Kevin Gillespie

Chair

Kevin is the present Chair of the QWC and has been involved with the committee and assisting the QWC for some seven years.

Kevin believes in the ability of the QWC to promote and advocate the cause of writers and writing throughout Queensland. His vision for the QWC is to maintain, foster and evolute all the worthy concepts that have been initiated to assist writers and writing in Queensland and to build upon them to further improve outcomes, services and educational provision to all our members.

He has a wide background in management and logistics, and served for 21 years in the Royal Australian Air Force, which saw him living and working in many areas of Australia and South East Asia. Presently, Kevin is working for the Queensland State Government in QBuild as a Regional Procurement Manager.

Kevin is a graduate of Year of the Novel in 2005, and Year of the Edit in 2007, having successfully completed his novel by the end of the workshops. He is passionate about writing and has written stories and poetry most of his life, and is an avid reader of all genres. His personal aim is to one day become a fulltime writer.

Sue Abbey

Vice Chair

Leanne Dodd

Treasurer

Leanne is a writer of suspense and crime novels set in Australia.  She holds a Commerce degree with further electives in English Literature and Communications.  She has acted as Treasurer for two Brisbane writing groups and has co-authored and assisted in the publishing and launching of two of their short story anthologies.  Her finance career has seen her work in the fields of IT, film and television and act as a Company Secretary for an international agency supplying journals and magazines to university and council libraries.

Alex Adsett

Member

 Alex Adsett is a publishing consultant with fifteen years experience in the publishing and bookselling industry, having worked for Simon & Schuster in London, Penguin in Melbourne and Wiley in Brisbane. Keen to move home to Queensland, she has managed Alex Adsett Publishing Services since 2008 offering business, negotiat­ing and publishing contract advice to authors, publishers and booksellers.  With a passion for books and authors, she has enjoyed working on the QWC Committee for the last two years, and is looking forward to continuing in 2012.

Julie Barnett

Member

Mark Fallu

Member

Mark has an active member of the QWC board for the last 3 years.  

Mark manages the e-research activities of Griffith University in the Humanities, Creative and Performing Arts. He is a specialist in online communication tools and user contributed content management strategies. 

Previously, Mark has been a media and policy advisor for a number of Queensland Government ministers. He has also been associated with Creative Commons Australia project and the online component of a number of Brisbane based festivals.

Mark is passionate about online publishing and the regulatory environment it occurs in.

Chris Herden

Member

Chris is a freelance journalist and has contributed to several publications since their inception. He is a regular columnist for both Brisbane lifestyle magazine bmag and the wine industry journal, Australia & New Zealand Grapegrowers & Wine­makers. He has written articles for the US-based online media portal Business Review Australia as well as The Sunday Mail and Brisbane Affair. He is also a versatile singer/actor and active participant in Brisbane’s musical theatre scene.

Kathleen Jennings

Member

Kathleen is a writer of short speculative fiction and poetry, and an illustrator of book covers, internal illustrations and comics. She is also a lawyer, with six years post-admission experience in private practice and the public service. She was raised in regional Queensland, has received several awards for her writing and illustration and was president for three years of the Vision writers’ group.

J. Linda McBride-Yuke

Member

Linda belongs to the Bunjalung and Yugembah nations from Northern NSW and Butchulla from the Hervey Bay region.   

Both of Linda’s parents were activists in the Queensland Council for Advancement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (QCAATSI). Recently Linda donated her parent’s collection of QCAATSI papers to the State Library of Queensland.

She was the first Aboriginal student to complete grade 12.  

A University of Queensland graduate, Linda holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science (International and Australian Politics) with minors in both Australian and American History.

Linda has worked for 25 years in the pubic sector, both Federal and State.

Linda is currently an Intern Editor with the black&write! Indigenous Writing and Editing Project.