Photo by Marie Court
Shaped by her Gamilaroi and Celtic roots, Judi Morison is a storyteller whose writing engages with truth-telling through fiction and with Country. After growing up on Wangal and Kameygal Country in Sydney, she lived briefly in Christchuch (Aotearoa) and London (UK), as well as on Burramatta, Gundungurra and Wadi Wadi lands, before moving to Gumbaynggirr Country. She has worked as a waitress, chambermaid, librarian, antiques dealer and as a teacher at TAFE and the University of Wollongong.
During her 23 years spent on Wadi Wadi Country, in the Illawarra, Judi’s connection to the South Coast Writers Centre was important for her writing journey, as was her involvement with the Ngana Barangarai (Black Wallaby) Writers and the Dreaming Inside project.
From 2018-2021, Judi completed a Master of Arts in Creative Writing at UTS, where her writing community expanded. She has also studied Gamilaraay language online at ANU and in Gamilaroi community classes online and loves using the Gamilaraay language, although she wishes her memory for new vocabulary was a lot better and that her nerves didn’t trip up her tongue when she pronounces tricky words.
Secrets, Judi’s debut novel, in manuscript won the 2022 Boundless Indigenous Mentorship, provided by Writing NSW, Text Publishing and Booktopia, and was published by Bundyi, an imprint of Simon & Schuster (Australia), in October 2025. Her historical novel manuscript, ‘Crossing the Creek’, was shortlisted for The Australian Fiction Prize 2025 and will be published by Bundyi in 2026.
Since moving north, Judi has joined three new writing groups and again appreciates the support of being part of a local writing community. She is currently working on a second historical fiction novel.
Secrets, Bundyi (Simon & Schuster) 2025
Galigalgaa, Temple: South Coast Writers Centre Anthology, SCWC 2024
The Ring, Chroma: South Coast Writers Centre Anthology, SCWC 2024
Coastline Dreaming, 40: Forty Years of the UTS Writers’ Anthology, Brio Books 2022
The Lie of the Land, Mantle: South Coast Writers Centre Anthology, SCWC 2022
Coming Home, Legacies: South Coast Writers Centre Anthology, SCWC 2021
Blood and Bone, Bloom: The 2021 UTS Writers’ Anthology, Brio Books 2021
Sean, ACE II: Arresting, Contemporary Stories by Emerging Writers, Australian Association of Writing Programs & Recent Work Press, 2020
Home Safe, Heroines: An Anthology of Short Fiction & Poetry, vol. 3, The Neo Perennial Press, 2020
Bone Dry, Empty Sky: UTS Writers’ Anthology 2020, Brio Books 2020
Coast Line Dreaming, Infinite Threads: 2019 UTS Writers’ Anthology, Brio Books 2020
Walking country, 34-37 Degrees South: Country, An Anthology of Poetry from the South Coast Writers Centre Membership, SCWC 2023
Walaaybaa (Country), The Saltbush Review, iss. 2, 2022
Junee yarning, Dreaming Inside: Voices from Junee Correctional Centre, vol 5 Anniversary Edition, Black Wallaby Indigenous Writers, SCWC 2017
The Plain, Red Room Poetry, 2013
Turning Up the Volume, Dreaming Inside: Voices from Junee Correctional Centre, vol 10, Ngana Barangarai 2022
If, the incompleteness book, TEXT: Journal of Writing and Writing Courses & Recent Work Press 2020
Shortlisted The Australian Literary Prize
Roderick Centre Online Fellowship for Regional and Remote Writers (Roderick Centre for Australian Literature and Creative Literature/Varuna)
Cultivate Mentorship for Emerging Writers from Diverse Backgrounds (Writing NSW)
Boundless Indigenous Writer’s Mentorship (Writing NSW/Text Publishing/Booktopia)
Bundanon Residency (South Coast Writers Centre/Bundanon Trust)
Wollongong Botanic Gardens Residency (South Coast Writers Centre/Wollongong City Council)
Master of Arts in Creative Writing, University of Technology Sydney
Queensland Writers Centre Publishable Mentorship
Shortlisted Penguin Random House Write It! Fellowship
Shortlisted Varuna First Nations Fellowship
Longlisted Kill Your Darlings Unpublished Manuscript Award
Bundanon Residency (Bundanon Trust)
