Welcome!
Hi, I’m Jacqui…
I’m an award-winning author who loves to write stories that touch the heart and express the essence of who we are and how we interact with the world.
Find out more about me & my writing
Awards
Odyssey House Short Story Award
1st place 2024
2nd place 2023
Nillumbik Short Story Award - Shortlist
Peter Carey Short Story Award - Longlist
Stringybark Short Story Award - Shortlist
Newcastle Short Story Award
2025 & 2026 Shortlist
Digital Writer-in-Residence Peninsula Writers Club - 2nd place
Penned Queenscliff Writer’s Festival - Shortlist
Mornington Peninsula Mayor’s Short Story Award - Shortlist
Publications & Projects
Locative Magazine - Polaroid Rainbow
Bottle Rocket - Awakening
Still Here Magazine - This Story is Laid Bare
Baw Baw Arts Alliance - Tara Glen Tanka
Claws Out Literary - Ladybird
Newcastle Short Story Award Anthology
The Butterfly Effect (2025)
#21 (2026)
Stringybark Anthology - Dancing in Spain
AND
The Bar-tailed Godwit Poetry Project with the Melbourne & Leeuwarden City of Literature
My Books
The Sentinel
Escaping from a disastrous relationship, Kathleen Devine flees to an isolated lighthouse off the Victorian coastline. Taking up the position of Head Teacher to the lighthouse keepers' children, she is ensnared in the lives of those marooned on the lonely outpost and soon realises no-one can escape their past. When the fearsome Head Lightkeeper, Mr Johannsson forms an unlikely friendship with the daughter of one of the keepers, it threatens to destroy their fragile peace. Can Kathleen find the strength to survive and answer the question that haunts them all…
The Lace Sisters
In Nottingham, in the midlands of the United Kingdom, Francesca uncovers a secret which leads her to question afresh her mother's disappearance in Australia just before the pandemic. Meanwhile, before the outbreak of World War II, Mary Lacey arrives in Nottingham (home of the lace-making industry) to start a new life with her two children. Mary must make hard choices in order to do what she can to survive, not understanding how those choices will come back to haunt her, and her family.Mary does what she can to survive, Francesca does what she can to discover the truth. Every family has its secrets. What would you do to protect yours?Like a complex piece of lace, this twin narrative, historical/contemporary fiction novel weaves a story full of secrets that ricochet down generations.
Turtling in Tortuguero
An inspirational story of life-changing adventures, far-flung destinations, and saving turtlesJacqui was an overweight, unfit teacher when she left her suburban world behind to travel to the remote village of Tortuguero on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica to work as an 'eco-volunteer'. Along the way Jacqui gained new insights into what it means to live a ‘pure life’.In Costa Rica, the expression ‘Pura Vida’ (or Pure Life) is synonymous with its amazing natural wonders, its rich and exotic bio-diversity, and its joyous people. Here, you’ll find a coffee-loving, community-minded nation justifiably proud of its green credentials. But Pura Vida is so much more. Pura Vida is life, the chaos and the beauty, and it’s a shrug of the shoulders at what life can throw at you. It’s a way of living exemplified by a tiny, remote village on the edge of the country, a village renowned for being the second-largest nesting site for endangered green sea turtles.Turtling in Tortuguero is at once a celebration of adventure at any age, of those who work to save earth's most vulnerable creatures, and an inspirational story of living life in its purest form.