about meredith
in short…
Meredith Jaffé is the author of four novels for adults — The Tricky Art of Forgiveness, The Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah Prison, The Making of Christina and The Fence. Her bestselling novel, The Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah Prison, was voted in the 2023 and 2022 Better Reading Top 100 and the 2021 Booktopia Favourite Australian Book Award Top 50. It has also been optioned for film.
She also writes for children (but that’s another story!)
She’s the former Festival Director of StoryFest and regularly facilitates at writers’ festivals, other author events and podcasts. Previously, she wrote the weekly literary column for the online women’s magazine The Hoopla. Her feature articles, reviews, and opinion pieces have also appeared in the Guardian Australia, The Huffington Post, and Mamamia.
the long version...
However, like many authors, how she became a writer is a different story. Meredith became a writer via the scenic route. As a schoolgirl, she wrote stories and poetry almost exclusively on the topic of horses (her poem The Brumbies was published in the annual school magazine!) When not writing about or riding horses, she channeled her energies into drama classes earning bit parts in the annual school plays. In Year 12, Meredith scored one of the leading roles in the school’s production of Pride and Prejudice. Playing the part of Darcy remains the pinnacle of her acting career.
Meandering off to university, she majored in English Literature and Sociology and upon graduating announced that she was going to be a writer. Her parents told her not to be silly and to get a real job, which she did. For 9 years, she worked in an insurance company and later became quite successful as a recruiter, possibly because it allowed her to collect other people’s life stories.
Facing the impending birth of her third child, she decided it was time to write or die wondering. Her early writing caught the eye of one of the founders of the online women’s magazine The Hoopla and Meredith joined the magazine when it launched in July 2011. In March the following year, Meredith stepped into the role of Editor, Books and enjoyed three blissful years reviewing books and interviewing writers before the magazine closed its doors in March 2015.
She regularly chairs panels, presents workshops, and interviews fellow writers for various literary festivals and other writerly events. So, when she moved to the country and they didn't have an established festival to celebrate story-based stuff, she immediately spotted the gap in the market.
In 2018, Meredith co-founded StoryFest, a storytelling festival on the beautiful New South Wales south coast. As Festival Director, she was responsible for putting together a star-studded program featuring Australia's finest fiction, non-fiction, songwriting and film-making creatives. In 2022, she passed on the baton to a new StoryFest crew and is writing full time.
If you want to read Meredith's novels, you can order The Fence and The Making of Christina here. You can find Meredith’s middle grade novel Horse Warrior here. Or, if you want to read a bunch of great kids stories, jokes and general silliness, you can find Funny Bones here.
And last but not least, if you would like Meredith to facilitate your next literary event, give an author talk or attend your book club, you can get in touch here.
