Lesley Synge – writer & poet, presenter & mentor

Lesley was born under the Tropic of Capricorn. She writes in many genres, always with a passion to connect and to share insights into the human condition. She welcomes invitations to give author talks on her latest books, Know Their Names:Queensland government’s Aboriginal workers and the system that exploited them (2024) and Work: new and selected poems (2025).

Lesley holds teaching and writing qualifications from the University of Queensland (BA, Dip Ed, MA). She’s also studied writing for stage, film & TV.

Awards

Lesley has won two fiction awards: Ravello Tales Award Italy 2018 (When Giuseppe Met Jackie), and Interactive Press Fiction Award 2002 (Cry Ma Ma to the Moon), and a number of awards for her short stories in early career. More recently she won the Arts Central Queensland Lorna McDonald Essay Prize three times, and flourished on Australian artist residencies at Kings Bridge Caretaker’s Cottage in Launceston, and Varuna The National Writers House, Katoomba.

Background

Lesley made the transition to writing from a career as a high school teacher through short stories. She soon began teaching writing, and founded Real Life Stories Workshop in 1996 to meet a community need, subsequently helping thousands of people – from Far North Queensland to the Gold Coast and ‘out West’ – to write memoir. Besides mentoring new writers (Bob Cleland Big Road), she’s also supported whole communities to create anthologies (Nine Lives: Personal Stories of Mental Illness and Black Possum Diaries for the Sunshine Coast hinterland). She tutored the University of Queensland’s first creative writing course for undergraduates, and continues to mentor clients across many genres, including those from the Queensland Writers Centre ‘Writers Surgery’ program. She has presented poetry workshops in New Zealand and Italy. Her recent focus is a trio of works of social and labour history, bringing marginalised, or even invisible, Australian workers into the limelight: Wharfie, Know Their Names, and Work: new and selected poems.

A former high school librarian, she is a lifelong supporter of libraries. The Fryer Library, State Library of Queensland, Northern Territory Library and a number of municipal libraries, all hold archives donated by Lesley.

A founding member of Queensland Writers Centre (QWC), Oral History Association (Qld), and a publishing co-op in Maleny, her early credits are under the name Lesley Singh. She is currently a member of Australian Society of Authors, Royal Historical Society of Queensland, and QWC. Lesley acknowledges early career grants from Arts Queensland, Australia Council, Regional Arts Development Fund, and the University of Queensland Graduate School.

Bookings

To book an author event, writing workshop, or gain assistance with your book, please use the Contact page.

A poem from Organic Sister

Readers Anonymous

Hello, my name’s Lesley
and I’m addicted.
It was unintentional
but you’ll appreciate
books
when they landed on my pillow
lingered.
I liked their intelligence.
That’s how it started…”