Writer Journalist Editor Critic

Writer, Journo & Critic

Louise works as a journalist for the Australian Education Union. Louise’s book criticism appears in various places including The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian and The Saturday Paper, and she has reviewed for radio on Triple R FM and the ABC. She reviews nonfiction and fiction, international and Australian, from established and emerging authors.

Louise writes miscellaneous other pieces of cultural criticism as well as fiction; her fiction has appeared in Overland, Meanjin, New Australian Stories, Cardigan Press’s All Change Please and Black Inc’s Best Australian Stories.

Speaker

Louise is a host of literary panels and in-conversations at book festivals and the Wheeler Centre, and has interviewed many incredible writers, including Favel Parrett, Edward St Aubyn, Vendela Vida, Dave Eggers, Helen Garner, Shane Maloney, Eleanor Catton, Peter Carey, Vicki Laveau-Harvie (pictured), Elliot Perlman, Lionel Shriver and Steve Toltz.

Publisher & Editor

In 2003, Louise cofounded independent publisher Sleepers Publishing, which ran for over a decade and published the annual collection of short stories, The Sleepers Almanac, as well as debut novels and books of non-fiction from folks of great esteem including Steven Amsterdam, Kalinda Ashton, miles vertigan, David Musgrave, Balli Kaur Jaswal, Eleanor Limprecht, Paul Dalgarno and SJ Finn.

Louise is the editor of Choice Words: A Collection of Writing About Abortion.

Contributors include Jane Caro, Claudia Karvan, Laura Jean, Melissa Lucashenko, Emily Maguire, Tara June Winch, Michelle Law, Tony Birch, Melanie Cheng, Anne Summers, Gideon Haigh, Monica Dux, Bri Lee, Jenny Kee, with a Foreword by Tanya Plibersek.

Founder & Judge

Louise cofounded SPN, the small press network that advocates for and extends the reach of Australia’s independent presses.

Louise was also cofounder of The Stella Press, Australia’s prize for women’s writing.

Louise has judged the Age Book of the Year, the Age short story award, the Stella Prize, the Alan Marshall award and the Victorian Premier’s unpublished manuscript award, and has sat on the advisory group for the Melbourne Prize and the Malthouse Theatre, and the Melbourne Writers’ Festival programming committee.

About

Louise lives in Melbourne, Australia. She emigrated to Melbourne’s outer suburbs from Surrey, England when she was thirteen. She has a Bachelor’s degree in literature and critical theory from Monash University, a Diploma of professional writing and editing from RMIT, and a Masters in creative writing from Melbourne University.

Louise is represented by Grace Heifetz of Left Bank Literary.

Louise Swinn