Alex Skovron is the author of six poetry collections, a prose novella and a book of short stories. His most recent volume of poetry, Towards the Equator: New & Selected Poems (2014), was shortlisted in the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. Alex’s numerous public readings include appearances in China, Serbia, India, Ireland, Macedonia, Portugal and Italy,…

Ali Berg is co-author (with Michelle Kalus) of the best-selling The Book Ninja (2018) and While You Were Reading (2019), which have both been published around the world. She is also co-founder of social enterprise Books on the Rail, and an award-winning copywriter.

Alison Jones has worked in a variety of settings – health, business and education – but her most important role is being mother to her five children. For the past five years, she has also been a part-time, non-fiction writer. Her first book, The Jones Family Food Roster (2019), explores the power of community, parenting…

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 (2019), is a story of identity and exile. Invented Lives was published to great acclaim and has recently been released in…

The seed for Andy Mia Kranz’s first book, The Secret Home (2019), was formed through a vivid story told to her many times by her grandfather when she was a child. Andy wrote, illustrated and self-published this book. She has also worked as a medical practitioner and maker of fine timber furniture, and currently works…

Angela Savage is an award winning Melbourne writer. She holds a PhD in Creative Writing and currently works as Director of Writers Victoria. Her latest novel is Mother of Pearl.

Anna Ciddor has written and illustrated nearly 60 popular books on topics as diverse as Vikings, her grandmother’s childhood in pre-war Poland, and the weird and hilarious things she got up to in her own childhood in 1960s Melbourne. She is currently working on a time-change story set in Gaul during the Roman Empire –…

Anna Epstein is the author of Melekh Ravitsh: The Eccentric Outback Quest of an Urbane Yiddish Poet from Poland (2019). Born in Melbourne to Yiddish-speaking Polish Jews of the Holocaust generation, her interest in the plight of those fleeing misfortune was awakened early. Anna worked for twenty years as editor and curator at the Jewish…

Anna Jacobson is a poet and artist. Her debut poetry collection, Amnesia Findings, won the 2018 Thomas Shapcott Prize for Poetry. She also won the 2018 Queensland Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Award. Anna holds a Master of Philosophy in poetry and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Creative and Professional Writing) from QUT, and a…

Anna Snoekstra is an author and screenwriter living in Melbourne, Victoria. She is the writer of both adult and young adult fiction novels, most recently Mercy Point (2018) and The Spite Game (2018). She teaches writing at Swinburne University.

Anne M Carson is a Melbourne-based poet, essayist and visual artist. Her poetry has been awarded in literary competitions, and published widely in Australia and internationally as well as being broadcast on national radio. Her works, Two Green Parrots, and Massaging Himmler: A Poetic Biography of Dr Felix Kersten, were both published in 2019. Anne…

Antony Loewenstein is a Jerusalem-based Australian journalist who has written for The New York Times, The Guardian, the BBC, The Washington Post, The Nation, Huffington Post, Haaretz, and many others. He is the author of Disaster Capitalism: making a killing out of catastrophe (2015), the writer/co-producer of the associated documentary, Disaster Capitalism (2018), and the…

Arnold Zable is a highly acclaimed Australian writer, novelist, storyteller and human rights advocate. His books include Jewels and Ashes, Cafe Scheherazade, The Fig Tree, Scraps of Heaven, Sea of Many Returns, Violin Lessons, and The Fighter. His new book The Watermill was published in March, 2020, alongside a TEXT Classic edition of his novel…

Avi Duckor-Jones is an Auckland (NZ)-based writer. Although trained as a lawyer, he gained his MA in creative writing from Victoria University’s International Institute of Modern Letters (NZ) in 2013. His travel writing has appeared in various publications, including BBC Travel, The NZ Listener and Lonely Planet. Avi’s play, On Dry Land, was performed in…

Barbara Kamler’s most recent poetry titles include Two Tales of Long Love (2019), subtly moving syllabic verse which tells of couples who sustain love over many years, despite the challenges; and Leaving New Jersey (2016), 58 prose poems that unravel the experience of migration, loss, separation and love as it unfolds over a lifetime. Barbara’s…

Bernard Cohen is the author of five novels, a children’s picture book and the recent short story collection, When I Saw the Animal (2018). His last novel, The Antibiography of Robert F Menzies won the 2015 Russell Prize for Humour Writing and an Arts Council of England Writer’s Award. He has been writer-in-residence at Sir…

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 novel, The Book of Dirt, won the 2018 Goldberg Prize for Debut Fiction at the National Jewish Book Awards (USA), the 2018 Voss Literary Prize and three prizes at…

Christine Gordon is the Programming Manager for Readings, a position she has held for many years. She was a founding member of the Stella Prize, sits on the boards of the Emerging Writers’ Festival and the Readings Foundation, and has been a judge on a variety of literary prizes. Christine is passionate about Australian literature…

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

Daniel James is a Yorta Yorta Melbourne-based writer whose work explores notions of empathy, intergenerational trauma, hidden history, the political landscape and sense of place and land that continue to shape the lives of Aboriginal people across the country. He is the winner of the 2018 Horne Prize for his essay Ten More Days. Daniel…

Daniel Ziffer covered the Hayne royal commission for ABC radio, TV, and online. He was formerly the long-time senior producer of ‘Mornings with Jon Faine’, at ABC Radio Melbourne, and has worked on air and in production at Macquarie Radio, as a freelance foreign correspondent based in New York City, a journalist at The Age,…

Professor David Isaacs is a consultant paediatrician at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, Sydney, and Clinical Professor in Paediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Sydney. He has been a member of every Australian national immunisation advisory committee for the last 25 years. He is passionate about bioethics, and has published and taught extensively on…

David Leser is a Walkley-award winning journalist who has worked in Australia and internationally for the past 40 years. He is the author of seven books, including To Begin to Know: Walking in the Shadows of My Father which was shortlisted for the 2015 National Biography Award. David’s latest book, Women, Men and the Whole…

David Slucki is an author and historian, and the Loti Smorgon Associate Professor in Contemporary Jewish Life and Culture at Monash University. Between 2013 and 2019, he was an assistant professor in Jewish Studies at the College of Charleston, South Carolina. He is the author of Sing This at My Funeral: A Memoir of Fathers and…

Debbie Lee is Senior Manager, Content Acquisition and Business Development with Ingram Lightning Source. Formerly a trade sales representative and an academic publisher, Debbie has seen the world of publishing change dramatically over her 30-year career. She considers the advent of print-on-demand and global distribution among the most significant contributing factors, giving the indie author…

Deborah Conway AM has been a musician for 40 years, has played countless live shows, written many songs, and has produced records, shows, tours and festivals. She has collected ARIAs, was made a National Living Legend in 2019, and this year was made a Member of the Order of Australia. Conway met Willy Zygier in…

Deborah Eisenberg has published five collections of short fiction, the most recent of which is Your Duck Is My Duck (2018). Her work is widely anthologised and has earned her many awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship, a Lannan Foundation Fellowship, the Rea Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award, the PEN Malamud Award, and the Paris Review’s Hadada…

Professor Dennis Altman AM is the son of Jewish refugees and a writer and academic who first came to attention with the publication of his book Homosexual: Oppression & Liberation (1971). He is a Professorial Fellow in Human Security at La Trobe University and has published thirteen books, most recently The End of the Homosexual?…

Dina Kluska is the co-founder and co-director of Pitch Projects, a boutique media and communications agency based in Melbourne. Dina has extensive experience in strategic communications and publicity, particularly in the publishing industry and across the arts sector. She has also worked as a commissioning editor. Dina has been a guest lecturer for RMIT’s Master…

Dvir Abramovich is the Israel Kipen Director of The Program in Jewish Culture & Society at The University of Melbourne, and Chairman of the Anti-Defamation Commission. An in-demand media commentator, he was President of the Australian Association of Jewish Studies and Editor of the Australian Journal of Jewish Studies. The author of six books, Dvir’s…

Elise Hearst is a Melbourne-based playwright, storyteller, writer and occasional performer. She trained in London at the Royal Court Theatre and her plays include Bright World (2016; Theatreworks), co-written with Andrea James, The Sea Project (2012; Griffin Theatre) and The Mesh (2014; Red Stitch), which was shortlisted for the Griffin Award. Elise is currently a resident…

Elizabeth Finkel (AM) is a former biochemist who switched to journalism. She co-founded Cosmos Magazine, served as Editor in Chief (2013 – 2018) and is now Editor at Large. She has published two books: Stem Cells (2005) which won the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award, and The Genome Generation (2012). Elizabeth’s work is regularly anthologised in…

Emma Lew’s first collection of poems, The Wild Reply (1997), won the Mary Gilmore Award and was joint winner of The Age Poetry Book of the Year Award. Her second collection, Anything the Landlord Touches (2002), won the Victorian Premier’s C.J. Dennis Prize for Poetry and the Queensland Premier’s Judith Wright Calanthe Prize for Poetry….

In 2016, Gigi Fenster approached Victoria University (NZ) with an unusual proposal for a PhD – she would induce a fever in herself in an effort to experience fevered dreams. The resulting PhD formed the basis of her second book, Feverish (2018). Gigi’s first book,The Intentions Book (2012), was a finalist in the NZ Post…

Ginger Gorman is an award-winning social-justice journalist, who in 2013, together with her family, suffered first-hand the effects of online hate. It was this experience that set her on her professional journey into the world of trolls. Her series of articles on trolling for Fairfax newspapers in 2017 went viral, and became some of the…

Hana Assafiri OAM is a tireless advocate for women in the community continually stressing the need for greater intercultural understanding by creating opportunities via respectful cross-cultural relations. She is a spokesperson for Islamic feminism in Australia and was inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women (2017), which celebrated her contribution to local communities and…

Passionate about the power of stories, South African-born Hayley Katzen quit the law to study acting, and wrote and produced a play about asylum seekers. In 2005, she moved to her girlfriend’s remote farm where she practised the craft of writing. Her writing has won competitions, been read on ABC Radio and Queerstories, and has…

Henry Rosenbloom is the founder and publisher of Scribe. A son of Holocaust survivors, he was educated at the University of Melbourne, where he became the first full-time editor of the student newspaper, Farrago and later worked in the Whitlam Labor government for Dr Moss Cass. In 2010, Henry was presented with a George Robertson…

Jacinta Halloran is a writer, GP and, more recently a family therapist. She is the author of three novels: Dissection (2008), Pilgrimage (2012) and The Science of Appearances (2016), and is currently working on her fourth novel. Jacinta has written medical journalism for The Age and Inside Story and has worked as an academic at…

Jaye Kranz is an award-winning documentary audio producer and writer of literary non-fiction and narrative journalism. She has published novellas, been anthologised in short story collections and writes occasional non-fiction for The Monthly. She was the recipient of writing grants from the Australia Council’s Literature Board and the Queen’s Trust Fund. Jaye’s radio features have…

Jeff Sparrow is a writer, editor, and broadcaster. He writes a regular column for The Guardian and contributes regularly to many other Australian and international publications. Jeff is a former member of the 3RRR Breakfasters team and the immediate past editor of the literary journal Overland. He is the author of a number of books,…

Jessica Bram is the recently appointed Director and CEO of the Jewish Museum of Australia following five years at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. She has 15 years’ experience across curatorial and collection management in museums and is widely regarded as a creative leader. Jessica is experienced in delivering major projects using state-of-the-art…

Jessica North has been a writer for most of her life, producing articles, lifestyle books, business guides, and a chapter for the United Nations publication, Tomorrow Today. Jessica is also Director of the Habitat Stepping Stones program at Macquarie University and Director of the online Senior Services Guide.

Joanne Dannon is the best-selling author of romance novels, who began her writing career in 2007. Her books have a wide, loyal readership, which has resulted in numerous awards, including Author of the Year: AusRom Today Reader’s Choice Award (2017, 2018) and Finalist, Wisconsin Romance Writers of America, Write Touch Readers’ Award (2017). Her aim…

Jonathan Pearlman is the editor of Australian Foreign Affairs and the world editor of The Saturday Paper. He is a correspondent for The Straits Times newspaper (Singapore) and was Australia–Pacific correspondent for The Telegraph (UK). He previously worked at The Sydney Morning Herald, covering foreign affairs and politics from Canberra and Sydney.  

Josh Cohen is a psychoanalyst in private practice, and Professor of Modern Literary Theory at Goldsmiths University of London. He is the author of numerous books and articles on modern literature, psychoanalysis and cultural theory. His books include Not Working: Why We Have to Stop (2019), The Private Life (2013) and How to Read Freud…

Jude Perl is a multi-award-winning singer, songwriter and comedian based in Melbourne. Here, she has created a name for herself by writing and performing hilarious, yet brutally honest, stream-of-consciousness style lyrics, set to catchy and well-crafted songs. Jude has won three Green Room Awards for Best Original Songs for her solo comedy shows. Her latest…

Judy Horacek is a freelance Australian cartoonist and writer whose work has been published widely both in Australia and overseas. Until recently, she had a twice-weekly cartoon gig in The Age, but now has moved on to greater things (TBD). She recently published her tenth cartoon collection, Now or Never (2020). Judy also creates children’s picture books, both…

Julia Prendergast is a senior lecturer in Writing and Literature at Swinburne University, and Chair of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs (AAWP), the peak academic body representing the discipline of Creative Writing in Australasia. She has published a novel, The Earth Does Not Get Fat (2018), and has had short stories appear in Australian…

Julie Szego is a freelance writer and 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 Premier’s Literary Awards for 2015.

Juliet Rieden is a well-known magazine editor and journalist who has been travelling between the UK and Australia for more than 30 years. She is a non-fiction author and has been a judge for various book awards in Australia. Juliet is an appointed Board Trustee for Prince’s Trust Australia and is now Editor-at-Large for The Australian Women’s Weekly. Her second non-fiction book, The…

Kendrah Morgan is Senior Curator at Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne. She has co-authored four books about aspects of Heide history with Lesley Harding, including Modern Love: The Lives of John and Sunday Reed (2015), which was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for non-fiction. Kendrah and Lesley’s most recent book, Mirka and…

Lee Kofman is the author of five books, including the memoirs Imperfect (2019), which was shortlisted for the Nib Literary Award 2019, and The Dangerous Bride (2014). She was a co-editor of Rebellious Daughters (2016) and editor of Split (2019), anthologies of essays by prominent Australian authors. Lee’s short works have been widely published in…

Leon Piterman AM is Professor of General Practice at Monash University. In June 2006, he was honoured for service to family medicine. Leon has over 160 publications in refereed journals and co-authored the text, General Practice Psychiatry, which has been translated into Italian and Chinese. He recently published There is a lot of it going…

Lesley Harding is Artistic Director at Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne. She has written a number of books on Australian art and social history, including Margaret Preston: Recipes for Food and Art (2016), and Modern Love: The Lives of John and Sunday Reed (2015) with Kendrah Morgan, which was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s…

Professor Marcia Langton AM is one of Australia’s most important voices for Indigenous Australia. She has worked with the Central Land Council, the Cape York Land Council, and for the 1989 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. Marcia’s book, First Australians (2009), co-authored with Rachel Perkins, was written in conjunction with an SBS documentary…

Margaret Taft is a Research Associate at the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation, Monash University. She is a published author, an experienced researcher, teacher and lecturer. The youngest child of Holocaust survivors, her professional and personal interests lie in the Jewish immigrant experience and the reconstruction of life in the post-war period. Her publications include…

Mark Dapin is the author of Jewish Anzacs: Jews in the Australian Military (2017) which was shortlisted for the Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award Military History Prize. He has written a number of other works of fiction and non-fiction. His crime novel, King of the Cross (2009) won a Ned Kelly Award for…

Mark Raphael Baker is the author of two memoirs: Thirty Days: A Journey To the End of Love a book about grief, marriage and death, and The Fiftieth Gate: A Journey Through Memory, a best-selling and critically acclaimed publication of his parents’ experience during the Holocaust which won a NSW Premier’s Literary Award in 1997. Mark was formerly…

Melissa Kayser is the Publisher for Hardie Grant Travel and has been with the company for 13 years, starting out as a trainee editor. In that time, she has worked on a range of illustrated non-fiction books, including travel guides, photography books, cookbooks and craft titles. In recent years, Melissa has published books by high-profile…

Michael Williams was the Director of the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas in Melbourne from 2011 to 2019, after being hired as the Centre’s Head of Programming on its inception in 2009.

Michelle Kalus is a co-author, with Ali Berg, of the bestselling novels While You Were Reading (2019) and The Book Ninja (2018). She is a co-founder of the popular social enterprise, Books on the Rail and also a primary school teacher.  

Miriam Sved is a Melbourne-based novelist and short story writer. Her second novel, A Universe of Sufficient Size (2019), is a story about genius, friendship, secrets and survival. Miriam has been a contributing editor on three feminist anthologies, including #MeToo: Stories from the Australian movement. Her novella, All the Things I Should’ve Given, was a winner of…

Nevo Zisin is a Jewish, queer, non-binary writer, performer, activist and public speaker. They run workshops in schools and workplaces around transgender identity and authenticity. They are the author of the award-winning Finding Nevo (2017), a memoir on gender transition. Nevo was also a contributor to Kindred: 12 Queer #LoveOzYA Stories (2019). They are a…

Nicki Greenberg is an award-winning author and illustrator. Her books include critically acclaimed adaptations of The Great Gatsby and Hamlet (Winner, CBCA Picture Book of the Year 2011) as well as a wide variety of books for younger readers. Nicki loves surprise twists, crafting stories in verse, and flinging ink about. In her past life,…

Nicola Redhouse is the author of Unlike the Heart: a memoir of brain and mind (2019), which explores, via her personal story, psychoanalysis, the mind/brain divide, and questions of bodily and psychological inheritance. Her essays, opinion pieces and fiction appear widely, including in The Age, The Australian, The Monthly, Meanjin, the Big Issue Fiction Edition…

Nicolas Brasch has extensive experience in the industry as an award-winning author; teacher of professional and creative writing at Swinburne University, RMIT and other institutions; Chair of Writers Victoria; workshop facilitator; owner of a corporate writing business; and many other positions and endeavours. His latest is Director of Melbourne Jewish Book Week – perhaps the…

Since publishing her first collection of short stories in 1987, Orly Castel-Bloom has been a leading voice in Hebrew literature. She has published novels, short story collections and a children’s book. Dolly City (1993) has been included in UNESCO’s Collection of Representative Works, and in 2013, Tablet Magazine listed it as one of the 101 Great Jewish…

Paul Valent, Holocaust survivor, psychiatrist (ret.), and traumatologist, founded and was long-term president of the Child Survivors of the Holocaust, Melbourne. He also co-founded and is past President of the Australasian Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. Paul has published numerous papers, book chapters, and encyclopaedia entries. In Heart of Violence; Why People Harm Each Other (2019),…

Philip Salom has published four novels and fourteen books of poetry. In 2017 his novel, Waiting, was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award, the Prime Minister’s Award and the Victorian Premiers Prize. His 2019 novel is The Returns. Other awards include twice winning the Commonwealth Poetry Book Prize in London, the WA Premier’s Prize (three…

Philippe Sands is Professor of Law at University College London and a practising barrister at Matrix Chambers. He frequently appears before international courts, and has been involved in many of the most important cases of recent years, including Pinochet, Congo, Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Iraq, Guantanamo and the Rohingya of Myanmar. He is the author of Lawless…

Rachael Kohn AO is an author and broadcaster who presented and produced programs on religion, religious history and spirituality for ABC RN from 1992 to 2018. She has also produced award-winning features for television, including The Dead Sea Scrolls (2000). Rachael is the author of two books, The New Believers: Re-imagining God (2003) and Curious Obsessions in the History of Science and…

Rafael Epstein is a journalist who has worked in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Timor, Indonesia, Europe and the Middle East. He has presented the Drive program on ABC radio in Melbourne since 2012. Raphael has covered national elections in Britain, Israel and Australia, and has won Walkley Awards for his reporting on police mistakes in counter-terrorism…

Rebecca Margolis is the new Director and Pratt Foundation Chair of Jewish Civilisation at the Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation. Her research focusses on Yiddish culture and language in immigrant communities and their descendants. Her current project examines an emerging body of new Yiddish cinema produced in the last twenty years.  

Renata Singer is a writer, speaker and educator. Her book, Older & Bolder: Life after 60 (2015) was described as a “rallying cry to live audaciously in the last third of your life,” a sentiment she is doing her best to live by. Renata is the author of the novel, The Front of the Family…

Romi Kupfer is a contemporary theatre maker, director and producer. Her work stems from urgent thoughts, experiences and understandings that happen in her life. Romi’s practice has evolved since 2013 through practical experience collaborating with companies, artists and communities as well as theatre training. She holds a Bachelor of Performing Arts (Honours) from Monash University…

Romy Moshinsky is a memoirist, editor and publisher. Her business, Real Film and Publishing, is committed to publishing non-fiction books with visually engaging, content-driven design. Since 2012, Real has published more than 30 books, many of which have attracted industry acclaim. Releases in 2019 include: Melekh Ravitsh (Anna Epstein, author), My Father’s Daughter (co-authored with…

Since returning to the Bar in 2006, Ron Merkel QC has focused primarily on public interest and indigenous matters, but has also acted in complex matters either as counsel, mediator or arbitrator. He has also conducted courses on international criminal law in India, Berlin and Israel. Ron was awarded the 2011 Human Rights Medal by…

Roz Bellamy is a freelance writer and the online editor at Archer Magazine. Their writing has appeared in a number of collections, including Growing Up Queer in Australia (2019) and Living and Loving in Diversity (2018), The Guardian, Huffington Post, Kill Your Darlings and Meanjin. Roz’s writing was shortlisted for the Scribe Nonfiction Prize and…

Sabine Cotte is a French-Australian paintings conservator who trained in Paris and Rome, and worked for French national museums before moving to Melbourne. She has led several workshops in the Himalayan region for UNESCO, ICCROM and private NGOs, training local people in conservation and in disaster recovery. She is an Honorary Fellow of Melbourne University’s…

Sam Duckor-Jones is a writer and artist from Wellington (NZ). He uses poetry, sculpture and drawing to examine queerness, intimacy and community. His first poetry collection, People From The Pit Stand Up (2018), received wide critical acclaim. He is currently working on a set of new poems that consider creation, narcissism and God. It’s a…

Subhash Jaireth was born in India. He spent nine years in Russia studying geology and Russian literature before migrating to Australia in 1986. He has published poetry and fiction in Hindi, English and Russian and his novel After Love was published in Spain in 2018. His book of essays, Spinoza’s Overcoat: Travels with Writers and…

Suzanne Leal is the author of novels, The Deceptions (2020), The Teacher’s Secret (2016) and Border Street (2006). She is a regular presenter at literary events and festivals, was the senior judge for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards (2017–2019) and is a board director of the Sydney Crime Writers Festival. A lawyer experienced in child protection,…

Suzy Zail left the law to write The Tattooed Flower (2006), an account of how her father survived the Holocaust. Inspired by his war-time experience, Suzy wrote The Wrong Boy (2012), a CBCA shortlisted novel and USBBY Outstanding International Book. Continuing to chase stories about which she cares deeply, she wrote Alexander Altmann A10567 (2014), a…

Tali Lavi is a writer and critic (Australian Book Review, Magpies, Sydney Review of Books). She has interviewed writers for Melbourne Jewish Book Week, Melbourne Writers Festival, Adelaide Writers’ Week and Sydney Jewish Writers Festival. Tali has an MA in Creative Writing (RMIT University). She is Program Manager for Melbourne Jewish Book Week.  

Professor Tim Bonyhady is one of Australia’s foremost environmental and cultural historians. His many books include the award-winning The Colonial Earth (2000), Places Worth Keeping: Conservationists, Politics and Law (1993), Burke and Wills: From Melbourne to Myth (1991), and Images in Opposition: Australian Landscape Painting 1801-1890 (1985). His latest book is The Enchantment of the…

Tony Birch is the recipient of the 2017 Patrick White Literary Award. He is the author of The White Girl (2019), Ghost River (2015), which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Indigenous Writing and Blood (2011), which was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. Tony also authored Shadowboxing (2006) and three short story collections…

Wallace Shawn is an acclaimed American playwright, essayist and actor. He is the author of two collections: Night Thoughts (2017) and Essays (2009). Wallace’s plays have received three Obie Awards (Off-Broadway Theatre Awards) and two have been adapted into films. In 2005 he was honoured with the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation of Theatre Award as…

Rob Selzer was distracted by medical school and then a career in psychiatry before finally testing his writing ability. He freelances, which generates barely enough cash to keep the family pet in dog food, and while winning a British Theatre Challenge, a national playwriting award (OK, it was second place) and a host of other…