Australian writer · Journalist
Fiction, drawn from lived experience, about the people we assume are coping.
Latest news · 2026
One of six manuscripts shortlisted nationally for Milk Fever. The winner receives a publishing contract.
Awarded one of four places in the 2026 residential mentorship program.
2–6 November 2026
Longlisted in the national competition for unpublished writers.
Shortlist announced late October 2026
Coby Sullivan is a Sunshine Coast writer and journalist whose fiction draws on lived experience to explore how depression reaches into ordinary family life, often unseen.
A graduate in International Journalism from QUT, she spent more than fifteen years working in journalism, marketing and community building before turning to fiction, and she brings a reporter’s instinct for the real, emotional human stories that connect us all to her work.
In 2026 her debut novel, Milk Fever, was shortlisted for the Dorothy Hewett Award, and she was selected for the Byron Writers Festival Residential Mentorship. Her short fiction has been shortlisted, commended and published in anthologies.
She lives on the Sunshine Coast and is a mother of two insatiably curious children.
Novel · Seeking representation
Journalist Louise Stephens has built a career telling the stories of strong women, and she approaches motherhood the way she would a feature article: with structure, research and a contingency plan. Then comes a traumatic birth and months of inexplicable, relentless sleep deprivation. Her sense of self begins to slip, along with her grip on what is real, and one haunting intrusive thought leaves her questioning her own mind.
Thankfully, her husband Thomas is holding everything together. Or so everyone assumes.
An exploration of postnatal depression and the quiet ways it can take hold of a household.
For anyone who has ever felt the unique isolation of no longer trusting their own thoughts, and for readers of Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason and Mother Tongue by Naima Brown.
For representation, publishing and media enquiries.
hello@cobysullivan.com