Hi

I'm Cyan Ta'eed.

Writer · Designer (in a previous life) · Sydney

Working on my first novel — speculative fiction, set in a recognisable-but-not-quite future. It's been the most absurd, ridiculous, delightful thing I've ever made.

Read about it or Get in touch

N° 01 About

An Australian writer working on a debut novel — the only thing I've ever done where I genuinely don't mind not being good at it yet, because I love it that much.

Before this, I spent eighteen years co-running Envato, a creative marketplace I started with my husband Collis in 2006. It grew into something extraordinary — a community of artists, illustrators, musicians and craftspeople — and we sold it to Shutterstock in 2024. I've also founded a chocolate company (good idea, hard business), a publishing app for creators, and I chair an Australian non-profit. I trained as a graphic designer, which I sometimes still pretend to be on quiet days.

I live in Sydney with Collis, our two kids, and a small population of dogs. I read constantly, garden badly, and maintain a strong personal opinion that writers are mostly weirdos. I'm one of the weirdos.

Cyan Ta'eed at home, sitting cross-legged in a sun-lit kitchen, smiling.
At home, somewhere in the middle of a draft.

N° 02The novel

A speculative novel, currently in revision and not yet ready to leave the house.

I won't say much about it yet — it's still becoming itself, and premature description tends to be unkind to a draft. What I can say: it's set in a future not far from this one, and it's about the small, stubborn things that survive when the version of the world you were promised quietly excuses itself.

If you're a literary agent or editor and you'd like to read it when it's ready, please say hello.

N° 03Currently

A small, slightly oversharing snapshot.

Writing
Chapter twelve. Possibly chapter thirteen by the time you read this. Possibly chapter eleven again.
Reading
Anything by Emily St. John Mandel; a stack of debut speculatives recommended at the Iceland Writers Retreat; a cookbook I will not be cooking from.
Listening to
The Rolling Stones, She's a Rainbow, on inexplicable repeat.
Distracted by
The dogs. The garden. The internet, regrettably.
Newly in love with
Iceland in April. Writers as a category of people. Long-haul flights as a place to draft.
Updated
, give or take a fortnight.

N° 04Hello

Say hi. I read everything (eventually).

Literary agents, editors, journalists and the occasional kind stranger are warmly welcome. The novel is unagented at present. Serious enquiries get a same-day reply; everyone else gets a slightly slower one.