Joanna Atherfold Finn

oanna has a PhD in English, has taught Creative Writing at the University of Newcastle, and tutors primary and high school students in English and Creative Writing to HSC level. She also works as a freelance journalist and writes a weekly 'agony aunt' column under a pseudonym.

​

While working as a Communications and Contracts manager, she completed her Communications degree and was awarded the Herald University of Newcastle Journalism award. Changing her focus to creative writing, she completed English honours and was awarded the University Medal. Watermark was published by Simon & Schuster in 2018 and launched at the Newcastle Writers Festival by Robert Drewe. Joanna has also had stories published in several anthologies and was runner-up in the Carmel Bird Short Fiction Award with two of her short stories published in the 'Amanda Lohrey Selects' series through multi platform publishing company Spineless Wonders. Joanna has presented papers on Australian literature at conferences and symposiums including the International Conference on the Short Story in English in Vienna. She lives with her family in Port Stephens. Her second book, co-authored with Rebecca Prince-Ruiz, is Plastic Free: The Inspiring Story of a Global Environmental Movement and Why It Matters .