Alice Zaslavsky is the cookery columnist for The Weekend Australian Magazine, Culinary Correspondent for ABC News Breakfast and ABC Radio nationally, ABIA award-winning author of the international bestseller In Praise of Veg, and host of Saturday Breakfast on ABC Radio Melbourne.

Andrea Goldsmith is a well-known Australian novelist. Her novels include The Prosperous Thief, (short-listed for the 2003 Miles Franklin award), and The Memory Trap, awarded the 2015 Melbourne Prize. Her eighth novel, Invented Lives, is a story of identity and exile. At its centre is Galina, a Russian Jew, who comes to Australia in the…

Anita Lester is a multidisciplinary artist, working between music, writing, visual art and film. Through her work she has toured the world with music, releasing more than a dozen projects, shown in major galleries and museums in London and New York, published a book of poetry and 6 children’s books, won 23 laurels for her…

Ashley Goldberg is an Australian writer based in Melbourne. His fiction has appeared in Meanjin, New Australian Fiction 2021, Chiron Review and Award-Winning Australian Writing (AWAW) among other publications. His work has been longlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and the Galley Beggar Press Short Story Prize. He holds an MA in Creative Writing…

Barbara Kamler arrived in Australia as a young teacher in the early 70s and developed a distinguished academic career over the next forty years.  Her debut poetry collection Leaving New Jersey (2016) is a memoir of fifty-six prose poems, recounting the story of leaving America and arriving in Australia.  Love, regardless (2022), an enthralling new…

Bram Presser spent a decade schlepping around the world, screaming into a rubber chicken with the Jewish punk band, Yidcore, before turning to writing. His debut book, The Book of Dirt, a novel about love, family secrets and Jewish myths, won the 2018 Goldberg Prize for Debut Fiction at the National Jewish Book Awards (USA),…

Bryan Walpert is the author of nine books of poetry, fiction and criticism, most recently the novel Entanglement (Mākaro Press), named a best book of 2021 in the New Zealand Listener; Late Sonata (Brio Books), winner of the 2020 Seizure Viva La Novella prize and Brass Band to Follow (Otago University Press), included in the…

Dalit Kaplan has had essays published in a range of online publications and volumes.  She writes about illness, fertility, loss, Judaism, the Holocaust, feminism and politics. She is currently writing her first novel. When not writing, Dalit engages in impact investing and grantmaking as a director of Just World Investments, or providing storytelling workshops and…

Dani Valent is one of Australia’s most respected food communicators. She is a long-time freelance journalist and restaurant critic, award-winning cookbook author and chief creator at danivalent.com. Her business card says: writer, eater, traveller and cook, and if you could sum up Dani’s ethos in a phrase, it would be “connecting people to great food experiences”.

Daniel is a Yorta Yorta man, Melbourne-based writer and broadcaster. He is the winner of the 2018 Horne Prize for his essay Ten More Days. He also hosts The Mission on 3RRR FM. Recently he signed a book deal with Affirm Press for his debut novel.

Daniel Sherrell is an organiser in the American climate movement. He has led successful campaigns to phase out coal-fired power plants, to divest millions of dollars from the fossil fuel industry and to pass a Green New Deal bill for New York, legislation that the New York Times called “one of the world’s most ambitious…

Danielle Celermajer is a Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Sydney, Deputy Director of the Sydney Environment Institute and lead of the Multispecies Justice project. A long-time human rights scholar and activist, in recent years she has turned her attention to injustices and violence in the natural world. Through the experience…

Born in Jerusalem in 1954, David Grossman is one of the leading Israeli writers of his generation. He is the author of eleven internationally acclaimed novels, five works of nonfiction and a short story collection, as well as a number of children’s books, a children’s opera and a play. His work has appeared in The…

Deborah Stone is a journalist, media adviser and communications consultant. She is a former feature writer for The Age and The Sunday Age and was Editor of both the Australian Jewish News Editor and ArtsHub. She is Communications Lead in Humanities at Australian Catholic University and writes a monthly column for Plus61J.

Dr Hubble is Australia’s favourite bubble man. He loves bubbles and can make them do amazing things. He manipulates simple soap bubbles to create miraculous moments of wonder. Dr Hubble will show you bubbles you have never seen before, the square bubble, the octagon bubble, the chimney and the explode-a-bubble. This is a fun, funny…

Elissa Goldstein is a writer, editor and collector of library memberships (seven, so far). She has an MFA in creative writing from Brooklyn College, and previously worked at Tablet in New York, where she co-produced the podcast Unorthodox. She is currently a digital producer at the ABC. Follow her on Twitter at @goldsteinelissa.

Galit Klas is the co-artistic director of the Kadimah Yiddish Theatre. She is an award-winning writer, director and performer and arts visionary who pushes the boundaries of bilingual theatre and music. Her most recent works are Yentl, the Yiddish techno group – Durkh A Modne Gloz and the family comedy, The Cantor.

Gideon Haigh has been a journalist since 1984, has contributed to more than a hundred newspapers and magazines and has published more than forty books, most recently The Brilliant Boy: Doc Evatt and the Great Australian Dissent. He has also just released a collection of long-form non-fiction, Shelf Life: Journalism 2000-2021. Amongst his many writings…

Gideon Preiss has worked as a professional musician since he was a teenager, and completed his Bachelor of Music at Monash University in 2005. He has co-written and co-produced four records with critically acclaimed Australian band Husky and has toured extensively both at home and internationally. He has experimented with a wide range of musical…

Howard Jacobson is a British novelist and journalist. He is a multi-award-winning writer of 13 novels and five works of non-fiction, as well as a regular contributor to major newspapers and journals, including a regular column for The Independent. He won the Booker Prize in 2010 for his comic novel, The Finkler Question.

Jaye Kranz is an award-winning documentary audio producer and writer. She has published a novella with Random House, been anthologised in short story collections, and writes occasional nonfiction for The Monthly. Her radio features have aired on BBC Radio, ABC RN, and various podcasts. Her BBC feature ‘Deep Time and the Sparrowhawk’ won double gold…

Joanna Hu is a former front of house hospitality worker who co-wrote and illustrated a cookbook, CHINESE-ISH: Home Cooking, Not Quite Authentic, 100% Delicious, with Rosheen Kaul, head chef of Etta Restaurant. The book will be published in June/July this year.

Joel is a powerful storyteller, voracious inquirer, thoughtful collaborator, strategic decision-maker and passionate mentor. Joel’s skills and experience are diverse, spanning commercial law, educational program design, Jewish youth leadership, facilitation and scriptwriting. Joel’s passion for Judaism runs deep. He was born and raised in the Melbourne Jewish community and has held various leadership positions in…

Jonathan Pearlman is the editor of The Jewish Quarterly. He is also editor of Australian Foreign Affairs and world editor of The Saturday Paper. He previously worked at The Sydney Morning Herald, covering foreign affairs and politics from Canberra and Sydney. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including The Straits Times, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Spectator, The Diplomat, The Jerusalem Report and Australian Book Review.

Julie Szego is a freelance writer and weekly columnist for The Age. She has taught journalism and creative non-fiction at RMIT, Monash and Melbourne universities. Her book, The Tainted Trial of Farah Jama, was shortlisted for the Victorian and NSW Premiers’ Literary Awards for 2015.

Karen Hitchcock is a physician and author. She holds a PhD in English Literature, is an award-winning writer of fiction and non-fiction, and a regular contributor to The Monthly. Karen worked in major metropolitan hospitals for 17 years before moving into private practice. Her current areas of interest include medicinal cannabis and psychedelic psychotherapies.

Kyra Maya Phillips is the co-author of The Misfit Economy, a book which chronicles stories of creativity from informal and dark markets around the globe. She is a director of The Point People, a collective of innovators, artists, and entrepreneurs committed to driving systemic change for a more equitable society. A former economist, she is…

Dr Lee Kofman is a Russian-born, Israeli-Australian author of three fiction books and two memoirs, including Imperfect (Affirm Press, 2019), shortlisted for the Mark & Evette Nib Literary Award, and The Dangerous Bride (Melbourne University Press, 2014). She is the  co-editor of Rebellious Daughters (Ventura Press, 2016), and editor of Split (Ventura Press, 2019), anthologies…

Born and raised in Wellington, New Zealand, Lisa Emanuel studied law and political science in Wellington, Jerusalem and Sydney. She has worked as a political staffer and a judge’s associate and in human rights law and marketing and communications. She now works as a competition lawyer and is writing her second novel. She lives in…

Lynne Kent is a Shadow Artist and Theatre Director based in Melbourne, Australia. Her artistic focus is on puppetry and contemporary visual theatre including new media performance. Internationally recognized for her work creating innovative projects involving imagery and audience interaction, she has collaborated with The Victorian Opera, Circus Oz, Terrapin Puppet Theatre, The Royal Society of Victoria, ArtPlay…

Margaret Simons is an award-winning freelance journalist and the author of numerous articles and essays and many books, including Penny Wong: Passion and Principle (2019), the first biography of the Australian politician. She is also a journalism academic and Honorary Principal Fellow at the Centre for Advancing Journalism, University of Melbourne. She has won the…

Maria Tumarkin writes books, essays, reviews, and pieces for performance and radio; she collaborates with sound and visual artists and has had her work carved into dockside tiles. She is the author of four books of ideas. Her latest book, Axiomatic, won the 2018 Melbourne Prize for Literature and was named a New Yorker Top 10 Book of 2019. Maria is…

Marina Benjamin, a former arts editor for the New Statesman magazine and deputy arts editor of the Evening Standard, is a writer, memoirist and editor. She has written six books, most recently a trilogy exploring the midlife experience in real time. The Middlepause (2016) and Insomnia (2018) were widely acclaimed in the UK, US and…

Mireille Juchau is a Walkley Award winning writer. Her third novel, The World Without Us, won the 2016 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award. Her essays are published in Heat Magazine, newyorker.com, Literary Hub, The Monthly, LA Review of Books and Tablet. In 2018 she was writer in residence at the Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney.

Natasha Sholl is a writer and lapsed lawyer based in Melbourne. Her work has featured in The Guardian, The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, SBS Voices, Kill Your Darlings, Mamamia and elsewhere. Her first book, Found, Wanting, published by Ultimo Press in February 2022, tells the story of her attempt to rebuild her life in the…

Nicola Menser Hearn is a documentary filmmaker, musician and writer based in Naarm.  She is a graduate research student at the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation (ACJC), Monash University, undertaking a creative research project exploring Queer Yiddishkeit in Australia. Nicola was an artist in residence with the Yiddishkayt (CA, USA) Helix Fellowship in 2016-17 and…

Norman Swan has hosted RN’s Health Report since its inception in 1975 and since the COVID-19 pandemic, co-hosted Coronacast, a daily podcast. He trained in medicine and paediatrics in Aberdeen, London and Sydney before joining the ABC as a medically qualified journalist. Norman is also a reporter and commentator on the ABC’s 7.30, Midday, News…

Peter Doherty is an Australian immunologist and pathologist who, with Rolf Zinkernagel of Switzerland, received the Nobel Prize for Physiology of Medicine in 1996 for their discovery of how the body’s immune system distinguishes virus-infected cells from normal cells. After leading a research group at the Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, and teaching at the University of…

Rebecca has over two decades’ experience working in executive leadership and education-related roles in the Melbourne Jewish community. From 2010-2019, she was Director & CEO of the Jewish Museum of Australia, where she led the Museum through a decade of significant organisational development and creative regeneration. After leaving the Museum, she was appointed as Associate…

Professor Rebecca (Rivke) Margolis is the Director and Pratt Foundation Chair of Jewish Civilisation at the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation (ACJC) at Monash University. She is a scholar of migration and cultural history with a focus on the transmission and revitalisation of Yiddish. Her current research focuses on new Yiddish cinema.

Rivka Galchen received her MD from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, having spent a year in South America working on public health issues. Galchen completed her MFA at Columbia University, where she was a Robert Bingham Fellow. Her essay on the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics was published in The Believer, and she…

Romi Kupfer is a contemporary theatre maker, director and producer. Romi’s practice has evolved since 2013 through practical experience collaborating with companies, artists and communities as well as theatre training.  She is passionate about creating new Australian live performance, exploring themes such as culture, identity and mental health. Romi holds a Bachelor of Performing Arts…

Sarah Kanowski co-presents Conversations on ABC Radio and podcast. She previously presented Books and Arts on ABC RN, and joined the ABC as a producer on Late Night Live. Sarah won a Commonwealth Scholarship to study English at the University of Oxford, where she wrote a thesis on the Mosley family. She spent time working…

Sarah Krasnostein is a multi-award-winning writer and researcher. She is the author of The Trauma Cleaner, The Believer and the Quarterly Essay, On Mental Illness and Vulnerability. Her work has appeared in publications in Australia, America and the UK. She has a doctorate in criminal law.

Simi is a Melbourne-based circus performer and emerging author. She has performed as an aerial artist with traditional circuses around Australia and with contemporary circuses around the world. She is passionate about circus, literature, reading and has a special interest in women’s issues. Simi wrote a picture book, So She Did, about a bareback rider,…

In 2016, Simon Starr returned from six and a half years of living in Israel where he had researched Yemenite, Moroccan and Balkan music. Whilst there he released his 3rd solo album 27/04, and produced Tal Badani’s  Jewellery of Love and Death for record label Warners (Europe). Starr co-created and performed in the Israeli musical…

Simon Tedeschi is known primarily as a concert pianist but has written for publications across Australia. When neither writing nor practising, he reads books and drinks coffee. He and his wife, the painter Loribelle Spirovski, live in Sydney, Australia with their cat. Fugitive, his first book, straddles the borders of poetry and prose, fiction and…

Tali Lavi is a critic, writer and public interviewer whose work has appeared in The Jewish Quarterly, Australian Book Review, The Saturday Paper and Sydney Review of Books, amongst others. ‘Counting’, an essay, was published in Marina Benjamin’s Garden Among Fires: A Lockdown Anthology. Tali has interviewed writers for Melbourne Jewish Book Week, Adelaide Writers’…

Tony Tan is a highly respected figure in Australian culinary circles. He has lived most of his adult life either working in restaurants, or writing about food in Melbourne and Sydney. He was a presenter on the SBS series The Food Lovers’ Guide to Australia, has presented Master Classes in most Australian capital cities and…

Veronica Sullivan is the Head of Programming at the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas, and the chair of the Custodial Committee of the Kat Muscat Fellowship. She co-founded and co-hosted Sisteria, a podcast about women and non-binary creatives’ experiences as creators and consumers of arts and culture.

Zoe Bell is an experienced and passionate storyteller and facilitates sessions through her business Zoe’s Reading Circle. For many years she has been reading to children of all ages in educational settings, holiday programs, celebratory events and more. Not only does Zoe love it but her attentive audiences love it too! Zoe has a gift…

Zoya Sheftalovich is a contributing editor of the POLITICO news website and the editor of its Brussels and London Playbooks. She was born in Ukraine, before moving to Australia as part of the post-Soviet diaspora in the early 1990s. Zoya has written about her experiences growing up in Ukraine through the Chernobyl disaster and the…