Nicole Smede is a poet, musician, multi-disciplinary artist, and Arts educator of Warrimay/Birribay and colonial descent, living and creating on Wodi Wodi Dharawal Country. Her poetry can be found in the Australian Poetry Journal; Mascara Literary Review; Never Heard of Them (2019); Guwayu: for all times (2020); What we Carry, (2021); and 20x20x12: Sensing Place (2021). 

Nicole was the co-recipient of the 2020 Shoalhaven Arts Board Grant and the South Coast Writers Centre Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Writing Mentorship. Her work is held in national collecting institutions. Nicole has conducted workshops for The NSW Department of Education's Arts Unit, The Song Company, Bundanon Trust, Red Room Poetry, Wollongong City Council and local schools in the Shoalhaven.  

Nicole has performed and recorded classical, theatre, rock and contemporary music, in film and on the stages of Parliament House, the City Recital Hall, and the Mona Foma Festival. Her vocals are featured in a number of soundtracks, including Ivan Sen's ‘Goldstone’ and APRA award-winning film score '1919'. In 2022, Nicole was a recipient of the inaugural Space to Create residency at The Australian National University, and in 2023, an APRA AMCOS Women in Music mentee, and a participant in The Ngarra-Burria First Peoples Composer program.