Amanda Niehaus is a biologist and award-winning writer living in Brisbane, Australia. Most recently, she is author of the acclaimed novel THE BREEDING SEASON—a story of love, loss, and resilience based on the reproductive biology of northern quolls.

Amanda weaves scientific ideas, facts, and the lives of scientists into her creative writing. Why? Because fiction, memoir, and personal essay show us what science means in our everyday lives.

Amanda’s short story ‘Breeding Season’ (Overland) won the 2017 VU Short Story Prize and ‘Eclipse’ (The Writer) won runner-up in the Let There Be Light Prize. Her essays ‘Pluripotent’ (Creative Nonfiction) and ‘Breakup Tips’ (Agni) were both nominated for Pushcart Prizes and ‘Pluripotent’ was included in the 2017 Best Australian Essays (ed. Anna Goldsworthy). Amanda has been a Varuna Residential Fellow (2017), a Griffith Review Varuna Fellow (2020), an Australian Society of Authors Mentee (2018), and an Association of Writers and Writing Programs Mentee (2016) and Mentor (2020).

Most recently, Amanda was selected for Screen Queensland’s Adaptable Program (2020), served as judge for the 2020 Scribe Varuna Fellowship for Environmental Writing (2020), and will take part in a forthcoming International Lamplight Residency co-hosted by Varuna Writers House (Aus) and Write On, Door Country (USA). With author Jessica White, she was awarded a 2020 Australia Council for the Arts Resilience grant to develop a new creative-writing-about-science website and writer/scientist network called Science Write Now.