Dr Rachel Hennessy is a Lecturer in Creative Writing in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne, Australia. She is the award winning author of five novels: The Quakers (2008), The Heaven I Swallowed (2013), River Stone (2019) and Mountain Arrow (2020). The third book in her Young Adult trilogy, City Knife, was published in September, 2023.

Rachel has strong experience as both a published author and a creative writing academic. She has been awarded grants from the Australia Council for the Arts, Flinders University and the University of Melbourne and has a building reputation as a critical researcher in climate fiction, posthumanism and creative writing pedagogy.