Sienna Brown - Author

Makeup and photo - Jack Chesher

Sienna Brown was born in Kingston, Jamaica, grew up in Toronto, Canada and now lives in Sydney, Australia.

In Canada, she was a professional dancer with Toronto Dance Theatre, Canada’s premiere contemporary dance company.

She’s a graduate of the prestigious Australian Film & TV School (AFTRS) where she gained a BA in television directing and editing. After graduating, she formed Pine Street Films, through which she produced, directed and wrote award winning documentaries and educational films.

Her debut novel Master of My Fate, published in 2019 by Penguin Random House, won the MUD Literary Prize at Adelaide Writers Week for the best debut novel by an Australian writer and was shortlisted for the ARA Historical Fiction Novel Prize, in 2020.

In conjunction with Dr Ben Etherington, she was commissioned by ABC Radio National, the History Listen Series to create Caribbean Convicts in Australia, a podcast based on her research for Master, broadcast November, 2021.

In 2022, she was appointed Research Associate at Western Sydney University. Her position is being funded by a three-year Australia Research Council (ARC) Discovery Project Grant administered through the Writing & Society Research Centre.

Under the auspices of the grant, along with Ben, she developed and co-produced

Callaloo & Wattleseed, a unique one-day symposium, that focused for the first time on the cultural contributions of Caribbean Australians, in the arena of music, education, literature and performance. She is also currently working with The History Lab at UTS’s Impact Studios to produce further podcasts on the history of Caribbean people in Australia.

Sienna has just completed her second historical fiction novel: Secrets of the Monkey House. Set in Jamaica during the lead up to the labour riots of 1938, four love stories intertwine across class, race and politics, highlighting the class conscious and racist attitudes of the 1930's, while delving into the secrets of the religious practices of the Taino, Jamaica's original indigenous people.

Sienna is proud to be represented by Gaby Naher of The Naher Agency

Member of ASA
The Australian Society of Authors acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, the Traditional Owners of the land on which we meet and work, and all Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia. We recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' continuing connection to land, place, waters and community. We pay our respects to their cultures, country and elders past present and emerging. The ASA respects Australia's first storytellers.

Sienna Brown was born in Kingston, Jamaica, grew up in Toronto, Canada and now lives in Sydney, Australia.

In Canada, she was a professional dancer with Toronto Dance Theatre, Canada’s premiere contemporary dance company.

She’s a graduate of the prestigious Australian Film & TV School (AFTRS) where she gained a BA in television directing and editing. After graduating, she formed Pine Street Films, through which she produced, directed and wrote award winning documentaries and educational films.

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