Astrid is a bibliophile. She is the host of The Garret: Writers on Writing and has interviewed more than 200 of Australia’s most prominent writers and publishers. She is an ongoing teacher in the Associate Degree of Professional Writing and Editing at RMIT University and often judges literary prizes, including the 2023 Stella Prize.
In 2023 she began a PhD at the University of Melbourne exploring potential and perceived barriers to publishing and selling climate fiction in Australia. She was also named as one of the Australia Council for the Arts first participants in the Creative Climate Leadership Program.
She is also one half of Bad Producer Productions, an independent podcast company specialising in arts and sport storytelling (she represents the Arts part).
Astrid is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. In 2023 she joined the Consumer Advisory Committee (a subcommittee of the Alfred Health Board) for a three year term. She previously served on the Victorian Disability Advisory Council advising the Minister for Disability, Ageing and Carers (2019 to 2022). She is the former Chair of Melbourne Writers Festival (2019-2022) and the former Deputy Chair of Writers Victoria (2014-2018).
In 2021 Astrid contributed to the anthology Growing Up Disabled in Australia and made her debut appearance on Q+A in 2021. She regularly moderates and participates in panels at literary festivals, and you can read her book reviews in The Age/Sydney Morning Herald and Australian Book Review, among others. She previously received grants from the Australia Council for the Arts (2017 and 2018) and The Copyright Agency (2017 and 2019).
Before embarking on this creative storytelling career, Astrid was an economics and policy consultant for almost a decade. She specialised in climate and social policy, and to this day she is trying to figure out how stories can help to save the planet.
Astrid’s professional memberships include the Association for the Study of Australian Literature (ASAL), the Society of the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP), and the Australian Society of Authors (ASA). Astrid is also a member of Mensa Australia.
You can track her reading on The StoryGraph.
![Feminism is irrelevant if it isn’t intersectional, anti-racist and anti-colonial. I’ve signed, and this is open for signatures during the 16 Days of Activism that begins today, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
Respect and love and solidarity to those who are advocating in this worst of times, including @instasaranade, @randaafattah and @amanihaydar, whose books and art are stunning. 📚
#Repost @amanihaydar
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Tomorrow is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, an event with radical origins and rooted in feminist opposition to oppression and state violence.
Over 300 anti-racist feminists, women's health and safety workers, frontline workers, survivor advocates and academics have signed a statement titled Feminists for a Free Palestine calling attention to the ways in which occupation, apartheid and the current genocidal violence on Gaza affects Palestinian women and their children. This is intersectionality in action. The full statement is available to read at the link in my bio and we will continue to accept signatories over the 16 Days of Activism.
Thank you to @thepvblication who are also publishing the full statement on their platform.
[Image Description: The first tile is white with red, black and green text which reads, 'Feminists For A Free Palestine'. There is a photo across the middle depicting women in a field of tall flowers waving Palestine flags and holding their fingers up in peace signs. The remaining tiles contain text from the statement available to read in full at the link in my bio]
#16daysofactivism #idevaw #WomensRights #FeministActivism #Genderbasedviolence](https://astridedwards.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/403877336_648869950739730_2966638393614346716_n-320x320.jpg)
