Gillian O’Shaughnessy

Author of Salt City Runaway out now. Unforgettable characters that disrupt and delight in fifty teeny, tiny stories with teeth. Salt City Runaway is published by Night Parrot Press. Buy here or ask for it at your local independent bookstore.

‘A chorus of tiny stabs, whose sly work is done before the wounds even register. The cumulative impact is startling.’ Tim Winton

‘An exhilarating read. Gillian O’Shaughnessy beautifully illustrates the adage that less is indeed more.’ Pip Williams.

Experienced panelist, facilitator, and public speaker specialising in books and reading.

I teach flash fiction writing workshops for libraries, festivals and writing groups, subject to availability.

Former journalist and broadcaster with ABC Perth and WA. Former curator of Writers Weekend for Perth Festival and judge of the 2026 Australian Stella Prize for Women and Non Binary Writers.

Launch of Salt City Runaway, Ode to Sirens, Fremantle, 2026

Contact me by email for queries relating to bios, writing workshops, work requests and fees, groshaughnessy@gmail.com.

In conversation with author, Tim Winton, 2024. Photo credit: Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival

More details….

I’m a writer, journalist and moderator from Walyalup, Fremantle in Western Australia.

I spent 25 years with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation hosting the Afternoon Program on ABC Local Radio, and as a senior journalist with ABC News and Current Affairs. I have extensive experience in long and short form interviews.

Highlights include conversations with Tim Winton, Sir Ian McKellen, Marian Keyes, Andrew O’Hagan, Holly Ringland, Hilary Mantel, Taika Waititi, Helen Garner, Ben Okri, Kim Scott, Charlotte Wood, Anna Funder and Craig Silvey, among others.

My short fiction stories have been widely anthologised in publications in Australia and internationally.

In 2024, I won the London Independent Story Prize and the UK Welkin Mini and was shortlisted for the UK Bridport Prize and the Bath Award for Flash Fiction. My stories have been selected for the International Best Small Fictions in 2025, 2024 and 2023. I’m a submissions editor for the US Literary Journal, SmokeLong Quarterly.

Curator of the Facebook reading group, Reading Between the Wines.

Better off Said: Eulogies for the Living and Dead, Perth Festival, 2025.

…Even more details…

Journalist and Broadcaster

I’ve worked in radio, television and online news and current affairs, presenting the Afternoon Show on ABC Radio Perth and WA and as a senior editor, producer and presenter of ABC News in WA. As a trainer and workshop facilitator, I have worked with ABC News journalists and students at Curtin University in broadcast and news presentation.

Judith Lucy at the Regal Theatre in 2021

Perth Writers Festival

I curated the 2022 Writers Weekend for Perth Festival on a theme of Wardan (Ocean) at Fremantle Arts Centre. Sessions featured interviews with Helen Garner, Claire G. Coleman, Michael Robotham, Hannah Kent, Elfie Shiosaki, Michelle de Kretser, Pip Williams, Julia Baird among others. The closing address was delivered by four-time Miles Franklin winner, Tim Winton.

Writing

My short fiction appears in journals and anthologies in Australia and internationally, including in Jellyfish Review, SmokeLong Quarterly, Splonk, Fractured Lit, MoonPark Review, Cordite Poetry Review, and Night Parrot Press, among others.

I’m a submissions editor for the flash narrative journal, SmokeLong Quarterly a reader for the UK Welkin Writing Prize and a former board member of WA’s independent publisher, Night Parrot Press.

I’ve presented flash fiction workshops for Writing WA, Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival and Big Sky Writers Festival in Geraldton.

Moderator

I’ve moderated interviews for ABC News, ABC Local Radio, the Perth Writers Festival, the Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival, Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, the Australian Short Story Festival, and Writing WA, among others.

Conversations include Anna Funder, Dr Anita Heiss, Emily McGuire, Tasma Walton, Sir Ian McKellen, Hilary Mantel, Helen Garner, Geraldine Brooks, Grace Tame, Jennifer Down, Jane Fonda, Sir Ralph Fiennes, Taika Waititi, Edgar Wright, Heather Rose, Elizabeth Gilbert, Magda Szubanski, John Cleese, Kim Scott, Tim Winton, Christos Tsiolkas, Ben Okri, Judith Lucy, James Patterson, Patricia Cornwall, the late P.D James, Bill Bailey, Heather Morris, Elfie Shiosaki, Guy Garvey, Paul Kelly, Esi Edugyan, Gina Williams, Holden Sheppard and many others.

With Andrew O’Hagan at Margaret River Readers & Writers Festival, 2024.

Accolades

My stories were chosen for the 2025, 2024 and 2023 Best Small Fictions Anthology. My short fiction has been nominated for the Best of the Net, multiple US Pushcart prizes and long listed in the Wigleaf Top 50 Very Short Fictions in 2021 and 2023.

I’ve won the Welkin Mini, the London Independent Story Prize for Flash Fiction, the UK Reflex Flash Fiction Prize, Writing WA’s Love to Read Local Flash Fiction prize and the US Fractured Lit Anthology Prize in 2021 and 2023.

I’ve been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize, Bath Flash Fiction, the Oxford Flash Fiction Prize, the London Independent Story Prize and Flash 500, among others.