Dr Mark Macleod is a writer and editor for children, Adjunct Senior Lecturer at Charles Sturt University and chair of TasWriters, the writers centre in Hobart, Tasmania. He has taught Children’s Literature, Australian Literature and Creative Writing at universities in Australia and around the world, most recently in India at Mumbai University and Sikkim University. His publishing career focuses on narrative texts as agents for change. He has been Publishing Director at Random House, Publisher at Hachette Australia, President and Publishing Director of independent picture book publisher Dirt Lane Press, and freelance editor for publishers including Walker Books Australia, University of Queensland Press, Omnibus Books, ABC Books and Queer Ink, India. Mark is well known for his commentary on books for young readers on television, radio and in print media. His current research interests are in LGBTIQ narrative for young people, the awareness and teaching of social justice and the adaptation of children’s texts. A former national president of the Children’s Book Council of Australia, Mark has won awards for distinguished service to Children’s Literature and for titles published under his own name imprint, Mark Macleod Books. For many years, he was Executive Editor of the journal International Research in Children’s Literature, published by Edinburgh University, and is Executive Editor for Queer Ink, India. In 2023 he convened Storygig, Tasmania's first festival of storytelling for, about and by young people. Mark is the author of poems for adults and children, and picture books for children. His most recent book is a collection of poems for children, The Secret Boat, illustrated by Hélène Magisson, and published by WestWords in 2023.