From the page to the stage, Michelle Macwhirter has always loved telling stories. There is No Magic in This Book is her first picture book. As a playwright, Michelle’s short plays have been performed in Short+Sweet Festivals in Sydney, Auckland and the Gold Coast.

She was selected for Playlab’s 2016 Incubator program and wrote the full-length play, Clan, which had a professional live reading at HOTA’s 2017 Playwright Season. She has completed Queensland Writers Centre’s Year of the Novel course and enjoys writing young adult stories.

Michelle is also an actor, having performed in theatre productions of Secret Bridesmaids’ Business, Dangerous Liaisons, The Crucible and more. She has previously worked in universities, government offices and theatres as a marketing officer but she’s pretty happy to have ditched the corporate world in favour of a creative life.

Sophie Beer is an illustrator from Brisbane, Queensland. She completed dual bachelors in Law and Creative Industries at Queensland University of Technology before turning freelance.

Revelling in colour, shape, and texture, she lives by one simple rule: art should never be boring. When she's not illustrating, she's usually found drinking dangerous amounts of tea and indulging in her other passion: literature.