Dr. Shelley Davidow

Biography

Shelley Davidow is an international author, academic and educator. Her books include Writing Human in an Age of AI (Bloombury, 2026), The Girl with the Violin (HarperCollins, 2024), Shadow Sisters (UQP 2018), Whisperings in the Blood (UQP 2016), the Creative Writing textbook Playing with Words (Palgrave Macmillan UK 2016), Fail Brilliantly (Familius 2017) and Raising Stress-Proof Kids (Exisle 2014, Familius, 2015).

Having lived in Africa, the Middle East, Europe, America and Australia, Shelley's research and practice lies in the intersection of creative writing, well-being, and transformative pedagogies. She is a frequent keynote presenter at conferences and events around Australia.

Her young adult novels have been shortlisted for international awards (Freefalling for the Maskew Miller Young Africa Award in 1991, and In the Shadow of Inyangani for the Macmillan Writers Prize for Africa in 2003) and her educational readers for Macmillan are sold across the world, from Africa to the Caribbean, many of them for youngsters impacted by war, disease and social struggle.

Research areas

• stress and resilience in the classroom
• literacy through creative writing
• Waldorf/Steiner Education
• restorative practice
• writing for children and young adults
• memoir/creative non-fiction
• creative writing pedagogies and methodologies
• social justice in the classrom
• decolonising education

Teaching areas

• Literacy across the curriculum
• Inclusive practice
• Alternative Education
• Steiner Education
• Creative Writing
• Introduction to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education

Expert media commentary

Dr Shelley Davidow uses methodologies ranging from creative writing to auto-ethnography whilst working alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander colleagues to explore ontologies and ways of being and knowing reflective of de-colonial discourses and paradigms. Her novels, children’s books and memoirs set in and written about Africa where she was born highlight how creative writing and narrative methodologies foreground 'voice' and offer creative ways in which individuals and communities speak back to dominant discourses.