Writer/Reader/Academic

Bec Kavanagh is a Melbourne-based writer and academic whose work examines the representation of women’s bodies in literature.

Bec has appeared as a host and panelist at Melbourne, Sydney, and Bendigo Writers’ Festivals and on Radio National’s Books and Arts Daily. She has judged several literary prizes, including the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, the Book of the Year Award (SPN), the Davitt Awards, and local writing competitions. Her literary criticism can be found in The Guardian, The Big Issue, and in Books & Publishing, and she has previously published literary criticism for The Age, The Monthly, and The Australian Book Review. Bec’s fiction and non-fiction has been published in various journals, anthologies, and magazines including The Big Issue Fiction Edition (2022), Resilience (Ultimo Press, 2022), Meanjin, and the Shuffle anthology.

Bec was the Schools Manager for the Stella Prize for five years, the inaugural co-chair of #LoveOZYA and the Youth Programming Manager at the Wheeler Centre from 2019-2025, where she co-conceived of and co-produced the hugely successful M/Other festival, as well as a variety of innovative, youth-led programs for young audiences including Live Choose-Your-Own Adventures, Broadside Teen Day, and Lunch Orders. She is a an Associate Lecturer at La Trobe University, and a sessional tutor at the University of Melbourne, University of Technology Sydney, and Allen & Unwin’s Faber Academy.

In her capacity as an arts programmer, Bec has devised and produced Girls Write Up (for the Stella Prize) and Telling Tales (for the Wheeler Centre), and recently co-created M/OTHER with Jamila Khodja for the Wheeler Centre.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/beckavanagh (@beckavanagh)