Meet the Judges

 

Benita Al-Samarrie

@Benita.loves.books on Instagam

Hi, I’m Benita a passionate book reviewer with Novel Insight and proud to be a judge on their panel of reviewers. I’m an ex-primary school teacher who now tutors students and also teaches piano, alongside my love of books. With over 5,000 bookstagram followers, I enjoy connecting with the book community and sharing my thoughts on a wide variety of stories. While I read across all genres, my heart always comes back to thrillers, which keep me turning the pages late into the night.

 

Y. K. Willemse

Yvette is an author who has always had an interest in writing stories. Her first story was published in an anthology at age sixteen. By age twenty-two, Yvette became a Sir Julius Vogel Award finalist and had four books published. Her first fantasy fiction series was called The Fledgling Account and comprises eight books and four short stories for young adults. Her recent release Jerry's Window and upcoming release How to Make Friends and Go Viral by Accident are for middle grade readers and young adults respectively.

Yvette is also a singing and piano teacher with over ten years’ experience and has assisted numerous students in their performance and exam goals. Her music students range in age from four to seventy, with most of them between four and eighteen. She has also taught literacy extension in primary schools in the past, helping students enter poetry and short story competitions, and she has good rapport with this age group.

Yvette lives in a small regional town in Australia with her family.

 

Laura Norris

Laura has studied Creative Writing and Literature at Griffith University. She is the owner of The Mad Hatters Bookshop, an independent bookstore in Manly, Queensland, where she can be found championing the incredible Brisbane writing community and throwing books at people. She was published in Talent Implied: New Writing from Griffith 2019.

Laura is one of the co-editors of the upcoming short story collections for teens through Rhiza Edge.

 

R. A. Stephens

Author, Publisher, Director of Novel Insight

Rochelle is a teacher by day, writer, editor and publisher by night. She is passionate about the written word, what stories can do to take a reader to a new world and open our eyes to love, compassion, the bigger picture and much more. When not working, teaching or writing, she enjoys living in the country and spending time with her kids and cats.