Join us for a toast to all the attendees and panelists as we close the door on GenreCon 2023: Forbidden Doors and look forward to GenreCon 2024!

Investing in your manuscript is important if you want to elevate your work. But with so many editing options it can be difficult to know the best way forward.  

In this session we are joined by editors - Abigail Nathan, Sumudu Narayana and Cameron Rutherford – who will step you through the editing process and help clarify next steps. 

Some of the most successful creative works were created through partnership and collaboration. Do you want to find a creative collaborator, or are you interested in the benefits of writing in partnership?

Come along and hear from host June Perkins, Chair of the Queensland Writers Centre Management Committee, as she discusses writing in partnership with Geneve Flynn, Mykaela Saunders and Jay Kristoff.

Engaging and building your audience before launch is just as important as finding a publisher.  

Join host Lori-Jay Ellis multimedia storyteller, Leanne Yong author, Bryn Smith TikTok connoisseur, and Tonile Wortley from Hachette Australia as they discuss the best ways to market your book. 

Conquer your fear and come along to GenreCon’s panel on frightful fiction with Lauren Daniels, Josie Montano, Geneve Flynn and Zachary Ashford - celebrated authors of short stories, novels and poetry in genres from paranormal to gothic, folk to speculative, and all kinds of horror in between.

This All Come Back Now is the first-ever anthology of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander speculative fiction – a book written, curated, edited and designed by blackfellas, about blackfellas and for blackfellas. This All Come Back Now expands and subverts the expectations of speculative fiction to centre First Nations communities, cultures and creativity, and features many genres of spec fic, such as ghost stories, bush horror stories, urban fantasy, science fiction and many more imaginative and unsettling genres. Goori editor Dr Mykaela Saunders conceived of this anthology as a love letter to kin and country, to memory and to future-thinking.  

Joining Mykaela an award-winning Noongar writer Archie Weller and Kathryn Gledhill-Tucker, who are two of 21 contributors to This All Come Back Now, to discuss their stories in the anthology and their thoughts on the spec fic genre. 

There are endless ways to tell your story. Do you want to publish a novel, or send people on a wild investigation of clues across social media platforms? Words or images? Will you publish in print, digitally or in some other way? 

Join host and podcast writer Jess Forsayeth, as she discusses the different platforms for storytelling with Leanne Yong, multimedia storyteller and Jini Maxwell, creator and videogame writer. 

If you were given a key to a door and forbidden from opening it, what would you do? What secrets hide behind the door? Is curiosity dangerous or does the door lead to deep self-knowledge? Enter the World of Fairy Tales with the Brisbane Fairy Tale Ring and ring maiden Kathryn Gossow who will be joined by Storytelling Unplugged members to explore the ultimate Forbidden Door tale, Bluebeard.  Jenni Cargill-Strong will tell her version of Bluebeard based on Silvernose and Bettina Nissen will introduce you to sinister Mr Fox. 

Attendees will be invited to enter the enduring world of fairy tales and participate in a discussion about Bluebeard, its variants, and what fairy tales mean to them. Despite the Fairy Tale theme, this session is not suitable for children!

Want to turn your love for true crime into a career? Learn how to approach the pitching and publishing process for non-fiction crime with award-winning journalist and author Megan Norris.

Join GenreCon 2023 patron Nalini Singh in conversation with Judy Gregory.

The genre of crime immediately brings that gruff, scarily intelligent, weight-of-the-world-on-their-shoulders detective to mind. Think Sherlock Holmes, certified workaholic and condescending genius, or Nancy Drew, the immaculate, imaginative, sleuth-prodigy.  

With your host Stephen M. Irwin, co-creator/co-producer of the popular ABC series Harrow, and panelists R.W.R McDonald and J.P. Pomare, we’ll explore the endless ways to put your detective in the limelight and give them the recognition they deserve. 

Creative language can have a profound effect on how people absorb information. Writers who can create clever wordplay will keep readers on their toes and enjoying the work on multiple levels.  

Join host Megan Albany as she discusses weaving witty wordplay into your writing with panelists Natasha Lester, Steve MinOn and Jay Kristoff.  

This event is sponsored by Totally Lit Podcast.

Subtle shifts can help make your writing more nuanced and complex, more memorable, more persuasive. One word change, one shift in perspective, and everything's different. Finding subtlety in your writing is about discovering a balance between explicitness and implicitness, and it can mean the difference between a novel that works and one that falls flat.  

Lori-Jay Ellis discusses the subtle craft of romance with acclaimed authors Nalini Singh, Alli Sinclair and Will Kostakis. 

What makes Sci-Fi Sci-Fi? Science fiction is deeply cemented in fact, theories and principles and the effects of technology on people.  

Join acclaimed Sci-Fi writers Garth Nix, Jay Kristoff, Alison Ferguson and Bryn Smith as they discuss all things science fiction and the methods to writing in the genre. 

YA fiction is one of the most popular genres in the market today with a large and diverse audience. It’s important to have an understanding of the type of stories read by young readers and how you can stand out from similar YA books currently in the market. You know - same same but different.

Zachary Ashford leads this discussion with YA author Will Kostakis, shortlisted for the CBCA Book of the Year Award, Yellow Brick Books publisher Rowena Beresford, and Benython Oldfield from Zeitgeist Agency

Writing high concept romance means big love, high stakes and a wild ride. Whether it is outer world, seedy underbelly gangs or billionaire red rooms, it’s all about creating a story that’ll leave readers staring wide-eyed at the pages of your book or tearing through to find out what could possibly happen next. 

Join Lori-Jay Ellis and esteemed romance writers Nalini Singh and Amo Jones as they discuss how to plan, write and pitch high concept romance. 

Every genre has its forbidden door… 

Taboo subjects are not for the faint of heart but take a closer look and they can give you insight into real life struggles and transform your fiction.  

Join host Lauren Daniels as she opens forbidden doors alongside a panel of highly acclaimed authors including Garth Nix, J.P. Pomare and Amo Jones.  

Writers of historical fiction walk a fine line - how do they maintain the difference between ‘historicising’ fiction and fictionalising history?  

Join host Melissa Ashley, author of the The Birdman’s Wife, and her fellow bestselling authors Natasha Lester, Alli Sinclair and Simon Cleary as they discuss writing history and getting it right. 

Crime fiction is a wide-ranging genre that encompasses everything from detectives, cozy mysteries and whodunnits to non-fiction storytelling. Regardless of your form, crime can be a lens through which to view society and consider social issues. 

Join host Megan Norris and her fellow acclaimed crime writer, R.W.R McDonald, podcaster Jess Forsayeth and Curtis Brown agent Benjamin Paz as they tell you all about making a statement with crime. 

Let our Keynote speaker, award-winning sci-fi and fantasy writer and New York Times bestseller, Garth Nix get you motivated with the story of his journey in literature and everything the world of writing has to offer. This event launches the weekend activities for GenreCon 2023: Forbidden Doors, with an introduction by Queensland Writers Centre CEO Lori-Jay Ellis and Mykaela Saunders.

Join us at the home of GenreCon and receive your welcome pack for the weekend events.

Come to the home of GenreCon and celebrate wine-o’clock with a drink or 2 before the massive weekend of panels, seminars and special events. The GenreCon team, Keynote speaker Garth Nix and Patron Nalini Singh will be in attendance. This special presentation will announce the winning submission of the GenreCon Short Story Competition, along with prizes for best dressed.

Learn the secrets of great dialogue and characters that come to life.

Great characters and dialogue are intertwined - you can’t have one without the other. In this workshop we will be getting to know your characters on a deeper level. Through class exercises we will interrogate your characters and your dialogue. Workshop lessons for the day will cover how to improve your dialogue, turning bland into realistic, and ensuring your character’s personality shines through. By the end of the day you will leave with a new set of tools for your writer's toolbox that you can apply to your own writing.