Gillian O’Shaughnessy

I spent 25 years with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as the host of the Afternoon Program on ABC Local Radio, and as a senior reporter, editor and presenter for ABC News and Current Affairs.

I have extensive experience as a long form interview moderator. Highlights include conversations with Sir Ian McKellan, the late Dame Hilary Mantel, Taika Waititi, John Cleese, Helen Garner, Tim Winton, Ben Okri, Kim Scott, Charlotte Wood, Anna Funder, Grace Tame, Paul Kelly, Craig Silvey and many others. In 2022, I curated Writers Weekend for the Perth Festival on the theme of Wardan, (Ocean) presented at the Fremantle Arts Centre which included a closing address by Tim Winton.

I am an author of short fiction, my stories have been widely anthologised in various publications in Australia and internationally. In 2024, so far, I have won both the London Independent Story Prize and the Welkin Mini. My work was also chosen for the International 2023 Best Small Fictions. I’m a submissions editor for the US Literary Journal, SmokeLong Quarterly.

In February 2024, I appeared in the play, I’m With Her, written and directed by Victoria Midwinter-Pitt for Perth Festival.

I live in Walyalup, Fremantle with my husband and our dog. You can read about my work in more detail below.

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

Journalist and Broadcaster

I’ve worked in radio, television and online news and current affairs, presenting Stateline on ABC TV, radio news and various programs on ABC Local Radio, including the Afternoon Show for ten years. I was a senior editor of ABC News online in WA.

I’ve been a trainer in both the ABC National cadet news program and in general news, specialising in broadcast voice. I’ve taught broadcast voice at Curtin University.

Judith Lucy at the Regal Theatre in 2021

Perth Writers Festival

Gillian 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

I love wiritng short fiction, and my work appears in journals and anthologies in Australia and internationally, including in Best Small Fictions, Jellyfish Review, SmokeLong Quarterly, Splonk, Fractured Lit, MoonPark Review, Cordite Poetry Review, Fudoki, and Night Parrot Press, among others.

My essay, Perth in Conversation appears in Perth: A Guide for the Curious, (UWA Publishing, 2016) and I have words featured in the WA Museum, Boola Bardip.

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 am a professional Reader, obsessively devoted to books and reading and I curate the Facebook book club, Reading Between the Wines.

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.

I’ve mc’d and hosted a wide range of events, including the Western Australian of the Year Awards at Government House in Perth, Kembali Perth, for the Ubud Writers Festival and Writers Weekend for Perth Festival.

I’ve interviewed some incredible talents across many fields, including Anna Funder, 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, Craig Silvey, 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, Gina Williams, Holden Sheppard and many others.

For work enquiries please contact me via email: groshaughnessy@gmail.com

Accolades

I have work in the 2023 Best Small Fictions Anthology. My short fiction has been nominated for two 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 among others.