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 advisor 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 since 2017, she has 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 in the edX Prize.