Welcoming the Sisters in Crime WA Chapter
Sisters in Crime – a long-standing group of female-identifying writers and readers of crime novels – is usually active on the east coast, but a branch has just started in WA, which is fantastic news for crime lovers!
Join them for a night of stories featuring Fremantle Press author Lisa Ellery (Hot Ground) in conversation with Her Honour Judge Wendy Gillan. Wine and food will be available.
This event takes place at Strange Company in Fremantle on Tuesday 16 December at 5.30 pm. Please RSVP through the Sisters in Crime Humanitix: https://events.humanitix.com/sisters-in-crime-wa
About the presenters
Lisa Ellery was born in 1975 and raised on a farm near Esperance on Western Australia’s south coast. She studied law and arts at the University of Western Australia before returning to regional WA in 1998 to commence her career as a lawyer in the goldmining city of Kalgoorlie-Boulder. She soon fell in love with Kal and its people, and in 2008 she started her own law firm there, working predominantly in commercial and mining law.
Her debut novel, Private Prosecution, was published by Fremantle Press in 2021 and followed by Hot Ground in 2025 after Lisa sold her law practice to scale back her non-writing commitments. She is married to Simon Ellery, a geologist. She continues to live in Kalgoorlie and divides her time between the law, running and writing.
Wendy Gillan was born a reader and enjoys fiction in its many varieties, including crime fiction. She has no aspirations to be a writer of fiction, given both a lack of time and imagination.
She was born in Fremantle and is thoroughly Western Australian. Wendy has been a Judge of the District Court of Western Australia since early 2018. This means that she sits for about 80% of her time in crime. Prior to her appointment, Wendy was a barrister in areas of civil law, so the reality of crime has been both an eye-opener and a new area of legal interest. Nothing much shocks her anymore.
Wendy has independent adult children and very much enjoys exercise, travel and not having to cook dinner every night.
