Joanne Fedler - author
Joanne is an internationally bestselling author who encourages people to write as a way to live wholeheartedly.
‘If you are 'waiting' to know where your story is taking you before you commit words to the page, please stop waiting. Just Start Writing. The act of writing engenders the story. The more we write, the more we can write.’
After a successful career as an internationally bestselling author, Joanne turned her attention to helping others write and publish their stories.
In the past 15 years, she has facilitated writing retreats all over the world, mentored hundreds of writers (both face to face and in her online writing courses), set up her own publishing company Joanne Fedler Media and published many debut authors.
‘I’m passionate about helping women writers find their voice and succeed in reaching their goal to become a published author.’
‘I’ve developed my own creative process for mentoring writers and aspiring authors which I teach in my workshops, retreats and online writing courses. We can only ever take a reader as far as we have gone. So how we think matters. Who we are – our values and beliefs – informs the vision of life our writing is in service to. If we get clear on that, the craft gets easier.’
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Joanne says, ‘As we work into the craft of writing, we deepen our capacity for truth-telling, taking personal responsibility for our lives, reframing past events (especially the hard ones), being curious, courageous, finding what’s funny, staying self-compassionate and developing self-trust.’
In 2026 JOANNE will hold two writing retreats:
PORTUGAL - Coming to Age Memoir Writing
HYDRA - The Holy and The Broken - be inspired by the lyrics and poetry of Leonard Cohen
I’ve been writing stories since I was six years old...
As a child, silkworms and books were my first friends.
Language helped me build a bridge for my hard-of-hearing sister to my parents since I was the only one who could understand what she was trying to say until speech and hearing therapy gave her a voice. Each of us has privileges that can ease the path of others. It is not hard to be useful.
I wrote and illustrated my first story when I was six. It was thin on plot – Emily plans a picnic with Rufus, her neighbour – that’s it – but with coconut-lime lollipops.When I was 14, my dad gave me Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood, a play for voices. It centred me like clay on a wheel. I knew all I wanted was to do that with words.
During my ‘going-to-save-the-world’ years, I got a Master’s degree in law from Yale, set up and ran a not-for-profit advocacy centre to end violence against women and sat on the South African Law Commission to help draft new domestic violence legislation. In 1994, Hustler magazine made me ‘Asshole of the Month,’ for my advocacy against violent pornography – it’s still my most prized award.
My 15th book, The Whale’s Last Song came from the grief of losing my mother in 2021, like a cry from somewhere deep inside me. Each year, I run writing retreats and mentor a handful of writers. In 2017, I created Joanne Fedler Media, my own publishing company to publish books by the authors I mentor.
I am a devoted ocean swimmer and support many organisations working to protect marine life and ecosystems.
I have lived on the unceded Gadigal land of the indigenous Eora nation in Australia since 2001, as an immigrant from South Africa. Leaving the place you come from is not something you get over. You are always spliced, always torn. But it offers new horizons.
in 2026
I'm teaching two writing retreats with Anna Kwiecinska - in September in Portugal, and in October, on the island of Hydra, as part of the 'Writing by the Sea in Hydra' series.
9-15 OCTOBER, 2025 HYDRA, GREECE
contact Anna on whats app +94 75 660 7713