Helen Edwards

Dr Helen Edwards is an award-winning author, speaker and passionate advocate for nature. She writes stories that reduce stereotypes, increase understanding of diversity, and feature Australian nature and history. She has a PhD in Psychology and a long background working in mental health. In 2001 she founded a groundbreaking online diabetes counselling service for which she was a state finalist in the Australian of the Year. Helen is a mid-career SA State Library Fellow in 2025, supported by Writers SA. Her magical historical novel A Light on the Rocks, the subject of her fellowship, will be published in February 2026 by Riveted Press. Helen also won a SA History Trust grant to support this project.

Helen has had a number of middle-grade novels published by Riveted Press. In 2024 her debut historical fiction novel, The Rebels of Mount Buffalo, was longlisted in the Diverse Australia New Zealand Children’s Book Awards and shortlisted in the Speech Pathology Australia Children’s Book of the Year. Legend of the Lighthouse Moon, published in October 2024, a dazzling tale of family, resilience, and the enduring magic of the sea, won Category 2 of the Forevability Awards for books that champion diversity and difference in March 2025.

Helen’s third novel, On Gallant Wings, was published in April 2025. It’s a sweeping WWII story about family, courage, and knowing when to break the rules, that shines a light on many little-known aspects of the war’s impact on Australians at home.

The Disappearing Circus, co-written with CBCA award-winning author Kate Gordon was published on 29th July 2025. A breathtaking blend of magic, mythology, and heart, The Disappearing Circus reminds us that friendship and courage can be found in the most unexpected of places, that the future is ours to hold—and that some stories are too powerful to ever truly disappear.

Helen is active in the Australian literary community and is a member of the CBCA SA committee, a Books in Homes Role Model, a SA Premiers’ Reading Challenge Ambassador and part of the Author Pen Pals programme.