Gayle Kennedy

Gayle Kennedy is a proud member of the Wongaiibon clan of South West NSW and a distinguished voice in Indigenous literature, disability advocacy, and the arts. Her writing career spans poetry, short stories, graphic novels, radio plays, and essays published with leading outlets including The Australian Women’s Weekly, The Sydney Morning Herald, Readers Digest, Australian Author, Phoenix Educational Review, Edinburgh Review, and more. Her work has been published by Oxford University Press, UQP, Black Inc, Magabala Books, Penguin, Currency Press, Red Room Poetry and others.

Gayle’s acclaimed book of poetry Koori Girl Goes Shoppin’ was shortlisted for the David Unaipon Award in 2005, and she won the award in 2006 for Me, Antman & Fleabag, which was also shortlisted for a Victorian Premier’s Literary Award and the Deadly Award, and commended in the Kate Challis RAKA Award. Her graphic novel This Is Country (OUP) was selected to represent Australia at the 2014 Bologna Book Fair in Italy.

A highly sought-after speaker, Gayle has presented at the Sydney Writers Festival, Brisbane Writers Festival, Festival of the Dreaming, Wordstorm, Artscape Wagga Wagga (keynote, 2020), Happiness & its Causes, Australian Seniors, and numerous Access Arts conferences. She has also spoken internationally on Aboriginal perspectives of disability, with engagements in Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, and Japan.

Her creative work extends to performance and media. Gayle is a two-time winner of Voices of Women: Monologue Adventures, and her radio play The Debut was commissioned by Urban Theatre Projects and broadcast on Gadigal Radio. Her short film The Dress has toured nationally with Flickerfest since 2022. She has appeared on Compass, The Drum, and featured in the documentary Slim and I.

Gayle is a respected industry leader, serving two terms as a peer assessor for the Australia Council, as an assessor for Create NSW, and for Arts Access NSW. She sits on the Board of Directors for Boomali Artists Co-Operative and has presented for the Youth Disability Advocacy Service (YDAS), advocating for young people with disability.

Her achievements have been supported by grants from the Australia Council and the Copyright Agency, including funding to complete a memoir currently in progress. Through her work, Gayle continues to champion Indigenous storytelling, disability awareness, and creative empowerment, inspiring audiences and communities across Australia and abroad.