These short stories were selected by Voices of Women to appear in the feature documentary film Entanglement and/or be performed at a live event.
Several stories may also appear in the Voices of Women Podcast.
Ari Groover — Trap Muzik
Ari Groover, a.k.a “Ari Grooves,” is known for being a “Jack of All Trades.“ Hailing from Atlanta, GA, Ari has been blessed to have worked on musicals such as; Holler If Ya Hear(Bway Debut) Half Time the Musical, Summer: The Donna Summer Musical, Head Over Heels, Alice By Heart, Bare the Musical at New World Stages, and more. Her film/tv credits includes Spiderman: Homecoming, The Get Down (Netflix), Law & Order: SVU, and 72 Hours: A Brooklyn Love Story. Ari recently finished her run of the Off Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors, where she was nominated for a Lucille Lortel award for her portrayal of Ronnette. She then was cast in Tina the Musical. Along with performing, Ari is also a DJ/Producer providing and making an atmospheric soundscape and vibe within the Broadway community. Despite the halt of Broadway, due to the pandemic, Ari is developing an album based off her TEDxBroadway performance called “Message From A Wanderer.” A Sci-Fi story about a woman who is a wanderer with special powers has to go back in the past to the year 2020 to learn more about herself and why she was destined to be a hero! Ari is excited to share her music and stories to the world.
Brenda Saunders — Our Mob
Brenda Saunders is a Wiradjuri writer and artist living in Sydney. She is an active member of FNAWN (First Nations Aboriginal Writers Network) and is a mentor for Black Cockatoo, the Emerging Indigenous Poets site at Verity La. Brenda has written three poetry books and her recent collection, ‘Inland Sea’, is due for publication in 2021. Her poems and reviews appear in anthologies and journals, including Australian Poetry Journal, Overland, Southerly, Westerly and Plumwood Mountain. She has won several awards including the 2014 Scanlon Book Prize (Australian Poetry) and the 2018 Oodgeroo Noonuccal Prize (Queensland Poetry). In 2021 she was awarded the Indigenous Poetry Fellowship to ‘Varuna’, The International Writers’ House at Katoomba.
Charle Malycon — Sun in My Bones
Charle Malycon is an emerging Australian writer and critic. Her work has been published in Overland. She is currently co-editing the 35th Anniversary edition of the UTS Writer’s Anthology, which celebrates forty years of emerging Australian talent.
Cynthia Arsenault — Fully Present
Cynthia Arsenault is a US psychologist/playwright and had had over 120 short plays produced around the globe. She has a penchant for this type of monologue that captures a societal observation through the psychological journey of one person in a few minutes.
Danielle Starkey — Now You See Me
Danielle Starkey is an Australian cis-gender woman identifying as LGBTQI+ and also as a woman with a chronic illness. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Performance for Stage and Screen, a Bachelor’s Degree in Film Production and has just completed her Master of Arts with a research foci of performance studies. She has had short stories published in Andromeda Spaceways Magazine and Aurealis Magazine and screenplays filmed and projected onto the big screen.
Di Bird — Invisibility
Di Bird a proud Gomeroi woman who is a singer/performer, grandmother and storyteller.
Donna Hughes — Isolation in Lockdown
Donna Hughes is a Western Australia-based, emerging playwright and an experienced educator. She is motivated to craft contemporary stories that examine the truth about our world and the stuff that makes us human. Her plays include Treading Water, shortlisted by Playwriting Australia (2016) and longlisted for the Monte Miller Award (2020). Disconnected (2017) selected for development by Playwriting Australia and published by Australian Plays (2019). Ground Swell, was the recipient of the People’s Choice Award at The South West Shorts and published by Edge Performance Writer’s (2020). Trackers was commissioned by St Hilda’s Anglican School for Girls (2020) and published by Australian Plays). It Was Tuesday, was shortlisted for the Short and Sweet Festival Perth and Queensland (2021). What Made Lesley Pratchett so Mad was longlisted for Adaptable, Queensland Writers Centre (2021).
Erin Quill — Queen Bessie’s Gal
Erin Quill is a Broadway performer and was in the original cast of Avenue Q. She is a writer, and of mixed race Chinese descent. She is a 5th Generation Australian who resides in the USA and takes pride in her dual Chinese Australian citizenship.
Gayle Kennedy — The Dress
Gayle Kennedy is a member Wongaiibon clan of S/W NSW. She was Indigenous Issues Editor/Writer for Streetwize Comics from 1995-1998. Gayle won the Queensland Premier’s David Unaipon Award in 2006 with her book ‘Me, Antman & Fleabag’. It was subsequently shortlisted for a Deadly Award, a Victorian Premier’s Award and highly commended in the Kate Challis RAAKA award. Gayle has published 12 books, has stories and poems in anthologies by publishers such as Penguin, Currency Press, Black Inc, Magabala Books, Phoenix International and the Edinburgh Review, Australian Author and more. She has written children plays, a radio play and is dabbling in film and television scripts. She speaks both nationally and internationally on Disability Issues and writing amongst other topics. She is an alumni of Generation Woman and has twice been one of the winners of the Adventures of Women Monologues. Gayle has signed on for a 3rd time as a Peer Reviewer and Industry Expert for the Australia Council and sits on several boards involving the arts. She teaches writing to kids, lectures on advocacy, access and equity, appeared on Compass, The Drum and in the film Slim and I.
Hope Ward – Body and Breath
Hope Ward, is an actor, activist and poet based in New York and Richmond Virginia. She graduated from Columbia University’s MFA acting program in 2018. Her work as an actor and writer revolves around the Black American experience.
Jeannine Acantilado — On Being Twelve
Jeannine Acantilado is a US writer, with a women’s studies major. Jeannine has a nursing degree from Ohio State University. She earned a graduate degree in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the University of New Mexico. She was a pediatric nurse for 20 years and now works as a leadership development consultant specializing in emotional intelligence and resilience. She has led Becoming Conflict Competent workshops for over 300 leaders interested in mastering conflict and change in highly complex work environments. She is currently a doctoral student in Performance Psychology at Grand Canyon University. Jeannine is currently the co-host of the podcast Taking Her Lead. These conversations give unique insights into the impact women in leadership can make in transforming the way we work and live.
Otgadahe Whitman-Fox — We Are Still Here
Otgadahe Whitman-Fox is a board member at The New Mexico Women in Film. Otgadahe works in front of and behind the camera as an actress and producer. She has worked with many film festivals in New Mexico and has accompanied The Women in Film & Television International to the Cannes Film Festival in 2018 & 2019. Otgadahe Whitman-Fox is Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara from The Fort Berthold reservation in North Dakota and advocates to tell the real storylines for Natives in the film industry.
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