Meet the Team
Lea Dodd
Artistic Director
With her finger on the pulse of emerging literary trends, Lea crafts unforgettable festival experiences. Lea has been in Maleny since 2013 and the owner of the iconic Rosetta Books since 2022, and was nominated for a Sunshine Coast Australia Day Award in the Creative Arts category in 2026.
A lecturer in creative writing and literature at CQU for 5 years, she received a Dean’s Research Award and OPAL Excellence in Engagement Award. She believes strongly in community, having served as Chair of Queensland Writers Centre, and is a volunteer for a number of local arts and community organisations. Her programming and speaking experience spans Rosetta Books events, GenreCon, Australian Association of Writing conferences, Brisbane Writers Festival and many more.
Since she first picked up a pen, Lea has been honing her writing skills and has been listed for several awards for her writing including the UK Fish Short Story Prize, the Richell Prize with Hachette Australia and Adaptable with QWC/Screen Queensland.
Roxanne McCarty-O'Kane
Media Co-Ordinator
Roxanne is a qualified journalist who has written for a number of newspapers, magazines and e-zines. A prolific ghostwriter, author, workshop facilitator, writing mentor and ‘old school’ print journalist, words have been Roxanne’s world as a professional since 2007.
Named as the Sunshine Coast Business Awards Creative Industries Award winner in 2023, Roxanne is renowned for her Ignite & Write Workshops and her presentations are charged with powerful content and tangible tools that remove the mystery from storytelling and ignite a thought-provoking and emotion-evoking theatre within the mind.
Her Ignite & Write book series, The Mindful Author and The Structured Author have become a powerful resources for aspiring authors around the world to craft their manuscripts with confidence, clarity and a true sense of purpose and passion. She is excited to join the SCHWF team to build the festival’s profile through traditional and nontraditional media.
Kath Yorkston
Volunteer Co-Ordinator
As a recently retired English teacher, Kath Yorkston has always loved the power of a story to take you on a journey into other worlds. For over forty years she has shared this passion with high school students on the Sunshine Coast and in other parts of Queensland. Over her long career she has gained considerable experience in the organisation of people and events.
As a long-term resident of Maleny, Kath has often volunteered for community events and has admired the willingness of many in this vibrant and unique community to support the arts. Therefore, she is thrilled to take on the role of Volunteer Coordinator and to be involved in another successful Sunshine Coast Hinterland Writers Festival.
Georgia Harper
Author Ambassador
Georgia Harper is an Australian fiction author and Sunshine Coast local. As the volunteer SCHWF Author Ambassador, Georgia provides an author perspective to the organising committee, engages with festival authors, and shares SCHWF news with the Australian literary community and reading public.
For more about Georgia, visit www.penguin.com.au/authors/georgia-harper or find her on Instagram: @georgiaharper_author
For festival media engagement, contact us via: info@schwritersfestival.com.au.
Jodi Hamlyn-Harris
Arts Development Co-Ordinator
Jodi Hamlyn-Harris brings both literary expertise and practical management experience to her role as Arts Development Coordinator for the SCHWF. A published author with a Bachelor of Arts in Literature from Griffith University, Jodi blends her appreciation for storytelling with strong communication and organisational skills. Alongside coordinating artistic programming, she also liaises with local businesses and oversees sponsorships for the 2026 SCHWF, building valuable community and industry partnerships that help the festival thrive and grow.