Our People
The Historical Novel Society Australasia (HNSA) is driven by the passion and dedication of its people. Managed by a management committee elected by our active members, HNSA brings together a diverse group of individuals who share a love for historical fiction.
To improve depth, breadth and innovation in our programs, the HNSA Committee has also established a Program Advisory Panel to assist in using principles of diversity and inclusion.
HNSA Patrons
Dr Kate Forsyth
HNSA Patron
BA (Lit.), MA (Writing) , DCA (Fairy Tales)
Kate Forsyth wrote her first novel aged seven, and has sold more than a million copies since. Her novels include The Blue Rose, a story of impossible love set in Revolutionary France and Imperial China; Beauty in Thorns, a reimagining of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ set amongst the passions and scandals of the Pre-Raphaelites; Bitter Greens, a reimagining of ‘Rapunzel’ which won the 2015 ALA Award for Best Historical Fiction; and The Wild Girl, the story of the forbidden romance behind the Grimm brothers’ famous fairy tales. Kate also has a doctorate in fairy tale studies and is an accredited master storyteller.
Sophie Masson
HNSA Conference Patron
BA, M.Litt, PhD, AM
Sophie Masson AM is the award-winning author of over 60 books. Her historical novels include War and Resistance (Scholastic Australia, 2019), Black Wings (The Greystones Press, 2018) and Jack of Spades (Eagle Books 2017), shortlisted for the 2018 Davitt Awards. Sophie is also a founding partner and Publishing Director of acclaimed boutique publisher, Christmas Press. A former Chair of the ASA and current Chair of the New England Writers’ Centre, Sophie received an AM award in the Order of Australia this year, for significant service to literature as an author, publisher and through service to literary organisations.
Executive Committee
Elisabeth Storrs
Chair and Program Director
BA (Lit) LLB, Retired FCIS, FCSA, MAICD
Elisabeth is the award winning author of the ‘A Tale of Ancient Rome’ saga which has been endorsed by Ursula Le Guin, Kate Quinn and Ben Kane. Now she is hurtling centuries forward to write Treasured, a novel set in WW2 Germany about looted art, bizarre Nazi archaeology, and the race to save the Trojan Gold in the fall of Berlin.
Over the years she has worked as a solicitor, corporate lawyer, corporate governance consultant and legal writer. She is the former Deputy Chair of the Writing NSW and the founder of the HNSA.
Greg Johnston
Treasurer
B.Pharm, BA
Greg has written in one form or another most of his life. He has published three novels and is working on a novel set in the cane fields of Far North Queensland from the 1920s to 1940s. He works as a bookkeeper, so half the day is spent in the company of numbers and half in the company of letters.
Dr Diane Murray
Danks Design Group, MA (Writing), PhD (Creative Writing, Media and Communications) (Swinburne)
Diane is an interior architect and writer who designs offices by day but writes and reads historical fiction at night. Her recent novel, Printer’s Ink, the biography of Australian newspaper pioneer Marion Leathem and the accompanying exegesis, Unreal Truths: The Lies in Every Story investigate the impact of historical biography on the writer’s unconscious mind and the intriguing psychological transferences which occur between a writer and her subject. Previously a former Deputy Chair of the NSW Writer’s Centre, Diane has been on the executive committee of the HNSA since 2014. Diane was awarded her PhD in 2016.
Committee Members
Lucy Watson
BA (History, English)
Lucy Watson studied English and History at the University of Melbourne (with an exchange to the University of Edinburgh to further study history). After a decade of writing and performing sketch, scripted and stand-up comedy (including several Melbourne International Comedy Festival shows), she began work on For All The Gold, her first completed historical novel manuscript. She has been published in online magazines and newspapers including The Age, Time Out, In Batmania (now By The Nylex) and Collider, and spent well over a decade working as a copywriter and marketing manager in the brewing, hospitality and media industries. She has also worked in radio, film and television.
Cecilia Rice
BA (Hons) LLB
Cecilia studied law and drama at UNSW majoring in film, and wrote a thesis on the adaptation of David Williamson’s plays to film. As a solicitor, she has practised in the private and public sectors, worked in broadcasting regulation & media policy and currently as an accredited mediator in the investigation and conciliation of privacy complaints. As a student of Legal History, Cecilia became interested in the truths and fictions of our past, including the early court cases and proclamations concerning our First Nations People. She started writing novels and non-fiction. Cecilia lives in Sydney with her family. Apart from legal and technical publications a memoir for her disabled sister, Always Liza to Me was published by Allen & Unwin in 2009.