Kimberley Starr (Class of '87) has just released her fourth novel. Described as literary crime, The Map of Night takes place in Victoria where Kimberley lives and asks the question: "if you were missing, how sure are you that someone would look?"

Kimberley who is currently completing a PhD in Creative Writing, is also an award-winning novelist and high school English teacher, at Viewbank College in Melbourne. Her first three novels The Kingdom Where Nobody Dies, The Book of Whispers and Torched have all won multiple literary awards, including the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award and the Text Prize for young adult fiction, as well as being shortlisted for the Davitt Award for crime writing and the Dobbie Award for the best first novel by a woman writer.  Part of Kimberley's writing portfolio also includes a memoir for The Griffith Review and occasional pieces for The Sydney Morning Herald, with one of Kimberley's novels also being the focus of AustLit's One Book, One Brisbane, a city wide reading campaign back in 2005.

Reflecting on her Loreto Normanhurst education, Kimberley remembers Loreto girls being taught that "women can do much" and that this aspect of never thinking anything was out of her reach means she embraces challenge in her life and always tries hard to do her best. Kimberley says that she wants her writing to be as good as it can be, and she wants Australian women writers to feel they are anyone's equal.

One piece of advice Kimberley would give to any Loreto student wishing to become an author is learn your craft! This means reading a lot of books. Read critically - ask yourself what you like, what you don't like, what you think you can learn from each book you read, and what you would do differently. She also suggests you find your "tribe" - this could mean other early career writers, like yourself. You can learn a lot from each other and keep each other going during the tough times and rejections - and don't let rejections get you down, they are part of the process - Harry Potter was famously rejected dozens of times! Develop a conscious way of getting over them. Be sad for a day and then move on to the next challenge.

Kimberley’s fifth novel, The Sun in Flight will be released in 2024.