hi, i’m amber.
Amber Gwynne is a Meanjin/Brisbane-based writer, editor, and educator whose work spans the university, public service, and academic publishing sectors.
An experienced verbal and visual communicator, she has significant experience in reader-friendly content development, academic editing and publishing, qualitative research and data analysis, and tertiary-level teaching in the areas of English structure, style, and mechanics.
about
Originally from Toowoomba, Queensland, Amber grew up in Papua New Guinea and moved to Brisbane when she finished high school to study at The University of Queensland. She graduated with majors in linguistics and writing (2007), going on to complete a Master’s in Writing, Editing and Publishing (2011) and a PhD in media and cultural studies (2018).
Her dissertation explored the ways in which readers with a history of mental illness choose and use self-help books, receiving a Dean’s Award for Outstanding HDR Theses (2018).
Amber is now a principal adviser at the Queensland Department of Education, where she develops and edits a range of content to support stakeholder relations and regulatory compliance.
As production editor for the Journal of Australian Studies between 2017 and 2024, she prepared hundreds of articles and book reviews for publication, drawing on more than a decade of copyediting and proofreading experience.
Amber’s commentary and creative non-fiction—which typically explores our entanglements with popular media and the material world—has been published in Griffith Review, Overland and Kill Your Darlings, among others.
Amber lectures in the writing programs at UQ and was part of the small team who launched edX’s popular English Grammar and Style MOOC, which has so far attracted more than 750,000 learners from around the world and was a 2017 finalist for the edX Prize.
words in
The Conversation: Am I The Asshole? How judging other people’s dirty laundry became the internet’s favourite pastime (co-authored with Melanie Myers)
Griffith Review 83 (Past Perfect): James and the Giant BLEEP: Old books, bad words and the alchemical good of reading
The Conversation: Maid author Stephanie Land reveals the ‘constant, crushing’ panic of her hungriest year, but this college memoir is ‘emptier’
The Conversation: 15 literary podcasts to make you laugh, learn and join conversations about books
The Conversation: Millie Bobby Brown’s debut novel is a bestseller. Does it matter that the 19-year-old actor didn’t write it?
The Conversation: Can self-help books help with depression? I spoke to readers to find out
GR Online: Sell like a girl: ‘Fempires’ and the rise of the activist-influencer
GR Online: Help yourself: Giving a f*ck about self-help
GR Online: Reading the room: The dirty work of book reviewing
GR Online: Consuming content: How SEO killed the food blog
orangepeel: it is a gift
Kill Your Darlings: Living like this
Overland: The harder questions we should be asking on R U OK? Day
Peer-reviewed academic articles
Media, Culture & Society: ‘Up to you’: Self-help, depression and the reconstruction of reading