Sonia Orchard is an award-winning author, survivor advocate, writing teacher, speaker and festival founder and director. She has authored four books: a memoir ‘Something More Wonderful’; two adult novels The Virtuoso and Into the Fire, and her most recent memoir Groomed, which follows her journey through the justice system as a complainant in a historical sexual abuse case, coming to terms with the impact of her teenage experience of sexual abuse while parenting teenage girls. She also writes opinion pieces on issues including the environment, parenting and social justice. In 2019, she founded and was the festival director of the Mountain Festival, Australia’s first writers’ festival to focus exclusively on the environment. She has degrees in music, literature, environmental science/marine biology and a PhD in creative writing, and lives on Wurundjeri country, one hour from Naarm/Melbourne, with her family and many pets.
Since the publication of Groomed – part-memoir, part in-depth research into the cultural, social, and even biological factors behind child grooming – Sonia has dedicated herself to justice reform, survivor advocacy and raising awareness around the prevalence and impacts of child grooming. In this capacity, she has appeared on ABC TV breakfast and had a feature in The Age/SMH ‘Good Weekend’.
Sonia is currently researching and writing a book for Monash University Publishing in their ‘In the National Interest’ series, to be published August 2026, on preventing (non-institutional) child sexual abuse.
You can hear her talk about her book on the One Question podcast here:
TOPICS
- Grooming – awareness, understanding and prevention
- Sexual Assault Trauma
- Child Protection
- Justice Reform
- The Victim / Survivor experience
- Domestic/family Violence
- Writing – creative writing, memoir, novel, opinion pieces
- Consent and power
- Teenage mental health
- Feminism
- Parenting
- Importance of Community
- Motherhood
Testimonials
“Sonia is a compelling speaker, her story speaks strongly to a wide range of audience members. Sonia’s examination of the complexity of grooming and the lasting impact of trauma is an important contribution to the conversation we need to have on child sexual abuse in all its forms.”
“Sonia made a powerful contribution to Spotlight on Sexual Violence. Her story brought the realities of victim-survivor experiences into sharp focus, grounding the academic presentations in lived experience. She spoke clearly to the ways systems meant to deliver justice can instead perpetuate harm. Through a compelling blend of personal experience, research, and systems analysis, she created a narrative that resonated deeply with the audience… Sonia’s willingness to share her insights reminds us of the strength and clarity that children and young people bring to this work. It also challenges us – as researchers, policymakers and practitioners – to do better; to design systems that truly work for children and young people, and to ensure our work is grounded in what matters most to them.”