About Cass Moriarty

After completing a Bachelor of Business-Communication degree at the Queensland University of Technology (then QIT), I held several public relations and marketing positions, including with the Australian Red Cross, a wildlife park and an advertising agency, honing my non-fiction corporate writing skills on media releases, annual reports, speeches and in-house magazine articles. I also worked as a volunteer counsellor in child protection, an experience that informs much of my fictional writing around the themes of family histories and secrets, and the ways in which families function.

I reside and write in Brisbane. I was born in Stanthorpe in 1967, and spent my childhood on the Granite Belt in south-east Queensland. As a teenager, I spent 12 months as an exchange student in the United States. My husband and I lived in Japan for almost five years, mostly in rural areas although our first child was born in the ancient city of Kyoto. We have also lived in Darwin in the Northern Territory, and on the Gold Coast in Queensland. We have six children.

I find great joy and solace in reading. Both fiction and non-fiction open up the world to me in fresh and exciting ways, and I am always learning something new. Writing allows me to explore feelings and circumstances outside my own experience. I enjoy connecting with readers and with other writers through the themes and issues examined in writing.

I like to explore the way in which tragedies and critical events shape families and individual childhoods, and I am drawn to the themes of guilt, redemption, loyalty, loss and silences – particularly in families. I enjoy writing stories that people like to read, examine and discuss, and to compare with their own life experiences. I like to read – and to write – stories that ask more questions than they answer.