up, she swears.
NinaCulley (she/her):Studio Manager – Though Nina is obsessed with all things dark like tarot cards, crime and horror, she also enjoys all things cute like Totoro and candy.
DamianRobb(he/him): Adult Program Coordinator – Damian likes three things, writing stories and making incomplete lists. When not writing he’s often teaching writing, reading other people’s writing, or out and about finding things to write about.
HannahNixon (she/her): Saturday Studio Manager & Co-Director – Sourdough baking obsessed and an avid reader, Hannah is a speech pathologist by trade, but currently running the studio on Saturdays. She also happens to be married to Dan and co-director of MYWS.
Story and Writing Mentors
EveDalton (she/her) – Eve is a screenwriter who loves writing chaotic characters with funny dynamics. She’s also recently launched Writing Hand Magazine in a bid to get the writing prompts she’s written for her students off of her laptop.
Adam Bigum (he/him) – Adam cannot read nor write. He created this bio by painting an abstract self-portrait made of pumpkin soup then had artificial intelligence translate it into words. If you see Adam, please call the closest insane asylum. P.S. Adam writes comedy.
Lachlan Rose(he/him) – Lachy is a singer/ songwriter who likes/ loves reading/ writing. He enjoys forward slashes, fears slashers and is somewhat ambivalent about the guitar playing of Slash.
Julia Ahearne (she/her) – Jules will never not be excited by an 0.5mm uni-ball pen. She’s a big fan of handwriting and grammar, often scrawling poetry in a journal or finessing copywriting with en-dashes. She agrees with Stephen King that the path to hell is paved with adverbs, and Jules will read anything that guy has written.
Jayden Nikolovic(he/him) – Jayden is a screenwriter with a passion for horror, cartoons and cats. His aspirations include world domination and (the less realistic goal of) having his own animated kids series.
Katherine Atkins(she/her) – A loyal worshiper of her regal hound Benjamin, Katherine finds time to scribble the humour and pain of life between walkies and devotedly staring into his perfect eyes.
Zoe Fox(she/her) – Zoe is mystified by space and time and loves to rhyme! She likes rockets, robots, and reading; writes music and stories about experiencing earth and observing human behaviour as an alien.
Silver Fitzgerald – Sil writes for screen, theatre and novels – but mostly for fame and wealth. They think the Hunger Games is the greatest political text of our time.
Mathilde Tobin-Couzens (she/her) – Tilde decided to study screenwriting after reading His Dark Materials and then watching the Golden Compass film, which filled her with an irrational rage. She is now studying Creative Writing and Publishing at Melbourne University, and the rage inside of her has quieted somewhat thanks to the HBO adaptation of His Dark Materials.
Fabian Lapham(he/him) – Fabian is a writer/director, and on certain joyous occasions, a voice over artist. He loves monsters and robots and cool stuff like that.
CameronHose – Cameron is an aspiring screenwriter studying at the Victorian College of the Arts and is obsessed with horror movies, board games and picking up a new craft project every week.
KanikaChopra(she/they) – Kanika loves to write and read. She loves stories about magic, romance, and everyday life. Kanika enjoys writing young adult fiction and personal essays.
Elliot Seidel – Elliot is a screenwriter, fiction writer and teacher who is part of that small segment of the population who actually does fun-runs for fun. Having started on a Brother ML 300 Typewriter, he now writes to find your heart and make it beat.
OUR ADULT PROGRAMS ARE HOSTED BY PROFESSIONAL AUTHORS AND WRITERS.
PREVIOUS HOSTS AND GUESTS INCLUDE:
Joel McKerrow
Nick Place
Ren Alessandra
Amie Kaufman
Adam Bigum
Scott Stuart
“As a working writer in the industry I have found joining the Melbourne Young Writers Studio team to be immensely valuable. Getting the opportunity to think about my own writing processes and teaching them to others has allowed me to reflect on my own methods and improve on them moving forward. Working with MYWS has also introduced me to a wide array of very bright, young talented creatives and their unique perspectives. With the talent coming through MYWS it is very clear the future is bright for creative writing in Australia.”
