Ben fell into a writing career when, while working as a Remote Area Nurse, a medical drama needed a consultant with broad experience on their storylining team. His writing CV now spans 20+ years and includes credits for Shortland Street, Neighbours, various childrens’ series, and awards, here and in the US, for a short film True Love, by Ignition Films. Ben’s writing is inspired and informed by his eclectic life. He’s been a science journalist, farm worker, factory hand, deckhand, nurse and midwife. He’s worked in critical care and in remote communities, and travelled, lived, worked and mountaineered in many countries. His manuscripts are as diverse as the situations he’s found himself in, and the characters he’s met. He’s now working on a Young Adult Trilogy set around the Pacific during the Second World War, the first of which was shortlisted in the Emerging Writer category of the Queensland Literary Awards 2017. His character-driven plots use multiple points of view to investigate the historical past, the speculative future, and the human condition. Each manuscript is an opportunity to research the complex issues unique to our species, and take readers on a journey they haven’t taken before. He lives in a remote mountain valley in Tasmania with his wife, a large number of marsupials, some of which are carnivorous, and two very carnivorous rescue dogs. |
Awards and Mentorships
Shortlisted Queensland Literary Award for Best Emerging Queensland Writer - Manuscript Award :The Fox 2017
Judges report:
"The Fox is a coming-of-age historical novel set in the late 1930s on a remote Japanese island. It explores an interesting period in Japanese-Russian relations from the perspective of a disabled teenage boy. This manuscript is well researched providing interesting historical context around disability, Japanese culture, the Indigenous Ainu people and the Russia-Japan relations in the pre-Second World War period. The relationships between the young characters are well drawn and the narrative arc of the young boy finding his strength in the water and negotiating a positive outcome among adults in a high conflict situation is a real strength."
The Fox also won the 2020 Booklinks Queensland Mentorship with Robin Sheahan-Bright.
The Sparrow was shortlisted and won a 2020 mentorship with Queensland Writers' Centre Publishable Program.
True Love selected for Short Film Production 2010 by QPIX as part of the Raw Nerve Film Initiative in conjuction with Screen Australia
Awards for the short film True Love
Winner Best Drama and Best Film at the Queensland New Filmmakers’ Awards 2011 (Part of Brisbane Intl Film Festival)
Winner Best Film at the NYC Picture Start Film Festival in New York
Winner Best Film Award Gold Coast’s Paradise Film Festival 2012
True Love has broadcast on KQED Television United States.
Pitch Judge for AGW 2016
Selected for Short Film Production QPIX 2013 Rise of the Robots. Film Initiative Program was cancelled due to funding cut.
ASA Mentorship with Alyssa Brugman 2012 The Pricking of Thumbs.
Mentorship with Jackie French 2010 The Pyrate’s Sonne
Winner CAL Editing Mentoring Competition 2009 The Children’s Guide to Death
Winner 2019 Fantastica Prize The Last Circus on Earth
Judges report:
"The Fox is a coming-of-age historical novel set in the late 1930s on a remote Japanese island. It explores an interesting period in Japanese-Russian relations from the perspective of a disabled teenage boy. This manuscript is well researched providing interesting historical context around disability, Japanese culture, the Indigenous Ainu people and the Russia-Japan relations in the pre-Second World War period. The relationships between the young characters are well drawn and the narrative arc of the young boy finding his strength in the water and negotiating a positive outcome among adults in a high conflict situation is a real strength."
The Fox also won the 2020 Booklinks Queensland Mentorship with Robin Sheahan-Bright.
The Sparrow was shortlisted and won a 2020 mentorship with Queensland Writers' Centre Publishable Program.
True Love selected for Short Film Production 2010 by QPIX as part of the Raw Nerve Film Initiative in conjuction with Screen Australia
Awards for the short film True Love
Winner Best Drama and Best Film at the Queensland New Filmmakers’ Awards 2011 (Part of Brisbane Intl Film Festival)
Winner Best Film at the NYC Picture Start Film Festival in New York
Winner Best Film Award Gold Coast’s Paradise Film Festival 2012
True Love has broadcast on KQED Television United States.
Pitch Judge for AGW 2016
Selected for Short Film Production QPIX 2013 Rise of the Robots. Film Initiative Program was cancelled due to funding cut.
ASA Mentorship with Alyssa Brugman 2012 The Pricking of Thumbs.
Mentorship with Jackie French 2010 The Pyrate’s Sonne
Winner CAL Editing Mentoring Competition 2009 The Children’s Guide to Death
Winner 2019 Fantastica Prize The Last Circus on Earth