Cheryl Leavy writes non-fiction, poetry and children’s literature. Her first children’s book, Yanga Mother, was published by UQP in 2024. She has been awarded the Oodgeroo Noonuccal Prize for Indigenous Poetry, a First Nations Australian Writers Network Fellowship at Varuna, a First Nations Fellowship at Queensland Museum and a 2024 Queensland Writers Fellowship. She is from the Kooma and Nguri nations in western and central Queensland and is passionate about language revitalisation, often writing in Kooma.

Photograph: Rhett Hamilton