Eli Sutherland is an award-winning non-binary, queer, and disabled writer, and a creative consultant working with freelance artists and arts and non-profit organisations.
Eli Sutherland (they/them) is passionate about creating new sci-fi and fantasy worlds, queering mononormative relationship structures through their writing, and bringing writers together. They are a non-binary, queer, and disabled creative, the Festival Director of the Trans Book Festival, the Treasurer of the Board of Overland, and studying a Master of Arts (Writing and Literature) at Deakin University.
Their sapphic, polyamorous crossover fantasy novel, No One Without the Other, has been awarded a 2026 Varuna Residential Fellowship, and they were the winner of the 2025 Mentone Public Library poetry competition, a finalist in the Pearl Prize 2024, Frontier Poetry’s 2023 Ekphrastic Poetry Prize, and the 2023 OutStanding LGBTQIA+ Short Story Awards, and longlisted for the University of Canberra 2024 Health Poetry Prize.
Eli chaired the Queer and Trans Young Adult Writing panel at the inaugural 2025 Trans Book Festival, and deliver Worldbuilding for Science Fiction and Fantasy workshops and Queer/Trans Literary Speed Friending sessions. Their writing has appeared in Cordite, Mascara Review, StylusLit, Swamp Magazine, Left Brain Media, ScratchThat Magazine, Queer Out Here, and more.
With over a decade in the non-profit sector, Eli has expertise across the breadth of organisational operations, including financial and people management, strategy development and implementation, and governance and compliance. The previous Chief Operating Officer at Australian Progress, they have also held senior management and policy positions with Positive Life NSW, the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation, and more.
Eli consults with individuals, collectives, micro to medium arts organisations, and non-profits of all sizes to secure and acquit funding, create strong financial literacy and systems, develop and implement strategies, and enable robust and compliant governance.
They work collaboratively to identify goals, leverage strong existing foundations, and adapt to the needs of the sector and community to deliver high impact.
What people are saying
“I trust Eli as someone in the creative world that I can go to for compassionate and sage advice, and for all the brain-muddling writing admin things like grant acquittals.”
Jasper Peach, writer and speaker
“It’s exciting work which I believe will make an important contribution to Australian literary culture and find a large audience amongst queer and trans readers who are eagerly seeking out radical queer writing.”
Sam Elkin, writer and event producer
“We just received a grant, and we agree it’s largely to do with what we learned from your support. Thank you once again! You’ve made a huge difference.”
Eleonora Bertsa-Fuchs, Managing Director, Let’s Talk About X
Eli Sutherland 