Dennis Altman is the son of Jewish refugees, who published his book Homosexual: Oppression & Liberation in 1972. Recent books are Death in the Sauna and Righting My World. Altman is Vice Chancellor’s Fellow at LaTrobe University. He was President of the AIDS Society of Asia and the Pacific (2001-2005).

Susie Anderson’s poetry and prose are rooted in her Wergaia and Wemba Wemba heritage. Her acclaimed debut, the body country (Hachette, 2023), affirms writing as a form of return. She recently completed a fellowship in Rome to work on a novel, and an extract, ‘the claimant’, won the 2025 Overland Nakata Brophy Short Story competition.

Alison J Barton is a Wiradjuri writer/poet, and Editor-in-Chief of The Suburban Review. She has appeared at several Australian writers festivals, and facilitated events at European universities and art institutions. She works on the lands of the Wurundjeri people. Her poetry collection, Not Telling, was published by Puncher and Wattmann.

Jill Blee is a writer and historian. She has written historical fiction for both adults and children. Her biography of her trans sister was recently published under the title Champagne at Three – the story of a trans mining engineer. She teaches history at the University of the Third Age, Ballarat.

Bob Brown is an environmental and social justice campaigner and former senator. A founding member of the Wilderness Society, he led the successful campaign against the construction of the Franklin Dam. He served in Tasmanian state parliament, was leader of the Australian Greens, and in 1996 was elected to the federal Senate.

Holly Brunnbauer writes stories filled with heart, humour and hijinks. Her signature style includes a strong commercial voice, quirky cast and putting the ‘com’ in rom-com. What Did I Miss? is Holly’s debut novel. It was shortlisted for three national awards before being published by HarperCollins.

Mary Anne Butler writes about resilience and courage. Her plays have won The Victorian Prize for Literature, Victorian Premier’s Drama Award, Shane and Cathryn Brennan Playwriting Prize, an AWGIE and two NT Chief Minister’s Book of the Year Awards. She’s a Sidney Myer Creative Fellow, Winston Churchill Fellow and Regional Arts Fellow.

Maxine Beneba Clarke is the author of over fifteen books for adults and children, including Foreign Soil, The Hate Race, When We Say Black Lives Matter and The Patchwork Bike. Her poetry collections include Carrying the World, How Decent Folk Behave, It’s the Sound of the Thing, Beautiful Changelings and Stuff I’m (NOT) Sorry For.

Lorinda Cramer is a lecturer in Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies at Deakin University. Her research as a dress historian draws on the materiality of museum objects to investigate clothing’s connections with gender and class, to explore consumer preference, and to interrogate fashion as a worn experience.

Rhett Davis is from the Wadawurrung Country of Geelong. His debut novel, Hovering, won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript in 2020 and was shortlisted for the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction and the Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction. Rhett lives in Geelong with his partner.

Krystal De Napoli is a Kamilaroi educator and astrophysicist devoted to the advocacy of Indigenous knowledges and equity in STEM. In 2018 Krystal became the first astrophysicist to be awarded the Illumina Women in Genomics bracelet. She is a co-author of First Knowledges Astronomy: Sky Country with Karlie Noon.

Olivia De Zilva is an author based in Kaurna Yerta (Adelaide, South Australia). She is the author of two books, Plastic Budgie and Eggshell, with essays, poetry and prose in The Griffith Review, The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, SBS, Australian Poetry Journal, Cordite and many others. She has been shortlisted for numerous prizes.

Dassi Erlich is a high-profile lobbyist, justice campaigner and advocate for sexual abuse survivors. Given the hardships she has faced, her trajectory is extraordinary. In Bad Faith is Dassi’s powerful memoir.

Founding member of Handspan Theatre and resident designer for 20 years designing 40 new touring works. Since 2010, worked with director Rebecca Russell creating large scale site-specific theatre works, collaborating with scientists, ecologists, archeologists, Dja Dja Wurrung Elders, Clunes Fire Brigade, regional communities, live musicians, digital projections and demolition excavators.

Christy Flaws is an artist, performer and producer with over 20 years’ experience in circus and physical theatre. She co-founded award-winning company Asking for Trouble, creating and touring work nationally and internationally, and is known for playful collaborative, community-centred projects with young people supporting them to tell their own stories.

Mel Fulton is a writer, editor and broadcaster. She hosts Triple R’s flagship books program, Literati Glitterati, on Wednesdays at midday, and is the deputy editor of The Big Issue Australia.

Paula Gerber is a law professor at Monash University, and an internationally renowned expert on human rights law and LGBTIQA+ people. Paula has written and edited numerous books, journal articles and book chapters on human rights issues, including most recently Sex, Gender & Identity: Trans Rights in Australia (2025).

Fiona Gibson is Senior Library Coordinator at ACU Melbourne Campus Library. She has worked extensively with the Nolan and Culican Historical Children’s Literature Collections and has developed a deep appreciation for their rich history and cultural significance, their literary and artistic content and their ability to reconstruct the everyday environment of children.

Penny Glass grew up in an Australian-Polish-Jewish family hearing stories of displacement and a community disappeared by the Holocaust. After studying drama at the VCA, she worked in community and political theatre. In Chile, she worked with theatre in prisons and co-founded Colectivo Sustento. She currently teaches Drama for Social Action at Griffith University.

Clara McLeod Goodman is a Bachelor of Arts student at the Australian Catholic University with interests in English and History. She is currently undertaking a research internship with the ACU Library, looking at representations of railway travel within the library’s special collections of children’s literature.

Christine Gordon is the Programming and Community Engagement Manager of Melbourne’s pre-eminent independent bookshop, Readings, and has been in that role for years. She considers this the best job in Australia. Christine was one of the founding members of the Stella Prize, sits on various boards and has judged many literary awards.

Dr Hannah Gould is a cultural anthropologist specialising in death, religion, and material culture in Australia and North-East Asia. She is a Senior lecturer and Fellow with the DeathTech Research Team at the University of Melbourne. Alongside academic research and publishing, she creates public programs to advocate for more equitable systems of deathcare for all.

Darcy Green is a Melbourne-based author. They love to write joyful queer stories across a variety of genres. Their debut novel, After the Siren, a romantic comedy about two AFL teammates, was published in September 2025. When they are not writing, Darcy can be found gaming or playing ice hockey.

Lisa L. Hannett has had over 80 short stories published, has won four Aurealis Awards, an Australian National Science Fiction Award, an Australian Shadows Award, and has twice been nominated for a World Fantasy Award. Her latest books are Viking Women: Life and Lore, and Yet She Lives: Fierce and Fantastical Women of Norse Mythology.

Paul E. Hardisty’s eighth novel, The Hope, is set in a future affected by climate change. IN HOT WATER: Inside the Battle to Save the Great Barrier Reef, was shortlisted for the 2025 WA Premier’s Award for non-fiction. Follow him on Substack @Bite on the Nail. He’s working on a book about the Ukraine war.

Fiona Hardy is an author, bookseller and reviewer from Melbourne. She has previously written books for kids and schools, and her first adult crime book, Unbury the Dead, was shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Awards.

Marieke Hardy is a screenwriter and playwright. Her adaptation of Dario Fo’s No Pay? No Way! premiered at the Sydney Opera House in 2020. She was co-curator of international literary salon Women of Letters and a panelist on the ABCs Book Club. She co-curates the monthly spoken word event Better Off Said.

Emily Hart is publisher at Pink Shorts Press, an independent publisher based on Kaurna Yerta that she co-founded with Margot Lloyd. Previously, Emily worked at Hardie Grant Books, Wakefield Press and Dillons Bookshop, and was named the book industry’s Rising Star in 2022.

Hilary Harper grew up in regional Australia and loves the way radio connects people through storytelling. She’s been ferreting out ordinary people’s extraordinary stories for over 30 years, including 20 at the ABC, on weekend mornings on Local Radio, and on Radio National on Life Matters, and now as a weekday afternoon host.

Jeremy lives locally and previously worked as a lawyer, including in legal aid. He was involved recently in the fight to save the 2025 Tree of the Year, Kingston’s 130 year-old Algerian Oak from AusNet’s transmission lines. He has been a regular contestant in Mollongghip’s annual poetry slam and a past member of the Clunes Booktown Board.

Jack Henseleit is a children’s author from Ballarat, Australia, who has at various times been lost in the cities of Manila, Moscow, and Marrakesh. He collects travel games wherever he goes, and never turns down a good quiz. Family Camping Games is his thirteenth book.

Carolyn Holbrook is associate professor in history at Deakin University. Her co-authored monograph with James Walter, Australia Fair?: Democracy, Bureaucracy and the Making of Modern Australia, will be published in 2026, as well as two co-edited books, Challenging Anzac: Stories that Don’t Fit the Legend and Gold Standard?: Remembering the Hawke Government. Carolyn is the Director of Australian Policy and History.

Jacqui is a Clunes resident and a Creative Clunes Board member. She is currently a committee member of the Australian Crime Writers Association and a former co-convenor with Sisters in Crime Australia.

Adrian Hyland is the award-winning author of Diamond Dove, Gunshot Road and Kinglake-350, which was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for non-fiction in 2012. Since 2021 he has published three crime novels featuring intrepid rural cop Jesse Redpath: Canticle Creek, The Wiregrass and The Redline. His books have been published internationally, including in Britain and the US, and translated into a variety of languages, including German, French, Swedish and Czech.

Toni Jordan is the author of international bestseller Addition, adapted into a feature film in 2026. Her novel Nine Days was Best Fiction at the 2012 Indie Awards; Our Tiny, Useless Hearts was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award; and her Schnabel family novels, Dinner with the Schnabels and Prettier if She Smiled More, were critically acclaimed. Her latest novel is Tenderfoot.

Bec Kavanagh is a Melbourne-based writer and academic whose work examines the representation of women’s bodies in literature. Bec has appeared at Melbourne, Sydney, and Bendigo Writers’ Festivals. Her literary criticism can be found in The Guardian and The Big Issue. She is currently a Senior Tutor in Creative Writing and Publishing at the University of Melbourne.

Alex is a filmmaker based on Dja Dja Wurrung Country. Alex has developed a deeply collaborative practice that purposefully connects the disciplines of art and social change. Alex is Director of the Economic Media Centre, a member of the Unquiet Collective and is currently producing the forthcoming documentary, Testimony.

Sofie Laguna’s novels for adults have won numerous literary awards including the Miles Franklin. In 2025 Sofie released her fifth novel for adults, The Underworld to critical acclaim. She has also written over twenty-five books for children. In 2025 she released the picture book, The Last Egg, illustrated by Jess Racklyeft.

Jeanine Leane is a Wiradjuri writer, poet and essayist from southwest NSW. Her poetry, short stories, critique, and essays have been published in Australian Poetry Journal, Antipodes, Westerly, Cordite Review and Overland. Jeanine’s collection of poetry, Gawimarra gathering (UQP 2024) won the 2025 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Poetry and was shortlisted for the Kenneth Slessor Prize.

Mari is an award winning playwright, dramaturg & theatre maker with a national practice. As dramaturg and skills facilitator she has worked for numerous individuals and companies including: La Mama, Ilbijerri & Yirra Yaakin Theatre Companies, Melbourne University’s Union Theatre, Outer Urban Projects, & Goolarri Media in Broome, WA. Her most recent play, Dirt Cloud, received numerous awards.

Dr Donna Lyon is an Associate Professor in Producing at the University of Melbourne, and Founder and CEO of Left Write Hook, a survivor-led charity combining writing, boxing and peer support for victim-survivors of childhood sexual abuse. She is editor of a book of survivor stories, producer of documentary Left Write Hook and feature film Disclosure.

McCuskey creates cinematic, multilayered films blending archival, found and captured footage. Her signature style of blur and the dim dark reflects her long-sightedness. Exploring feminisms, memory and death, she celebrates joy as resistance and dance as culture protection. Rooted in her Irish heritage, she studies Gaeilge and mythology to explore place and belonging.

Kirstyn McDermott has been working in the darker alleyways of speculative fiction for much of her career. She is the author of two novels, Madigan Mine and Perfections, along with three collections, Caution: Contains Small Parts, Hard Places and Never Afters. Her next novel, What the Bones Know, will be published in March 2026.

Andrew McDonald writes books for kids. He is the author of Real Pigeons, Hello Twigs and the picture book Now You Are A Chicken. Andrew lives in Naarm/Melbourne and is a passionate advocate for books, reading and engaging kids through creativity.

Nathan has written eleven plays, including The Season, A Not So Traditional Story, At What Cost?, The Box and 37. Nathan’s plays have been performed on some of Australia’s biggest stages, including the Sydney Opera House and the Melbourne Theatre Company. In 2026, Nathan will write and direct Space Neighbours with the award-winning Terrapin Puppet Theatre.

Amelia Mellor is an author, teacher and nature nerd based in Melbourne. Her bestselling novels for middle-grade readers include the multi-award-winning historical fantasy series The Grandest Bookshop Trilogy and her new Oceanforged series. Between writing and researching, Amelia hangs around in museums and goes looking for treasure on the beach.

Author of The Asking Game and The Art of Navigation, Rose Michael has been runner-up for the Vogel and received an Aurealis Honourable Mention. She has published spec fic in Island, Griffith Review, Best Australian Stories, Meanjin and spec crit in The Conversation, TEXT, and Sydney Review of Books.

Ben Mountford is Director of the Centre for Regional Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (RHASS) and Associate Professor of History at Australian Catholic University. He is the author of the award-winning Britain, China and Colonial Australia (OUP 2016), has co-edited three books in the fields of global and imperial history, and was co-editor of the journal History Australia 2022-24.

Emma Mugglestone lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her family and dogs in a house that never stays clean and is always noisy but she wouldn’t have it any other way. She writes contemporary romances filled with charming settings and swoony characters who will steal your heart.

Ron is a much loved and respected Indigenous storyteller and a Wamba Wamba man (Swan Hill area) living on Jaara country. Ron is proud to keep Aboriginal stories alive and is much sought after at festivals. Ron is also a cultural educator, musician, didgeridoo player and maker, as well as wood sculptor.

Jason Nahrung is the Ballarat-based author of four novels and more than 20 short stories, all tending towards the dark side of speculative fiction. He has a doctorate in creative writing, which explored climate fiction. His most recent work of long fiction is last year’s Cruel Nights. www.jasonnahrung.com

Amanda Nettelbeck is Professor of History at Adelaide University. Her latest books, published in 2025, are Unsettled Subjects: Race, Mobility and Colonial Citizenship in the Australian Settler Colonies (Cambridge University Press) and (as editor) A Cultural History of Violence in the Age of Empire (Bloomsbury).

Thuy On is an arts journalist, editor, critic and poet. She has three collections of poetry published by UWAP: Turbulence (2020), Decadence (2022) and Essence (2025). She’s currently working on her fourth book and yes, its title will rhyme with the previous three.

Vikki Petraitis, author of 20 books including The Frankston Murders, has expanded into award‑winning fiction and podcasts with over 10 million downloads. Her novel The Unbelieved won major prizes and will premiere as an ABC TV series starring Anna Torv. In 2025, she released its sequel, The Stolen, while completing her PhD.

Antonia Pont is a yogi and widely-published writer of nonfiction, poetry, fiction and philosophy. Her work grapples with the uneasiness and wonder of our current moment alongside our longing for kindness, capacity and joy. Her latest book, Plain Life: on thinking, feeling and deciding, is out with NewSouth Publishing.

Lu Sexton and Stephanie Preston, two editors passionate about beautiful sentences and other writerly gems, have carved their own niche with their Curious Writers Workshops, which dive deep into the alchemy of writing. Stephanie and Lu both edit fiction and memoir, Lu also coaches novelists. Between them they have 17 years’ experience working with writers.

Professor Andrew Reeves is a historian whose work has focussed on modern Australian history with an emphasis on labour relations, mining and union material culture. He has worked in Federal politics with policy responsibilities for aspects of science, innovation and research. He is a resident of Clunes and currently Deputy Chancellor of Federation University.

A professional wordsmith, prolific creative, super solo mum and Autistic woman, Megan J Riedl is a nationally-recognised spoken word artist. Winner of the 2025 Booktown Poetry Slam, Megan is a Ballarat local. Her work explores themes of identity, belonging, truth and power, often highlighting issues of social justice such as family violence or, mental health. You can be sure of an anti-capitalist, feminist message, a lot of colour, and just a little bit of cheeky sass.

Dr Emma Robertson is Associate Professor of History, La Trobe University. She is a social and cultural historian of gender and labour in Britain and Australia. Her published work includes Chocolate, Women and Empire (2009), Rhythms of Labour: A History of Music at Work in Britain (2013) and BBC World Service (2019).

Rebecca Russell is an inter-disciplinary artist, collaborator and facilitator, based on Dja Dja Wurrung country in Clunes, Central Victoria. Her work includes, directing and devising visual theatre, drawing, painting and printing. Rebecca works with Ken Evans as RUSSELL:EVANS. They create unpredictable theatre in unpredictable locations, including DEMOLISH, Bendigo 2018.

Samah Sabawi is a Palestinian-Australian playwright, poet, author, and researcher. Her award-winning work spans theatre, poetry, and literature, earning multiple awards across genres. She explores themes of identity, exile, resistance, and memory, amplifying Palestinian narratives through acclaimed plays, poetry collections, essays, and public speaking internationally.

Jayneen Sanders (aka Jay Dale) is an experienced early years educator, author, publisher and blogger. Jayneen writes children’s books on Body Safety, consent, gender equality, respectful relationships, social and emotional intelligence, and diversity and inclusion. She believes empowering children from an early age makes for empowered teenagers and adults.

Ben Sanders is a picture book author and illustrator who spends his days drawing spiteful fruit and deadpan animal characters. Known for his retro-modern style, he’s created gems like Clive Penguin and Agent Harrier. Ben lives in Ballarat, where he balances commercial commissions and children’s stories.

Jock Serong is the author of seven award-winning novels, most recently Cherrywood. He also writes for screen, mentors other writers and is a director of Melbourne’s Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas. His next book (September 2026) is a biography of the industrialist Fletcher Jones. Jock lives in Port Fairy, Victoria, and on Flinders Island in Bass Strait.

Lu Sexton and Stephanie Preston, two editors passionate about beautiful sentences and other writerly gems, have carved their own niche with their Curious Writers Workshops, which dive deep into the alchemy of writing. Stephanie and Lu both edit fiction and memoir, Lu also coaches novelists. Between them they have 17 years’ experience working with writers.

Cecile Shanahan is a freelance editor working with traditional publishers and independently published authors – from across Australia and around the world. She also enjoys being an Awards judge, and a moderator of author in-conversations. Cecile was co-curator of Bendigo Writers Festival from 2023-2025.

Andrew Skeoch is an acoustic ecologist and author of ‘Deep Listening to Nature’. He has documented the soundscapes of wild places around the globe over the last 30 years. As an educator, he has written for The Conversation, appeared at major festivals and given presentations widely to community and academic audiences.

Jane Sullivan is a Melbourne literary journalist. Her column about books, Turning Pages, runs in the Saturday Age and online in Nine media outlets. She has written three novels and a memoir Storytime. Her latest novel, Murder in Punch Lane (Echo) is a murder mystery set in 1860’s Melbourne.

Marion Taffe is a Melbourne-based writer. As a child, she lived in a historic Ballarat home that was open to the public. Marion rowed for Australia before working as a journalist in Queensland, Victoria and the UK. Her debut novel By Her Hand was published last year with HarperCollins.

Cynthia Timoti writes fun multicultural romcoms with plenty of heart and snark, where happy endings are always guaranteed. She was born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia, and moved to Australia to study finance when she was seventeen. Cynthia currently resides in Melbourne with her husband and two sons.

Sean Williams is a #1 New York Times-bestselling, award-winning author of over 60 books and 120 shorter publications for readers of all ages, including collaborations with other authors, stories in the Star Wars and Doctor Who universes. He lives in Kaurna Country, South Australia, and teaches Creative Writing at Flinders University.

Ailsa Wild is a writer and performer with a history of circus performance and collaboration. She is a published author for audiences of all ages, both fiction and non-fiction, including the award winning Squishy Taylor series and the 2024 scientific graphic novel Follow Your Gut: A Story from the Microbes that Make You.

Ben Wood is the illustrator of the bestselling Real Pigeons junior fiction series, now in development for film/TV with Nickelodeon, and the graphic novel series Hello Twigs. Ben is drawn to stories that are funny and heartfelt, and his lively illustrations reflect his love for graphic novels and animation.

Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky grew up listening to stories of his Czech-Scots family – tales of dangerous escapes in post-WW2 Europe and sailing to Australia. He co-founded the much-loved band, The Bushwackers, and has been involved in theatre, radio and TV, oral history books with Aboriginal people ‘up north’ and many Australian history shows in schools.