Helen Ennis brings a literary approach to writing nonfiction and specialises in biography, especially of women artists, and writing on photography. She was originally trained as a curator and has also had a career as an educator in art history. She writes monographs, essays and reviews and has published widely. Her major publications include Reveries: Photography and Mortality (2007) and Photography and Australia (2007). Her biography Margaret Michaelis: Love, loss and photography won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Nonfiction in 2006. Her most recent book, Olive Cotton: A life in photography (2019), was awarded the Nonfiction prizes in the Queensland Literary Awards (2020) and the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature (2021) and the 2020 Magarey Medal for Biography. Helen is currently working on a biography of Australian photographer Max Dupain. She is Emerita Professor, ANU School of Art and Design.

For the mentorship program, Helen welcomes applications from writers of non-fiction, history, art, biography, autobiography at all stages.