banQuetpress is an independent Australian publisher. Established in 2009, our first publication was banQuet 2010, an anthology of art and writing from queer Australian women. 2011 will see publications for both queer men and women.

banQuetpress is owned and operated by Laura Dettori and Deanne Carson and is financially supported by the local community. Our mission is to create publishing opportunities for emerging and recently established queer Australian writers and artists and to provide Australian queer readers stories with a local flavour.

Carson writes dirty words, but couldn’t find an Australian dirty word publisher. She figures that she’s not the only one and wants to let free all the sins in Pandora’s Box. Carson also has a serious side. She writes and edits books on social justice issues and attends coffee mornings at her kids’ school. She is a qualified professional writer and editor and would like to thank her colleagues for reading her erotica without saying, ‘ewwwww!’

Dettori’s dreams and nightmares are crowded out with commas, apostrophes, women and m-dashes – the consequence of a lifetime of reading, scribbling and other things. She loves reading queer stuff that pushes the boundaries of literary traditions and leaves her smiling with the satisfaction of a fabulous read. A range of Dettori’s short stories and plays have been published and performed over the past decades. She is widely published in education textbooks and has edited several education magazines under a different name. Apart from a pile of education degrees, Dettori holds qualifications in Journalism and Professional Editing/Writing. She likes words – a lot.