Lauren E. Mitchell

Lauren E. Mitchell has been writing since kindergarten and has no intention of stopping. They live with their husband and three cats in Melbourne, in a weatherboard house surrounded by bushland. As well as working on their own writing, they were Municipal Liaison for the Melbourne National Novel Writing Month region for ten years (2009-2018), helping to facilitate meetings between other writers with various events to hang out and expand one another’s creativity. They have also been on the convention committee for Continuum since 2016, volunteering as secretary and generally helpful person. They may or may not be comprised of several assorted writers coexisting in the one brain and frequently squabbling over which story to work on next. They have studied at both the University of Melbourne and RMIT, and have come to the conclusion that the best way to learn creative writing is not to have any teachers who think that speculative fiction is garbage. They feel strongly about incorporating themes around queer identity, mental illness, and social justice into their work. Also cats. Cats are very important.