At Glenfern mansion, 2019
DR MYKAELA SAUNDERS is a Koori/Goori and Lebanese writer, critic and editor.
Mykaela’s debut speculative fiction collection ALWAYS WILL BE (UQP 2024) won the David Unaipon Award, was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award (Fiction) and NSW Literary Awards Indigenous Writers’ Prize, longlisted for The Stella Prize and highly commended for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing. Mykaela edited THIS ALL COME BACK NOW (UQP 2022), the world’s first anthology of blackfella spec fic , which won an Aurealis Award and was longlisted for Booktopia’s Favourite Australian Book Award and highly commended for the Small Press Network Book of The Year. Mykaela has won other prizes for fiction, poetry, essay writing and research, including the Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize, the Oodgeroo Noonuccal Indigenous Poetry Prize and the Rosemary van den Berg Prize for First Nations Criticism.
Mykaela is a postdoctoral research fellow at Macquarie University researching First Nations speculative fiction. Mykaela worked in Aboriginal education in various capacities from 2003 to 2023, and has been teaching at the tertiary level since 2012. Her research explores her people’s past, present and future.
Of Dharug descent and belonging to the Tweed Goori community, Mykaela lives and works with gratitude on the lands of the Dharug, Kulin, and Bundjalung nations – Sydney, Melbourne, and the northern rivers of NSW.
Book awards –
Always Will Be
- Winner, QLA David Unaipon Award 2022
- Shortlist, Prime Minister’s Literary Awards (Fiction) 2025
- Shortlist, NSW Literary Awards Indigenous Writers’ Prize 2025
- Longlist, The Stella Prize 2025
- Highly commended, Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing 2025
- Recipient, Copyright Agency First Nations Fellowship 2020
- Recipient, Grace Marion Wilson Glenfern Fellowship 2019
This All Come Back Now
- Winner, Aurealis Award for Best Anthology 2022
- Longlist, Booktopia Favourite Australian Book Award 2023
- Highly commended, Small Press Network Book of The Year 2023
- Recipient, Australia Council for the Arts Cherish II Grant 2020
Other awards –
Winner
- ASAL Rosemary van den Berg Prize for First Nations Criticism 2025, Think of The Children!
- ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize 2020, River Story
- QPF Oodgeroo Noonuccal Indigenous Poetry Prize 2020, Choice Cuts
- National Indigenous Story Awards 2020, Fire Bug
- GMW Emerging Writers Prize 2019, West Footscray Factory Fire
- USYD Sister Alison Bush Medal 2016, Yarning With Minjungbal Women
Runner up
- Liminal Nonfiction Prize 2021, Communing With Uncle Kev Through the Archives 1991-2021
Shortlist
- Time To Write Paragraph Fellowship 2025, Last Rites of Spring
- Peter Blazey Fellowship 2022, Dear Uncle
- QLA David Unaipon Award 2020, Last Rites of Spring
- Liminal Fiction Prize 2019, Terranora
- Peter Carey Short Story Award 2019, Long Road Becoming
Grants & fellowships
- Peter Blazey Fellowship 2026
- QLA Queensland Writers Fellowship 2026
- JCU Roderick Visiting Fellowship 2025
- Copyright Agency Sydney Review of Books Emerging Critics Fellowship 2025
- Macquarie University Fellowship for Indigenous Research 2023
- Australia Council for the Arts Individual Project Grant 2022
- The Next Chapter Fellowship 2021
- EWF At Home Residency 2020
- Creative Victoria VicArts Grant 2020
© Mykaela Saunders, 2025
Mykaela Saunders 