Molly Schmidt is a writer and journalist from Albany, Western Australia. Her debut novel, Salt River Road, was the recipient of the 2022 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award. While writing Salt River Road, Molly collaborated with Noongar Elders from Albany, with the goal of producing a novel that actively pursues reconciliation between non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal peoples.

Molly completed a thesis on the topic at Curtin University in 2021, supervised by Professor Kim Scott and Dr Brett D’Arcy. She is now embarking on a new biography project as a Forrest Research Foundation Scholar, which will see her spend the next four years documenting the stories of two significant Menang Noongar Elders from her hometown. Molly will be exploring the role of biographical writing in the ongoing process of reconciliation, and how as a non-Indigenous biographer she can assist Indigenous Elders in the telling of their story, while respecting cultural ownership and protocol. She is also interested in the importance of “place” when it comes to the telling of Noongar stories, and how physically visiting a place adds to the richness of memory and the ability for these histories to be accurately recorded.