Meet the Toolkits: Nonfiction 2026 Participants
Say hello to the lovely Toolkits: Nonfiction participants for 2026!
Facilitated this year by Isabel Greenslade, Toolkits: Nonfiction is a developmental program for writers under 30. Over the next few weeks, these writers will explore the forms, techniques and potentials of creative nonfiction writing.
A very warm welcome to this year’s cohort! Read about them below:
Violeta Beech
Violeta Beech (she/her) is an emerging writer from Argentina. She has been living in Melbourne for the past 5 years. Recently, she graduated from the University of Melbourne with an Honours degree in History. She wrote a thesis titled ‘Daughters of Disobedience’, in which she studied how Argentinian women have resisted neoliberal state violence in modern history.
Alex Besen
Paula Campos
Paula Campos (she/her) is a writer, bookseller and student. She loves to read and write experimental stories with unlikable female narrator/s, Western Sydney settings and language that disrupts the English canon. Her writing has been published in Voiceworks and HATE MAIL zine. She was the recipient of the inaugural Kat Muscat award.
Valerie Chidiac
Valerie Chidiac (she/her) is an emerging writer and actor born in Beirut, Lebanon and raised across Bidjigal, Gadigal and Wangal land. Her creative practice is based around memory and navigating the infinite space between reality and escapism. In her spare time, she is a reviewer, interviewer and budding zinemaker.
April Edelston-Gould
Feminist and writer April Edelsten-Gould (they/them) is a gender studies and sexualities major with a background in life. They are originally from London and currently live on Kaurna Country (Adelaide, South Australia). Their work has previously been shortlisted in the Adelaide Writers’ Week Microstory Competition. They enjoy subverting form within their writing and sometimes indulge in third person discourse.
Instagram: @apriledelstengould
Talia Freeman
Talia Freeman (she/her) is an emerging writer, avid reader and thought daughter, living on Gadigal land. Her work has been published in Voiceworks magazine. Talia is interested in psychogeography and the palimpsest of experiences embedded in urban landscapes. Her favourite genre is gothic literature and when she's not writing she can be found at her local cinema.
Tihtina Merid
Tihtina Merid (she/her) is an emerging writer of Tigrayan heritage living and writing on the land of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung and the Bunurong peoples of the Kulin Nation. While working primarily with creative non-fiction, Tihtina has interests in storytelling in different forms. Tihtina is interested in working with ideas of fragmented identity, narrative, and preservation of memory.
Instagram: @binchbroccolini
Monique Nair
Monique Nair (she/her) is a Naarm-based writer of Indian-Italian-Polish heritage working across film, creative-nonfiction, criticism and poetry. She co-wrote the anthology feature film My Melbourne streaming on SBS on Demand, and co-edited Mascara Literary Review’s debut anthology, Resilience. Her writing is drawn to ancestry, decolonisation, and bodies of water.
Oscar Revelins
Oscar Revelins (he/him) is the Melbourne-based author of Delicate Friends whose short fiction has appeared in Overland and Varnish. His work has also been recognised by the Peter Carey Short Story Prize, the Varnish Prize for Fiction, the My Brother Jack Literary Awards, and the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Most recently, he was shortlisted for Griffith Review’s Emerging Voices 2026 competition and profiled by Kill Your Darlings as one of six young writers to know.
Ananya Thirumalai
Ananya Thirumalai (she/her) is a lifelong learner, writer, and aspiring educator.
IG: @downanyasrabbithole
About the facilitator:
Isabel Greenslade is a writer, editor and painter who lives on unceded Wurundjeri country. Her writing has appeared in publications like Island, Cordite and Voiceworks, where she also edits nonfiction. This year she placed third in the Furphy Literary Award for her short story ‘Saint Kilda’. She holds a master’s degree in writing, editing and publishing from the University of Melbourne.
Interested in participating in Toolkits? An annual Express Media membership lets you access our full range of programs. You’ll also receive regular updates from us, including news about upcoming Toolkits streams.
Toolkits is supported by the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund.