Sophie Cunningham

Writer, artist, teacher, speaker and advocate

Sophie Cunningham is a non-fiction writer, novelist and teacher of creative writing.She has a passion for trees and broader environmental issues. A Member of the Order of Australia for her contributions to literature, Sophie is the Chair of the Australian Society of Authors and a non- executive director of the Copyright Agency. She is a recent Miegunyah Creative Fellow at the University of Melbourne and is currently working on the resulting book: ‘Eucalyptus: A Story in Twenty Trees’. She has received a Dahl Fellowship 2026 from Eucalypt Australia to continue this work.

Sophie will be teaching workshops throughout 2026 at both the Abbotsford Convent and through the Faber Academy. She has written ten books, as well as editing one and appearing in anthologies. Her most recent novel is This Devastating Fever (Ultimo Press) and her third book for children, Mango and Hopscotch – The Inspiring Story of a Brave Kangaroo and Her Joey Rescued from Floodwaters (Albert Street Books) has just been released. Her essay collection City of Trees (Text Publishing) was published in 2019. As well as writing about eucalyptus she is working on her next novel,The Whole Earth Catalogue, a memoir and a writing guide called How to Write a Life.

Sophie was a co-founder of The Stella Prize, former editor of Meanjin (2008 – 2011) and former chair of the Literature Board of the Australia Council for the Arts (2011 – 2014). She has written for a range of newspapers and magazines, and has extensive public speaking experience.

She posts an image of a tree on her Instagram account @sophtreeofday every day.

Trees-Stories – see here.

Short CV – download here.

Head shots – download here.