E. J. Corbett Mentorship Judge & Mentor
Mentor
Dr Wendy J Dunn
Mentor
Dr Wendy J Dunn is an award-winning Australian author, playwright and poet. She is the author of two Anne Boleyn novels: Dear Heart, How Like You This?, The Light in the Labyrinth, her first young adult novel, and two Katherine of Aragon novels, Falling Pomegranate Seeds: The Duty of Daughters and Falling Pomegranate Seeds: All Manner of Things. Her first major nonfiction work, Henry VIII’s True Daughter: Catherine Carey, a Tudor Life, was published by Pen & Sword books in 2023. They have now commissioned Wendy to write a second nonfiction work.
A respected and longtime member of the Tudor writing community, Wendy was the Founding Editor of Backstory and Other Terrain, two academic writing journals belonging to Swinburne University. Wendy is a sessional tutor for the university, receiving the Swinburne University Postgraduate Research Award. Wendy still manages Other Terrain.
Wendy mentored Alison Stegert, the winner of the 2020 EJ Corbett Mentorship contest whose manuscript was published in 2024 as Her Majesty’s League of Remarkable Young Ladies.
David Shield, 2024 winner of the EJ Corbett Mentorship praises Wendy as follows:
‘Wendy Dunn is fantastic, let’s just start there. What separates a brilliant mentor apart from the pack is empathy for the work. And Wendy has this in spades. She polishes with the skill of jewel cutting a diamond, never letting her own interests or bias impede making the work gleam. In this modern age, this skill alone is one to treasure. Then there are her literary and market insights. Wendy knows the industry; she knows what’s being published and how to classify a work and tweak it to sell to publishers and people alike. For an author starting out in historical fiction, this has been invaluable for me after having written in different genres with different goal posts in the past.
For my work, Wendy knew when to split the literary flare off and to recast into a more youthful area, and just how to adjust tone, which rabbit holes needed addressing and which could be ignored. Her thoughts have deeply enriched my manuscript, making even the smallest corners into a vibrant part of the tapestry of the story. Someone looking at being mentored can expect attention to detail without losing track of the overall themes and feels of the work. Wendy always seems to know just the right balance for pacing and has a good eye for cuts that really help a manuscript along.
I would recommend her wholeheartedly to anyone in need of a mentor or a structural editor, particularly in the historical fiction sphere.’
Judge
Dr Rachel Nightingale
Judge
Dr Rachel Nightingale is an author, award-winning playwright, educator and actor. With a passion for storytelling and the theatre, it was only natural that her first fantasy series, the Tales of Tarya trilogy, would centre on both. She has also co-authored Mandala: Journeys Within the Circle, with artist Karen Scott, and Raluana Lane, a historical fiction novel about the invasion of Rabaul (Papua New Guinea) during WW2.
An award winning playwright, her plays have been performed in Australia, New Zealand and Manila. Having survived improv theatre, travelled the world and immersed herself endlessly in research and creative practice, she often finds herself at the mercy of stories that demand to be written.
She lives in regional Australia with her family and a very bossy cat.