Tyswan Slater is an emerging multi-disciplinary artist and award winning writer. She was born in Vietnam and brought to Australia as a toddler in 1972 by “Operation Baby Lift” personality Elaine Moir. She grew up in Glenbrook, and has lived and worked in Dharug and Gundagurra country, in Colomata (the Blue Mountains) for over thirty-five years. Her primary mediums are painting (oil, acrylic), collage/mixed media, and cyanotype. Whilst working in the computer industry, Tyswan studied part-time at the National Art School. Following a chronic illness, she began studying visual arts at TAFE, where she won recognition for her work. A sense of place informs her ideas and she often plays with perspectives, contorting skylines, and evoking the intricate patterns and textures of lichen or vast sprawling tree canopies. She has exhibited in the Blue Mountains Portrait prize, in the selected TAFE student exhibition at Braemar Gallery in Springwood, and has an upcoming group exhibition at Braemar Gallery in 2027. Tyswan’s short stories and novels explore themes of belonging, isolation and identity. She came runner-up in the Blue Mountains finals for the Westwords Living Stories competition, won the category the following year and was awarded a trophy for overall Highly Commended. Her adult stories have been published in anthologies, and her humorous children’s story was published in the School Magazine. She has been awarded various Varuna mentorships, including a WestWords/Varuna emerging writers’ residency. She ran an adult writing workshop and judged finalists in the 2025 Living Stories competition, and her award winning short story “Hallway” will be published in Mihaela Cristescu’s Romanian and Australian Anthology “Dialogues” in May 2026.