Author. Speaker. Survivor Advocate. Passionate about the power of storytelling.

Hello and thank you for dropping by. I'm an award-winning author, freelance writer, speaker, writing teacher/mentor and survivor advocate. I write and speak about social justice, gendered violence and child abuse and the environment, drawing upon both research and my lived experience of sexual abuse and domestic violence.

My latest book Before the Harm: Preventing Abuse, Protecting Children is a part of Monash University Publishing’s ‘In the National Interest’ series and can be bought here. You can see my other books here.

I am passionate about helping marginalised people tell their stories, and have run writing programs in Dame Phyllis Frost Centre (women’s prison), Parkville Youth Justice Precinct and within other community settings working with marginalised people.

For a list of my upcoming speaking events, please look here. You can watch and listen to some of my interviews here. If you’d like to book me as a speaker or to run a workshop at your next corporate event, organisation or school, please contact my speaking agents, on my contact page.

In 2019, I founded and was the festival director of the Mountain Writers Festival, Australia's first writers' festival to focus exclusively on the environment.

​I have degrees in music, literature, environmental science/marine biology and a PhD in creative writing. I work with my pets sleeping at my feet, a cup of cold Earl Grey tea on my desk, and a view of Geboor/Mt Macedon out the window.

I live with my husband, our three children and many pets on Wurundjeri country (in Victoria's Macedon Ranges), on unceded land, one hour from Naarm/Melbourne.

>> Sonia