What is the Gippsland Writer’s Network?

Vicky Daddo (President) lives in Hazelwood South, in the Latrobe Valley. She writes short fiction and novels.

Her stories have appeared in The Big Issue Fiction Special, Award Winning Australian Writing, Women’s Day, That’s Life and other anthologies. She has won or been placed in competitions including the Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction, The Hope Prize, the Scarlet Stilettos and the FAW National Literary Awards. In 2021, she reached the last 50 of the NYC Midnight Short Story Contest, from a starting field of more than 6000 entrants.

In 2014 she won a place on the QWC/Hachette Manuscript Development program with her contemporary romance manuscript ‘Que Sera Sera’. In 2018, she received a women’s writing scholarship through The Hope Prize. In 2021 her YA timeslip manuscript ‘A Matter of Time’ was longlisted for the Adaptable program.

Vicky is a Writers Victoria Regional Ambassador for Gippsland. She occasionally tutors creative writing, and programs the Latrobe Literary Festival.

Last year, she finished her seventh novel, a YA Supernatural Horror that she is planning to submit for publication. Her current work in progress is a YA Magical Realism/Fairy Tale.

Tash Agafonoff (Treasurer/Secretary) lives in the Latrobe Valley with her partner, one dog, two cats, five chickens and six alpacas. But just be clear, only she, her partner and the cats live in the house. She writes personal essays, memoir, and poetry—and many, many lists.

When she’s not writing, Tash is busy powering Victoria in her role as an operator at the Yallourn Power Station, while she herself is powered by coffee.

In 2020, she won the Grace Marion Wilson Emerging Writers Competition for her non-fiction essay, Sexy Nails, which was published in the October-November edition of The Victorian Writer magazine. And, she was recently longlisted for The Richell Prize for Emerging Writers 2021; a partnership between Hachette Australia, the Richell family, and the Emerging Writers’ Festival, for her memoir-in-progress about marriage, mental health, and the breakdown of both. Her other work has appeared on the Overland Literary Journal and Writers Victoria websites.

Tash begins far too many sentences with conjunctions, likes to procrastinate by taking writing workshops instead of actually writing, and owns more notebooks than one person should ever be permitted. You can find her on Instagram @tashagafonoff and, very occasionally her blog, www.snippetsandglimpses.com/

Ben Langdon (committee member).

With a strong background in education, bookselling, writing and bespoke publishing, Ben has been instrumental in establishing the Gippsland Writers Festival over the past three years. He has written two novels and edited two anthologies, as well as presented at Oz Comic Con, The Hero Round Table and the Kang-o-meerteek Project. He was awarded The Roderick Centre Fellowship for Remote and Regional Writers as part of the 2026 Varuna Residential Fellowships. (www.benlangdon.net)