Co-Head Editor of Prose: Olivia Wolfe (Issue 31- ) (University of Newcastle, Australia)

Olivia Wolfe is a Central Coast-based writer who adores poetry and magical realism. She is a PhD student at the University of Newcastle. Her work has featured in the Hunter Writer’s Grieve Anthology, Furphy Literary Award Anthology and Black Sheep magazine. She loves toast, doom scrolling and attempting to knit gifts for her family (that they don’t want)

Editorial Advisor: Dr Keri Glastonbury (Issues 1- ) (University of Newcastle, Australia)

Keri Glastonbury is a poet and is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Newcastle. She has helped SWAMP since its creation and continues to help guide the publication. Her DCA thesis ‘Shut up, Nobody Wants to Hear Your Poems’ staged a friendly title bout between two grunge auteurs of her generation, painter Adam Cullen and poet Ted Nielson. In 2012, her collection of poetry grit salute was published by papertiger media inc.

Past Editorial Board Members

Founding Editor
Patrick Bryson (Issues 1-3)

Patrick Bryson is a fiction writer and essayist, with his work appearing in Southerly, Tehelka, The Lifted Brow, The Times Of India, Motherland, Out of Print, The Shillong Times and Mascara Literary Review. He was awarded his PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Newcastle, Australia in 2009. His first novel, published in 2014, is The Sad Demise Of Manpreet Singh.

Co-Founder
Peter Bower (Editor-In-Chief Issues 4-6; Co-Editor Issues 1-3; Editor (poetry) Issue 8)

Peter is a published poet, writer and photographer. During his time at the University of Newcastle, he looked the shifting cultures in pubs in the Newcastle and Hunter Valley region; his novel examines social interactions and dysfunctionality within these cultural hubs, society’s dependence on them during times of crisis, and portrayals of self and masculinity within these predominantly male domains. When he doffed his hat in April 2014, he realised that his greatest accomplishment was this here SWAMP. Hence why he hangs around like a bad smell, maintaining the website and offering assistance in editorial duties. He now works for the government; meaning his website is likely out-of-date. He can be found on Twitter.

Ivy Ireland (Editor (poetry) Issues 1-5)

Ivy Ireland is poet who runs a bookstore café with her family. Ivy was awarded the Australian Young Poet Fellowship in 2007 and her poems have been published in various magazines and anthologies. Ivy periodically teaches Creative Writing at the University of Newcastle, where she completed her Ph.D. in 2012. Ivy’s first book, Incidental Complications, was published in 2007 and her most recent collection, Porch Light, was published in 2015.

Madeline Bignill (Editor-in-Chief: Issues 29-30; Editor (Prose) Issue 25-28) (University of Newcastle, Australia)

Madeline Bignill completed her Bachelor of Creative Writing and Honours in Arts and Design at the University of Canberra. In 2019 Madeline presented her thesis at IRSCL Congress in Stockholm. She has recently been awarded her PhD in English from the University of Newcastle. Her areas of research include children’s literature, fantasy and gender studies. Madeline continues to write and research children’s literature. She is a Newcastle native, loves the ocean, high-waisted trousers and enjoys lying in the sun like a cat, but does not enjoy cats.

Shannon Todd (Editor-In-Chief Issues 22-28; Editor (Poetry) Issues 19-21) (University of Newcastle, Australia)

Shannon is currently undertaking a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Newcastle having completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts/Bachelor of Arts (Theatre and Performance Studies) with Distinction at the University of New South Wales in 2013 and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) with Honours Class 1 at the University of Newcastle in 2014. Her area of research is the adaptation of Celtic fairy lore into works of contemporary young adult fantasy fiction and she is currently writing her own young adult fantasy novel as part of this investigation. Shannon’s short fiction has appeared in several anthologies and has also been successful in a number of national short story competitions.

Nicole Kennedy (Editor-In-Chief Issues 19-21, Editor (Prose) Issues 16-18)

Nicole was an Editor (Prose) for Issues 16-18, and stepped up to the position of Editor-in-Chief with Issue 19, also acting as Head of Prose.

Nicole has a Master of Arts degree with a specialisation in Children’s Literature, and a Bachelor of Arts Honours. A dedicated Harry Potter nerd, she has a passion for gender studies and representations of gender in children’s and young adult fiction. Currently Nicole is writing her PhD thesis on the representation of the adolescent body in young adult dystopian fiction, which is a perfect excuse to read a lot of books and then talk about them to everyone and anyone!

Amy Lovat (Editor-In-Chief Issues 14-15; Editor (Prose) Issue 13)

Amy Lovat has a PhD in English (Creative Writing) from the University of Newcastle and has been lecturing in English, Creative Writing and the Humanities since 2014. The creative portion of her PhD, a novel titled Halfway to Nowhere, was shortlisted in the top 5 in Australia for the Kill Your Darlings Unpublished Manuscript Prize. Amy is also the founder and co-owner of the social enterprise and kindness project Secret Book Stuff.

Annika Herb (Editor-In-Chief Issues 16-18, Editor (Prose) Issue 15)

Annika was an Editor (Prose) for Issue 15, and is the Editor-in-Chief from Issue 16 with Issue 18 being her last.

Annika is a PhD student in Creative Writing at the University of Newcastle and was awarded First Class Honours and a faculty medal in 2013. She loves that her study offers her the opportunity to read wonderful books all day in her pyjamas with copious amounts of tea. In between editing Issue 15, she flew a small plane over a large castle in Germany. Annika studies gender roles, femininity, and sexuality in Young Adult Literature, with a focus on fairy tales, contemporary urban fantasy, and paranormal fiction. She’d love to publish her writing someday, but first must deal with a morbid fear of rejection letters.

Head of Prose: Caylee Tierney (Issues 28-30) (University of Tasmania)
Editor (Prose) Issue 24 to 27.

Caylee writes young adult fantasy fiction that explores themes including identity, truth and freedom. he completed her PhD in English/literature at the University of Tasmania and
researches in the areas of popular fiction, publishing studies and children’s fiction. Connect with her on Twitter: @CayleeTierney.

Editor (Prose): Melanie Ifield (Issue 30)

Melanie is a disabled, rural Australian writer of fiction and poetry. She has published two adult and five children’s novels, short stories in literary journals and poetry in three collective chapbooks. She also publishes flash fictions on Instagram. Melanie is the manuscript assessor for the Fellowship of Australian Writers (FAW) NSW, and is currently a judge for the Aurealis YA short story awards 2022. Melanie completed her Masters of Creative Writing in 2022.

Malcolm St Hill (Editor-In-Chief Issues 12-13; Editor (Poetry) Issues 10-11, 14-15)

Malcolm was a PhD candidate at the University of Newcastle 2009-2015 with a focus on the literary and national memory of the Great War, notably the Australian Light-Horsemen.

A highlight of his postgrad journey was SWAMP. He owes a debt to those who invited and encouraged him to edit, to the members of the SWAMP team he was privileged to work with and to all of the writers and poets who have contributed to the magazine.

In a post-postgrad world Malcolm remains a poet and poetry editor who attempts to divine that which regularly eludes his ability to articulate and to comprehend.

Samantha Dagg (Editor-In-Chief Issues 8-11; Editor (Prose) Issues 6-7, 12-14)

Sam is currently involved in a Masters of Creative writing focusing on short fiction. She uses this as an excuse to be disorganised, underemployed and to explain all past and future personal indiscretions. She has been published, mostly in things you’ve never heard of, but sometimes in things you may have.

Scott Brewer (Editor-In-Chief Issue 7; Editor (Prose) Issues 4-6)

Scott was misplaced. He is a PhD student in literature at the University of Newcastle. He is not a creative writer, but he quite likes them – if only in the abstract. He was an editor of SWAMP by virtue of nodding sympathetically one too many times at Peter and Patrick. Apparently, he provided an analytical edge previously lacking. He is published in JASAL.

Kerry Plunkett (Editor (Poetry) Issues 23-28) (University of Newcastle, Australia)

Kerry is a PhD candidate in English literature at the University of Newcastle. She was awarded first class honours and the University medal for her innovative research on Australian poet J.S Harry. Kerry’s fascination with the history of poetics and female aesthetics led her to her current research project on early modern female creativity. During this time she also proved herself to be a super sleuth in the archives by discovering the much discussed but previously unknown wedding date of the 17th century poet, Hester Pulter.

Kerry was honoured to have her essay “Matters Invisible: J.S. Harry’s Lyrical Poems” included in Feeding the Ghost: Criticism on Contemporary Australian Poetry which was published in 2018 by Puncher and Wattman.

Naomi Borwein (Head of Poetry Issues 23-28; Editor (Poetry) Issues 20-22) (University of Newcastle, Australia)

Naomi Simone Borwein is a PhD candidate in English and Writing at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She has published criticism on the Horror and Gothic genres; her research appears in volumes like The Palgrave Handbook to Horror Literature and Horror Literature Through History. Chapters are forthcoming on Horror theory, transmediality, Southern Gothic, and various other topics. She has edited books for Springer. Naomi’s poetry preferences include, but are not limited to, Imagism, Modernism in the style of the Generation of 1927, and the works of Cavafy, Solinkya, and Yevtushenko.

Liz Chandler (Head of Prose Issues 22-27; Editor (Prose) Issues 19-21) (Massey University)

Liz is a Bachelor of Communication (Hons.) graduate from Massey University, New Zealand, living in Palmerston North. She majored in Journalism and minored in Expressive Arts. Liz has taken a bit of a right turn and is currently studying English with an eye towards a Master of Arts in English. She has an active interest in historical crime fiction and the part it plays in informing us of our history.

Ferne Merrylees (Head Poetry Editor Issues 16-18; Editor (Poetry) Issue 15)

Ferne has just completed her PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Newcastle, and as such Issue 18 will be her last as editor. Her studies examine social media in dystopian young adult literature, which is a lovely excuse to read a lot of good books! Ferne has had the pleasure of presenting papers at the 2013 Eaton Science Fiction Conference in Riverside, California, and the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts Conference in 2014 held in Orlando, Florida, as well as many other conferences a little closer to home. Her goal is to complete her PhD in 2015 and become a best seller!

Morgan Long (Co-Editor (Prose) Issues 15, 17-18)

Morgan is a PhD student in Literature at the University of Newcastle. She received First Class Honours and a faculty medal in 2011 for her Honours thesis: “The Masculine Wound and the Crisis of American Identity in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1926), Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises (1926), and John Fante’s Ask the Dust (1939).” She took a break in 2012 to bake and sell cupcakes at local markets. Her PhD thesis, “Modernism and the Russian Fantastic: A Comparative Analysis,” sees her working with authors such as Fyodor Dostoevsky, Anton Chekhov, Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner, to name a few. These days she spends her Thursday mornings learning Russian from her tutor Sasha, rather than searching the shelves of Bibina for bulk deals on flour.

Cassandra O’Loughlin (Editor (Poetry) Issues 5-7; Co-Editor (Poetry) Issue 4)

Cassandra is now working on her PhD at the University of Newcastle. Her poems have appeared in the Newcastle University Creative Writing anthologies, Southerly, Overland, Mascara Literary Review, Poetrix, Eureka Street and Catchfire Press publications. She won the Catchfire Press regional poetry prize in 2004 and awarded a highly commended in the 2012 Eric Rolls Prize for a personal essay.

Editor (Poetry): Dani Netherclift(Issues 29-30) (Deakin University, Australia)

Dani Netherclift is a PhD candidate in Creative Writing at Deakin University. She has recent work in The Slow Canoe, Mascara’s Resilience antholody by Ultimo Press, Cordite, Island and Westerley.

Nell Robertson (Editor (Prose) Issues 8-12)

Nell is currently studying a Masters of Creative Writing, exploring semi-autobiographical fiction with a magic realist leaning. In her undergraduate degree she studied logic in philosophy and her enjoyment of mathematics, colour and the ocean tends to come out in her writing. For Honours Nell wrote a short story cycle which she may send off to a publisher one of these years and make the leap from writer to author.

Head Poetry Editor: Ella Rusak (Issues 18-19)

Ella was Co-Editor with SWAMP since Issue 18, and for Issue 19 stepped up to the position of Head Poetry Editor.

Ella is a PhD student in creative writing at the University of Newcastle and was awarded First Class Honours and a Faculty Medal in 2014. She has a passion for writing and hopes to have a career in academia, teaching creative writing and literature. Ella’s PhD thesis is a family memoir about her relationship with her grandmother, and her grandparents’ experiences during the Second World War in Belarus, Poland and Germany.

Co-Editor (Prose): Paige Ayling (Issue 16)

Paige Ayling is an aspiring author and editor from the Central Coast of Australia. Paige completed her Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in English Literature and Creative Writing in 2014 and is currently undertaking postgraduate study at the University of Technology, Sydney.

Co-Editor (Poetry): Tegan Logos (Issue 16)

Tegan is a post-graduate student of Editing and Publishing at The University of Technology Sydney. She graduated in 2014 with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from The University of Newcastle. Tegan has found the elements of critiquing and analysing to be the most rewarding parts of her studies, which has inspired a lasting passion for editing. She is also a writer who spends most of her time not-writing.

Co-Editor (Poetry): Matilda Hope-Kirchen (Issue 17)

Matilda is an Honours student at the University of Newcastle, currently focusing on the intricacies of modernist literature (in relation to the influence of female same-sex sexuality). She spends her spare time writing slam poetry, reading graphic novels, and contemplating the representation of lesbianism in visual media.

Jenna Gill (Co-Editor (Poetry) Issues 1-2)

Lauchlan Ceeney (Co-Editor (Prose) Issue 10)

Previous Guest Editors

Sarah Jane Barnett (Massey University, New Zealand) (Guest Editor (Poetry) Issues 9-14)

Sarah was published with SWAMP in Issue 7, and joined the SWAMP editorial team as a Guest Editor for Issue 9. Sarah joined the editorial team as a permanent member Issue 10 and plans to work with the SWAMP team from the University of Newcastle for some time.

Sarah is a writer and book reviewer who lives in Wellington, New Zealand. Her work has appeared in a range of literary journals such as Landfall and Sport, and on the e-zines Cordite, Snorkel and Turbine. Her poems have also been selected for Best New Zealand Poems 2007 and 2010. Sarah is currently completing a creative writing PhD in the field of ecopoetics.

Sarah Dobbs (University of Lancaster, UK) (Guest Editor (Prose) Issues 12-14)

Sarah has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Lancaster. Her debut novel, Killing Daniel, was published by Unthank Books in 2012. She is currently at work on her third. You can follow her on Twitter @sarahjanedobbs

Lynette Washington (University of Adelaide) (Guest Editor (Prose) Issue 15)

Lynette spent much of her childhood roaming around Australia in a caravan. Now, she is constantly torn between competing desires for footloose travel and suburban security. Her short stories and flash fiction have been published and awarded and she is currently working towards her PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Adelaide, where she also teaches. In November 2014 Breaking Beauty, a collection of short stories Lynette edited will hit the shelves. You can find her on Twitter or Facebook.

Marygrace Navarra (Marist College, New York) (Guest Editor (Prose) Issue 16)

Marygrace graduated from Marist College in New York in May 2014, where she studied English, concentrated in writing, and minored in creative writing and women’s studies. She was editor-in-chief of Marist’s student newspaper, The Circle; was accepted to Sigma Tau Delta’s 2014 International Convention in Georgia for her short story, “Admission”; and studied at Macquarie University in the fall of 2013. She is currently pursuing graduate work in creative writing and deciding where to travel next.

Guest Co-Editor (Poetry): Jay Ludowyke (University of the Sunshine Coast) (Issue 17)

Jay Kylie Ludowyke is a doctoral candidate at the University of the Sunshine Coast where she also teaches creative writing. Her research focus is on nonfiction novels about historical artefacts. She has edited periodicals, presented conference papers and chaired panels at literary festivals. Her fiction is published in Australian journals and in 2014 her Honours novella was shortlisted in the national Great Novella.

Guest Co-Editor (Poetry): Gabrielle Flanagan (Deakin University) (Issue 18)

Gabrielle Therese Flanagan is currently studying for her Master of Arts degree specialising in Writing and Literature, with Deakin University. She has a strong interest in creative fictional writing and has chosen to specialise in the field of Literary Studies. Prior to commencing this degree Gabrielle attained her Bachelor of Arts with La Trobe University, majoring in English Literature. She followed this with the successful completion of her Bachelor of Education postgraduate degree with Australian Catholic University, which qualified her as a Professional Primary School Teacher. Gabrielle has taught across all levels and has extensive training in children’s literacy programs. Her true interests, however, lie in the creation and production of adult literature of the highest calibre. She had the fortunate opportunity to speak with renowned short story author Cate Kennedy, who offered Gabrielle her advice, expertise and encouragement in all her literary pursuits. Gabrielle is thoughtful, motivated, passionate and committed to continuing her creative writing experiences. She has a strong desire to be publish professionally, however is currently enjoying attaining her Masters and assisting other writers with their endeavours!

Guest Co-Editor (Poetry): Phillipa Bishop (Deakin University) (Issue 18)

Phillipa is a teacher, researcher and writer living in the Blue Mountains, NSW. She currently teaches at Western Sydney University and has a BA Communications (UTS) and recently completed a Graduate Certificate in Writing and Literature (Deakin University).

Guest Editor (Poetry): Fernanda Dahlstrom (Issue 19)

Fernanda Dahlstrom is a Masters student in creative writing at Deakin. After completing degrees in Arts and Law in Melbourne, she lived in the Northern Territory for seven years where she practiced as a community lawyer. In 2015, she won the Southern Cross TV Flash Fiction Award for ’Chapel’ and in 2016 she won the Charles Darwin University Travel Short Story Award for ‘God Wiling’.

She now works at a community legal centre in Brisbane and continues to write short fiction.

Guest Editor (Prose): Rachel Watts (Issue 19)

Rachel Watts is studying for a Master of Media and Communications degree in the discipline of creative writing at Curtin University. She has a background in print journalism with ten years’ experience as a reporter and editor in local newspapers. Her ambition is to find a career in academia and teach writing. She writes short stories, memoir and is currently working on a novel.

Guest Editor (Prose): Camille Roulière (Issues 20-21 )

Camille is a cotutelle PhD candidate at the J. M. Coetzee Centre for Creative Practice (University of Adelaide) and ERIBIA (University of Caen Normandie) where her role is to read, read, and read some more (and occasionally write). Her research centres on spatial poetics: on the manners in which people engage and interact with their environment through art. More precisely, she investigates the relationships between humans, place and music in Lower Murray Country (South Australia). Camille also works creatively and with equal passion (for lack of equal talent) as a scriptwriter/author, illustrator/painter/sculptor/glass artist, and amateur flutist.

Guest Editor (Prose): Kelly Malone (Issue 22)

Kelly Malone is a language artist. Her work has been performed, exhibited, and published locally and internationally, including North America, and the UK. More recently she was invited to perform in Venice alongside the 57th Biennale, and in New York, as a finalist for the Leslie Scalapino Award 2016-17 where an iteration of her PhD creative work, Reign of Contexti was staged. Kelly also exhibited and staged another iteration of this work at Watt Space earlier in 2018. Kelly has taught undergraduate creative writing and English literature courses, mainly at the University of Auckland, after a number of years as a high school teacher. On her return to her studies, she gained first-class Masters, in Arts, and Creative Writing, through the University of Auckland before she became a PhD Candidate at the UoN where she is completing her practice-led research on Performance Writing. Visit her website.

Guest Editor (Prose): Zoe Knowles (Issue 22) (UTS Sydney)

Zoe Knowles is a Sydney-based storyteller and editor who studied English Literature at Sydney University and, more recently, completed a Masters of Arts (Creative Writing) at UTS, Sydney. She currently works in publishing and is writing her first novel series. You can follow her on Instagram @storiesbyzak.

Guest Editor (Poetry): Pamela McLeod (Issues 21-23) (Deakin University)

Pamela McLeod has a Master of Information Studies, and a Bachelor of Arts in Communications. She is currently studying a Master of Arts in Writing and Literature at Deakin University. She has interests in political and social theory, interpersonal communication and psychology. Her writing focuses on the development and expression of identity, subjectivity and agency in relationships, and she explores this through trauma fiction and creative nonfiction.

Guest Editor (Poetry): Jazz Giuliani (Issues 24) (Macquarie University)

Jazz Giuliani is a poet and writer, currently completing her MA in Creative Writing at Macquarie University with a particular interest in multimodal storytelling. Jazz is based in Melbourne and performs spoken word regularly, including performing at the Emerging Writers’ Festival. Jazz has been published in The Dirty Thirty Poetry Anthology, The Feminist Utopia Project (The Feminist Press), Memory Weaving Anthology, Page 17, Little Raven, The Australian Poetry Collaboration, Girls will be Girls, Fead Magazine, amongst others. Jazz recently created and curated her own multidisciplinary event titled Muse & Makers that debuted at The Curtin in 2018.

Editor (Prose): Emily Yaremchuk (Issues 23-25) (Boston University)

Emily Yaremchuk is a writer of prose and poetry and a native of Fairfax, Virginia. She graduated from the University of Virginia in 2017 with a B.A. in English and anthropology, and recently completed her MFA in creative writing at Boston University. You can find her published works in The Ruckus, The London Times Literary Supplement, The Turnip Truck(s), and The Merrimack Review, among others. She lives in New York City where she works as a freelance writer and editor.

Editor (Poetry): Danielle Nohra (Issues 25-26) (University of Newcastle, Australia)

Danielle is a creative writing PhD candidate at the University of Newcastle after finishing a Bachelor of Writing degree at the University of Canberra followed by a Bachelor of Arts and Design (Honours) in Canberra, too. During her time at the University of Canberra, Danielle was the coordinating editor of the university’s creative writing anthology FIRST (2015) before getting her ekphrastic poetry, Chiaroscuro, published in its 2016 edition. In 2016 Danielle also had a peer-reviewed paper called “Stolen landscapes: trauma, agency and environmental ideology in Lucy Christopher’s Stolen” published in the Australasian Association of Writing’s yearly online journal.

Now, as a part-time PhD candidate, Danielle’s research examines memory manipulation and power in young adult fiction. Full-time, Danielle is the assistant editor of Canberra CityNews, which is a news magazine based in the ACT.

Head of Poetry: Giulia Mastrantoni (Issues 29) (Monash University, Australia)
Editor (Poetry) Issues 27-28

Giulia Mastrantoni’s fingers are crossed and will most likely remain so until she hears back from her examiners. Yes, as you might have guessed, she has only just submitted her PhD thesis. She is not ready to be congratulated (yet), but she is very ready to toast to a journey that has almost come to an end, so join her for a virtual sip of champagne. Her research focuses on the uncomfortable questions raised by sexual violence within the realm of representations and, as such, is a confronting, yet hopeful work. A published author, Giulia has written fiction in both Italian (her native language) and English. She has been co-editor-in-chief of Colloquy and editor of Verge (2020), she has spoken at several conferences and she is now embarking on a new adventure – starting her very own yoga business. After almost four years of work on her PhD project, Giulia is ready to slowly step away from Academia and create something of her own. While it might not seem related to her thesis, Giulia’s new adventure has the same goal as her PhD – setting the basis for a better, happier, more sustainable world.

Editor (Poetry): Caitlin Burns (Issues 29) (Deakin University, Australia)

Caitlin is a freelance writer and editor from Melbourne, Australia. In 2021, she completed a Master of Arts specialising in Writing and Literature at Deakin University. Since then, her work has been published in Australia’s Style Magazine, ArtsHub, Lip, The Blue Nib Literary Magazine, Intrepid Times, among others.

Head Editor of Poetry: Andrew Menken (Issue 31-32) (University of Newcastle, Australia)
Editor (Poetry): (Issues 29-30)

After completing a BA at the University of Newcastle, Andrew was awarded a Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarship in 2020 and began his PhD in poetry. Many of his poems are imaginative explorations of his little hometown of Budgewoi on the Central Coast. Andrew’s work has previously been published in SWAMP and Westerly. He recently received a Bouddi Foundation for the Arts Grant and was awarded the 2021 Allen and Unwin Award for creative writing. In his free time, Andrew likes to play guitar and dabble in song writing.