Lystra Rose, a descendant of the Guugu Yimithirr, Birri Gubba, Erub and Scottish nations, is a multi-award-winning writer who lives in Yugambeh-speaking Country (Gold Coast). When she’s not catching waves with her husband and two groms, Lystra is editor-in-chief of Surfing Life magazine—the first female editor of a mainstream surf mag in the world.

The Upwelling is Lystra’s debut novel, which collected seven awards, including the Winner of the 2023 NSW Premier’s Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature, Winner of the 2023 Victorian Premier’s Literary Prize for Indigenous Writing and Winner of the State Library of QLD’s 2018 black&write! Fellowship (manuscript), as well as shortlisting for the 2023 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards for Young Adult Literature.

Lystra is penning Book Two and Three of The N’gian Chronicles and enjoys implementing a “cultural education by stealth” methodology.