Chair: Cassandra Wunsch

Cassandra began her writing journey with a residency at the Tasmanian Writers Centre (now known as TasWriters) in 2015. Two years later she had trained her way up to coordinating the Twitch program for young writers, where she had her own start. 

With a background in blogging and theatre, Cassandra is passionate about providing others with the same life changing opportunities that the TWC gave her. Though she originally hails from New South Wales, Cassandra is in love with her home in Tassie and is dedicated to the strong literary community that lives here.

Cassandra was Director of TasWriters from early 2020 until April 2024. She was the Director of the successful 2021 Hobart Writers Festival.

Deputy Chair: Leigh Swinbourne

Leigh Swinbourne is a dramatist and fiction writer resident in nipaluna/Hobart. His work has been shortlisted for the Patrick White Playwrights’ Award, the Varuna Award and The Tasmanian Literary Prizes. He has six plays published with Australian Plays Transformed. Through Ginninderra Press he has published two critically acclaimed collections of short stories, ‘The Shark’ (2011) and ‘Away’ (2014), and a novel, ‘Shadow in the Forest’ (2019). In 2023 he was awarded an Australian Society of Authors mentorship for a second novel. In 2024 he published his third collection of stories, ‘The Lost Child’, longlisted 2025 for the Premier’s Prize for Fiction.

Early in his career, Leigh worked for the Australia Council and the Festival of Sydney. In Hobart he has been a reader for the Australian Script Centre, a judge for the Forty South Tasmanian Writers’ Prize and short story prizes for the Tasmanian Federation of Australian Writers. He has presented workshops for FAW and Ginninderra Press, and has been a panellist for the Hobart Writers’ Festival. For many years Leigh was a board member of Musica Viva Tasmania. He has been a board member.

Treasurer: Erika Thomson

Erika Thomson is a qualified accountant (CPA) and has worked in public practice for over 20 years. 

Erika has a Bachelor of Commerce with majors in Accounting and Human Resource Management and a Bachelor of Musical Arts with a major in Music History, both from the University of Tasmania. 

She held the position of secretary for seven years with the Moonah & Glenorchy Business Association, been a playing member of the Derwent Valley Concert Band and former director and treasurer of both the Glenorchy Community Fund Ltd and GASP.

Secretary: Sue Kennedy

Sue has extensive experience as an IT professional specialising in Project Management, Risk Management, Business Continuity, Cyber Security and Warfare, both as an industry practitioner and as an academic. She was Director of the Y2K Project for ECU (considered to be the largest IT project undertaken by most organisations).

Since retiring she works part-time as an academic, a technical writer, an editor and proof-reader.

After becoming Chair of the Board of Management in 2018, Sue was also Acting Director for 18 months. She was the Director of the successful 2019 Hobart Writers Festival.

When time allows, she plans to continue writing her first book of fiction and researching for a non-fiction book about a secret military operation of WW2.

Sue has a Masters in Computer Science and an incomplete Masters in English which she had to defer due to work commitments at that time.

Board member: Ellie Campbell

Ellie has over 17 years’ experience in the film, television and advertising industries. She has worked in production teams on films such as Moulin Rouge, Two Hands and Love My Way as well as drama series for the BBC and Channel 4. 

In advertising, she managed digital teams and campaign roll outs for major clients such as Volkswagen.  

Ellie has a Masters in Writing from UTS (University of Technology Sydney); haswidely published flash fiction in the US and UK, in journals such as Pithead Chapel, Litro USA, Tiny Essays and MonkeyBicycle among others. 

She was shortlisted for the Winchester Writers’ Festival Flash Fiction Award in 2020. Raised in Sydney, Ellie has lived in Canada and the UK but now proudly call Tasmania home.

Board member: Meahd Farnaby

Growing up in a regional area of Tasmania and subjected to many yarns spun over fences and local gatherings, Meahd has always had a love of storytelling and reading and would quite often be found under the shade of a tree, nose in a book.  Her passion for words and literacy has grown throughout a diverse range of roles and qualifications including Diploma of Community Development, Project/Event Management (awarded Student of the Year for Aust Project Management Awards 2019), Business and Leadership, Guiding, and Teaching English as an Additional Language both in Tasmania and overseas.  She was Co-Admin Coordinator for the 2024 Tamar Valley Writers Festival and has performed marketing and coordination roles in various other cultural festivals.

She is currently in the Marketing team for Port Arthur Historic Sites, making the most of the archives and resources to research and interpret content for the three World Heritage listed locations in their care. Meahd also sits on the Management Committee of A Fairer World, as well as continuing to sit under trees reading her way through some of the remarkable Tasmanian literature that we are so lucky to have.

Board member: Cathy Limb

Cathy is a strong believer in the power of words to make an impact on people and communities. She is a professional writer and an avid reader. 

Cathy has more than 30 years’ experience in journalism, communications and marketing including 13 years as an ABC journalist in Tasmania, Canberra and Sydney. 

Since then she has worked in senior and management roles in government, the private sector and NFPs, most recently in the community sector. 

Cathy has a Bachelor of Arts, Graduate Diploma in Professional Communications, and has completed other post-graduate studies in marketing and finance.