Bloomwaves EOI

I am an autistic and queer author, multidisciplinary artist and arts advocate. I live and work on the unceded land of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people in Kamberri (Canberra), Australia.

As an artist, my work is predominantly preoccupied with the intersection of writing and movement and with ideas of the self as both a subject and object. I am particularly drawn to exploring art and the process of art making; queerness, gender and sexuality; mental illness and neurodivergence; and love, intimacy and (dis)connection.

My first novel, ‘Now that I see you’, was the winner of the Australian/Vogel Literary Award in 2021. My second novel was completed with funding support from artsACT and I am currently developing my third novel manuscript, also with funding support. Recently, I have also undertaken graduate study in screen writing with the support of Screen Canberra.

As a dancer, I have performed for QL2 Dance in both regional and international tours as well as for brother, choreographer James Batchelor. In 2025, I was honoured to be a guest artist in his new work, Resonance.

In 2024, I was a resident artist at The Street Theatre, where I am continuing to develop an interdisciplinary live performance work that combines my writing and performance practices. For this work I was also a recipient of a Canberra Theatre Centre New Ideas Lab mentorship and was an alumni of the Force Majeure INCITE program.

I write freelance about the arts for a number of publications. Before this, I edited and wrote for Leiden, and in 2017 we published ‘Building a Conscious Wardrobe (and other fun things)’, a book championing conscious consumerism. I am also super into creating images through painting, drawing and embroidery, as well as through styling and art direction.

I love teaching and speaking about writing and creative practice as well as supporting other artists in the development of their work through mentorship, dramaturgy or as a provocateur. I am particularly passionate about working with young artists and supporting the artistic development of queer and neurodivergent people.

In addition to my own creative practice, I am engaged in a number of arts advocacy roles:

• I'm the Chair of MARION;
• a board member of the Stellar Company;
• a member of the Minister’s Creative Council;
• a mentor for the Audrey Fagan Board Program; and
• an ambassador of the ACT Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge.

I am seeking support from artsACT for the development of Bloomwaves; a full-length novel manuscript intended for publication. Inspired by recent encounters with queer artists making powerfully personal work, often within a collective, this novel will be both an artistic inquiry and a celebration of community. It seeks to generate new forms of fiction that emerge not only from the self but from networks of embodied, intergenerational exchange.

The work draws its name from both the Bloomsbury Group and a particular work crafted by one of its members: The Waves by Virginia Wolf. My manuscript will echo the structure of this work, similarly tracing the lives of six characters, however in my development process I will also apply an interdisciplinary approach to writing shaped by my background as both a writer and dancer. Through creative development, I aim to investigate how movement can inform the rhythm and dynamic of language, while also shaping narrative through embodied methodologies.

Bloomwaves builds on the approach to autofiction refined in the development of my previous novels but marks a significant evolution in my practice; alongside the inclusion of personal material, I will incorporate collectively developed plot and character arcs generated through a facilitated workshop process. With the support of You Are Here, MARION and QL2 Dance, I will identify a cohort of 4 queer identifying artists who will participate in a series of creative exchanges to collectively generate text. The personal reflections and shared experiences surfaced in this process, will contribute obliquely to the novel’s emotional and thematic architecture, allowing for interesting crossovers between the contributions of each artist.

Creative development will also be informed by my ongoing study of the Bloomsbury Group: a radical circle of early 20th-century British writers, artists, and thinkers, including Virginia Woolf, her sister Vanessa Bell, and Vita Sackville-West, Woolf’s lover and muse. I am interested in placing this historical example of queer artistic collectivity into conversation with contemporary experiences unearthed through the exchange process, revealing continuities and divergences across time and place, allowing for commentary on found family, artistic community, idolism, musehood, and the complexities of carving out alternative ways of living and working.