Nicole Abadee

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Nicole Abadee is the books writer for Good Weekend Magazine (out in Saturday’s Sydney Morning Herald and The Age)and a regular contributor to its Two of Us articles. Following her first career as a barrister, Nicole moved into the world of books, and she has for many years been a regular interviewer at writers’ festivals including Sydney Writers’ Festival, Adelaide Writers’ Week and Canberra Writers’ Festival, and other literary events. Nicole has been a literary judge, a podcaster, and a regular guest on ABC Radio to discuss books, She is a board member of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.

André Aciman

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André Aciman is The New York Times bestselling author of Call Me By Your Name, Out of Egypt, Eight White Nights, False Papers, Alibis, Harvard Square and Enigma Variations. His latest book is the memoir My Roman Year. He is the editor of The Proust Project and teaches comparative literature at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Jessica Alice

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Jessica Alice is a poet and writer. She is Artistic Director of Byron Writers Festival and formerly CEO of Writers SA. Jessica’s poetry, commentary, and criticism is published in The Guardian Australia, Meanjin, Overland, fine print magazine, The Lifted Brow, Metro Magazine, Cordite Poetry Review, and Australian Poetry Journal, among others. 

Waleed Aly

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Waleed Aly is one of Australia’s most respected and versatile media talents. His writing regularly appears in The Guardian, The Monthly, The Australian, The Australian Financial Review, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. He is the author of What’s Right? The Future of Conservatism in Australia (Quarterly Essay 37). Waleed is a lecturer in politics at Monash University, working in their Global Terrorism Research Centre.

Lainie Anderson

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Lainie Anderson From 2006 to 2023, Lainie was a columnist with Adelaide’s Sunday Mail. In 2019, her novel Long Flight Home was published by Wakefield Press. Her latest book is The Death of Dora Black, a historical murder mystery inspired by the extraordinary life of South Australia’s Kate Cocks, the first policewoman in the British Empire employed on the same salary and with the same powers of arrest as men, and some of the cracking cases she solved. 

Matt Agnew

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Dr Matt Agnew is more than a scientist and a self-confessed nerd – he’s a communications powerhouse making STEM fun and accessible for everyone. He has worn many hats – as engineer, astrophysicist, and artificial intelligence expert – and has become a popular commentator on the latest happenings in the world of science. He lives in Melbourne with his dog Pluto. 

Hossein Asgari

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Hossein Asgari studied physics and creative writing. His short stories have appeared in Splinter, The Suburban Review, Overland, and The Saltbush Review. His first novel, Only Sound Remains, was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards in 2024. He currently works as a postdoctoral researcher at UniSA Creative.

Joe Aston

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Joe Aston wrote the celebrated ‘Rear Window’ column at the AFR for 12 years. Prior to that, he worked in corporate communications, including at Qantas – the subject of his book The Chairman’s Lounge. He lives in Sydney. 

Maiy Azize

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Maiy Azize is the National Spokesperson for Everybody’s Home, a campaign to fix Australia’s housing crisis. Everybody's Home is made up of 500 housing, homeless and welfare organisations, and over 43,000 supporters who have come together to campaign for affordable homes.

Maiy is also the Deputy Director of Anglicare Australia, a network of welfare and caring organisations linked to the Anglican Church.  She has contributed to research for the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute and is a Fellow at the Australian Basic Income Lab. Maiy is the author of Five Ideas Australia Needs Now and Homes for All: A Roadmap to Affordable Housing.

Lisa Bailey

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Dr Lisa Bailey leads the development of exhibitions at MOD., drawing on experience as Program Manager for the Royal Institution of Australia and The Royal Institution of Great Britain. She has a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Adelaide, and is a past president of the Australian Science Communicators Association.

Julia Baird

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Julia Baird is a Sydney-based author and journalist. She writes columns for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and the ABC. She is the former co-host of The Drum on ABC TV and senior editor of Newsweek. Julia’s latest book, Bright Shining, is shortlisted for the Australian Book Industry Award for Non-Fiction Book of the Year. 

Tom Baldwin

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Tom Baldwin has spent most of his life writing about or working in politics, from Westminster to Washington. He began his career on local newspapers before senior roles at the Sunday Telegraph and The Times. He was the Labour Party’s communications director under Ed Miliband and later helped run a mass campaign for a second referendum on Europe. 

Martin Baron

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Martin Baron retired as executive editor of The Washington Post in February 2021, after spending eight years overseeing the paper’s print and digital news operations. In the course of his career, Baron has led newsrooms to 17 Pulitzer Prizes, including 10 awarded to the Post. His career in journalism has been recognised with numerous honours and awards, and he is the recipient of several honorary degrees.

Clem Bastow

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Clem Bastow is a screenwriter and researcher from Naarm/Melbourne. Clem works as a screenwriter, story consultant and neurodiversity consultant for film and TV, most recently for Spooky Files (ABC/BBC). Clem’s debut non-fiction book, Late Bloomer, was published in July 2021, and they are currently co-editing a collection of autistic women and gender-diverse people’s life writing for UQP with Jo Case. Clem lives and works on Wurundjeri land with their dog, Milly. 

Mundanara Bayles

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Mundanara Bayles is an Indigenous Australian speaker, presenter and podcaster. She is Wonnarua and Bunjalung on her maternal side and Birri-Gubba and Gungalu on her paternal. She has been recognised internationally for her teaching and learning skills as an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in the UK, and has formal qualifications in the disciplines of media, business, assessment and training. 

Mandy Beaumont

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Mandy Beaumont is an award-winning writer and a researcher in creative writing. Her debut novel The Furies was long-listed for the prestigious Stella Prize and shortlisted for the MUD Literary Prize as well as the Queensland Literary Awards Fiction Book of the Year. Her collection of short stories, Wild, Fearless Chests, was shortlisted for the Richell Prize and the Dorothy Hewett Award. Stories from the collection also won the MOTH International Short Story Prize and were shortlisted for other notable awards. She was a convenor in creative writing and communications at Griffith University for over a decade, and holds a PhD and a Research Masters in creative writing. She is also a regular feature writer and book reviewer for The Big Issue. Her new crime novel, The Thrill of It, will be out across Australia and New Zealand with Hachette Publishing in March 2025. 

Eric Beecher

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Eric Beecher has had a long career in journalism, media and publishing. He was appointed as the youngest-ever editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and later as editor-in-chief of the Melbourne Herald. He then became an independent media owner, launching several media and publishing start-up companies. He is currently Chair of and the largest shareholder in Private Media, owner of several Australian news websites including Crikey. 

Allan Behm

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Allan Behm is Special Advisor, International Political Affairs at The Australia Institute in Canberra. He specialises in international and security policy analysis and development. In 2022 he published No Enemies No Friends: Restoring Australia’s Global Relevance, a critical examination of what limits Australia as an actor on the international stage. His latest book, The Odd Couple, offers a similarly challenging take on the Australia–United States partnership. 

Larissa Behrendt

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Larissa Behrendt is a Euahleyai/Gamillaroi woman – an award winning author and an award winning filmmaker. She is the author of several books and writes and directs for film and television. She is also a lawyer and an academic based at the University of Technology Sydney. She is the host of Speaking Out on ABC Radio. 

Peter Beinart

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Peter Beinart is an American journalist, political commentator, and professor of journalism and political science at the City University of New York. Known for thought-provoking perspectives on US foreign policy, Zionism and American politics, Beinart is a regular contributor to The New York Times, a CNN political commentator, and editor-at-large at Jewish Currents. He has also authored several books, including The Good Fight and The Crisis of Zionism. 

Alina Bellchambers

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Alina Bellchambers grew up in her family’s bookstore and spent a childhood immersed in fantastical worlds. She now writes romantic fantasies featuring fierce female protagonists, morally grey characters, magic and seductive court politics. She has a psychology degree from Flinders University.

Matt Bevan

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Matt Bevan is the host and writer of the award-winning ABC News podcast If You're Listening. He has been a journalist at the ABC since 2008 and spent six years as newsreader for Radio National Breakfast. In 2022 he was awarded Podcast Host of the Year by Radio Today. In 2023 he was nominated for a Walkley Award for Explanatory Journalism. 

Brooke Boland

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Brooke Boland is an arts journalist with a PhD in contemporary women’s writing. Her essays have been published in Meanjin, Overland, Sydney Review of Books, The Guardian and elsewhere. 

Josh Bornstein

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Josh Bornstein is a Principal Lawyer at Maurice Blackburn, based in Melbourne. He is the national head of the firm’s Employment and Industrial Law department. Josh is one of the most respected employment lawyers in the country, as evidenced by his position as a Preeminent Lawyer for Victoria and Australia on the industry-recognised Doyle’s Guide. Corporate power is the subject of his new book Working for the Brand. 

Mike Bowers

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Mike Bowers found his love of photography while still at school. One of his teachers told him that he would never be any good at anything so he should work hard at photography - advice that he took to heart. He is Guardian Australia's photographer-at-large.

Dan Box

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Dan Box is a Walkley Award-winning journalist who has worked for The Australian, as well as London's The Sunday Times and the BBC. 

Steve Bracks

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Steve Bracks was one of Victoria’s most successful premiers, winning three consecutive elections and achieving record majorities in 2002 and 2006, before retiring from parliament on 27 July 2007. In May 2021 he was appointed Chancellor of Victoria University. He also chairs Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, the Melbourne Cricket Ground Trust, and The Shannon Company. In May 2023 he was awarded Timor-Leste’s highest civilian honour, the Collar of the Order of Timor-Leste, by President José Ramos Horta. 

Christine Breen

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Christine Breen had her first novel, Her Name Is Rose, published when she was 60. Her second novel, Accidents, is finished but not yet published. Her month-by-month account of life in her garden, In Kiltumper: A Year in an Irish Garden, was published by Bloomsbury in 2021. 

Anna Broinowski

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Anna Broinowski is a filmmaker and writer who documents counter-cultural subjects. Her films include Hell Bento!! (about Japanese subcultures), Forbidden Lie$ (about hoax-author Norma Khouri) and Aim High in Creation! (about North Korean cinema). In 2017 she published Please Explain: The Rise, Fall and Rise Again of Pauline Hanson. Her latest book is Datsun Angel. 

Geraldine Brooks

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Geraldine Brooks is an author and journalist. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her 2005 novel March. Her novels Caleb’s Crossing, People of the Book and The Secret Chord were New York Times bestsellers, and Year of Wonders was an international bestseller, translated into more than 25 languages. Her new book, Memorial Days, is a memoir centred on the loss of her husband, Tony Horwitz. 

Rachael Brown

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Rachael Brown is an investigative journalist with the ABC, based in Melbourne. She started her career as the ABC’s Melbourne cadet in 2002, and has since held several postings, including Europe correspondent (2010-2013). Rachael is the creator, investigator and host of the ABC’s pioneer true-crime podcast Trace. Rachael’s review of the 1980 cold case of Maria James spared a new coronial inquest, and she published a book on the case.

Trace Season 2, The Informer, tells the story of defence-barrister-turned police-informer Nicola Gobbo, with whom Rachael secured the world exclusive interview. Rachael is a three-time Walkley-Award winner. She’s taken up the role of Development Executive – True Crime, and is developing and producing true crime projects across Audio podcast) and Screen (documentary)

Nick Bryant

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Nick Bryant has come to be regarded as one of the BBC’s finest foreign correspondents over a career spanning almost 30 years. He has been posted in Washington, South Asia, Australia and, most recently, New York, where he covered Trump’s first term. His writing has appeared in The Economist, The Washington Post, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Monthly and The New Statesman, and he broadcasts regularly on the BBC and ABC. The Forever War is his new book on America’s internal conflict. 

Tobias Buck

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Tobias Buck is the Managing Editor of the Financial Times. Born in Germany, he studied law in Berlin before joining the FT as a graduate trainee in 2002. He went on to serve as the FT’s correspondent in Brussels, Jerusalem, Madrid and Berlin. His first book, After the Fall: Crisis, Recovery and the Making of a New Spain, was published in 2019, and his new book is Final Verdict.

Richard Buckham

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Richard Buckham worked for many years at the ABC, starting as a radio producer in the early 1980s. He spent a year in London with the BBC in 1989. After working in theatre and opera in the 90s, he returned to the ABC where he was arts editor at Radio National, manager of ABC Classic for nine years, and head of Arts until 2020.

Anne Buist

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Anne Buist is Chair of Women’s Mental Health at the University of Melbourne and author of the psychological thrillers Medea’s Curse, Dangerous to Know and This I Would Kill For. 

Sian Cain

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Sian Cain is a journalist and editor who has written for publications including The Guardian, The Irish Times and Yahoo News UK. Sian covers a wide range of topics, including literature, music, film and celebrity news. Her articles provide insightful and engaging perspectives on current events and trends in the entertainment industry. 

Deborah Callaghan

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Deborah Callaghan worked as an interstate train stewardess, a librarian and a freelance journalist before starting a 35-year publishing career as a book publicist, publisher and literary agent. Her story ‘Small Details of Travel’ was longlisted for the 2024 ABR Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize, and her debut novel is The Little Clothes. 

Mike Carlton

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Mike Carlton is one of Australia’s best-known media figures, working on the ABC’s groundbreaking This Day Tonight current affairs program in the 1970s. His radio satire on current affairs, Friday News Review, was ‘must listening’ in Australia and the UK, and for many years he wrote a popular weekly column for The Sydney Morning Herald. Mike has had a lifelong passion for naval history and is the author of Cruiser, First Victory, Flagship, The Scrap Iron Flotilla and, most recently, Dive!. 

Peter Carnavas

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Peter Carnavas writes and illustrates books for children. He has made many picture books, such as The Children Who Loved Books, Last Tree in the City and A Quiet Girl. His novel The Elephant won a Queensland Literary Award and was shortlisted in four other national awards. He has won an Australian Book Industry Award and a SCBWI Crystal Kite Award, and his books have been published widely across the world. Peter's latest book, My Brother Ben, won the 2022 Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children's Literature at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, was shortlisted at the 2022 Speech Pathology Book of the Year Awards, longlisted for the 2022 Australian Book Industry Award's Book of the Year for Younger Children, and was a 2022 CBCA Notable. Peter lives on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, with his wife, two daughters, a dog and a cat. 

Bob Carr

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Bob Carr is an Australian retired politician and journalist who served as the 39th premier of New South Wales from 1995 to 2005. He later entered federal politics as a NSW senator and served as minister for foreign affairs from 2012 to 2013. 

Kim Carr

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Kim Carr is a former Australian senator whose career spanned nearly three decades. Prior to entering politics, Carr graduated from the University of Melbourne and worked as a schoolteacher for nine years before becoming a political staffer for Victorian Government ministers Joan Kirner and Andrew McCutcheon. Carr joined the Labor Party in 1975. 

Jo Case

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Jo Case is a writer, editor and critic who lives in Adelaide. She is deputy editor, Books & Ideas at The Conversation and has worked in various roles in books and publishing, including as a publisher, festival programmer and literary editor. She is co-editor, with Clem Bastow, of Someone Like Me: An Anthology of Non-Fiction by Autistic Writers (UQP, 2025). Her memoir of autistic motherhood is Boomer and Me (Hardie Grant, 2013). 

Brian Castro

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Brian Castro is the author of 11 novels, including Birds Of Passage (1983), Double-Wolf (1991), After China (1992), Stepper (1997), Shanghai Dancing (2003) and The Garden Book (2006). In 2014 he received the Patrick White Award in recognition of his significant contribution to Australian literature. His latest book is Chinese Postman, a novel released by Giramondo in 2024. 

Gina Chick

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Gina Chick is a rewilding facilitator, adventurer, writer and speaker who has now published the memoir We Are the Stars. Writing is in Gina Chick’s genes. Her grandmother, Charmian Clift, was an author, essayist, and Australia’s first female columnist in the early 1960s. Gina’s mum, Suzanne Chick, wrote Searching for Charmian after finally discovering her own mother’s identity at age 48. 

Anna Clark

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Anna Clark is a historian and public commentator based at the Australian Centre for Public History at the University of Technology Sydney. Her recent book, Making Australian History, was published by Penguin in 2022 and was longlisted for a Walkley Award and an NIB Literary Award. She is also the creator of the successful podcast for primary schools, Hey History! 

Miranda Cowley Heller

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Miranda Cowley Heller grew up in New York City in a family of writers and artists. Her literary novel, The Paper Palace (Riverhead, Random House/Viking Penguin UK ), debuted at number one on The New York Times Bestseller list, was on the Sunday Times bestseller list in Britain, has won multiple awards including the Nielsen Gold and was long listed for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. To date, The Paper Palace has been translated into 35 languages. Her upcoming collection of poetry, What the Deep Water Knows, will be published in May 2025 by Viking Penguin UK. Miranda divides her time between Los Angeles, London and Cape Cod.

Annabel Crabb

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Annabel Crabb is an ABC writer and presenter who has covered Australian politics for nearly 25 years as a news reporter and columnist. She was the creator and presenter of MS Represented, and she has written and presented the documentary series Kitchen Cabinet for seven seasons on ABC TV. She is also a regular commentator across the ABC’s radio network and is a regular face on ABC TV’s election night and budget broadcasts. 

John Crace

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John Crace is a staff feature writer for The Guardian, where he is best known for the literary pastiche ‘Digested Read’. He has also written several books, including Vertigo: One Football Fan’s Fear of Success. His latest book is Taking the Lead, on post-Brexit Britain. A committed Spurs supporter, he lives in south-west London but travels to N17 for every home game. 

Tania Crampton-Larking

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Tania Crampton-Larking is a proud Mirning woman who writes to inspire others to connect with Nature's vibrant, timeless beauty. She seeks to promote caring values that are opposed to destructive ignorance and racism. She is passionate about fighting for the preservation and restoration of Earth's healthy natural systems, and for a future that is safe, magical and sacred for all. 

Barbara Creed

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Barbara Creed is Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Melbourne She is an author, filmmaker, and a founding member of gay liberation in Melbourne. She has written eight books including The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis, Stray: Human-Animal Ethics in The Anthropocene and Return of the Monstrous-Feminine: Feminist New Wave Cinema. She was film critic for The Age, and ABC radio and on the boards of Writers Week, the VCA Film School and the Melbourne Queer Film Festival.  Barbara has been invited to participate in research events at the Courtauld Institute, the Cultural Programs of the National Academy of the Sciences (US) and The Freud Museum, London.

Carody Culver

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Carody Culver is the editor of Griffith Review. She was a contributing editor for Peppermint magazine and has written for publications including Kill Your Darlings, The Lifted Brow and Books+Publishing. Her chapbook The Morgue I Think the Deader It Gets was published by Cordite in 2022, and she has been a featured Australian poet on the Best American Poetry blog. 

Debra Dank

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Debra Dank is a Gudanji/Wakaja woman, married to Rick, with three adult children and two grandchildren. An educator, she has worked in teaching and learning for many years - a gift given through the hard work of her parents. She continues to experience the privilege of living with country and with family. Debra completed her PhD in Narrative Theory and Semiotics at Deakin University in 2021. 

Mark Dapin

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Mark Dapin is an acclaimed journalist, author, screenwriter and historian. He is the author of King of the Cross, which won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction. His latest work, on Australian military myths, is Lest. Mark holds a doctorate in military history. He worked as consultant producer on Network Seven TV show Armed and Dangerous, and as screenwriter on Stan’s Wolf Creek 2. 

Michelle de Kretser

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Michelle de Kretser was born in Sri Lanka and now lives in Warrane/Sydney on unceded Gadigal land. An honorary associate of the English Department at the University of Sydney, she has won several awards for her fiction. Theory and Practice is her seventh novel. 

Richard Denniss

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Richard Denniss is the Executive Director at The Australia Institute. He is a prominent Australian economist, author and public policy commentator. Formerly a regular columnist for Australian Financial Review and The Guardian, he has published six books, including Econobabble, Curing Affluenza, Dead Right: How Neoliberalism Ate Itself and What Comes Next? and Big: The Role of the State in the Modern Economy.

Robert Dessaix

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Robert Dessaix is best known as a writer of literary non-fiction, as embodied by his new book of memories, Chameleon, but he has also published two novels, several short stories and one play. His passions, as is evident in all his writing, are travel and language. Robert is the recipient of the 2022 Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature. 

Ceridwen Dovey

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Ceridwen Dovey is an Australian fiction writer, creative non-fiction writer, science writer and filmmaker based in Sydney. She went to Harvard University on scholarship as an undergraduate and did her postgraduate studies in social anthropology at New York University. Her debut novel, Blood Kin, was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Award. Her most recent book of stories is Only the Astronauts. 

Winnie Dunn

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Winnie Dunn is a writer of Tongan descent from Mount Druitt. She is the general manager of Sweatshop Literacy Movement and the editor of several critically acclaimed anthologies, including Sweatshop Women, Australia’s first and only publication produced entirely by women of colour. Her work has been published in the Sydney Review of Books, The Saturday Paper, Griffith Review and Meanjin. 

Astrid Edwards

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Astrid Edwards is a teacher, interviewer and critic. Her PhD at the University of Melbourne investigates potential barriers to publishing and selling climate fiction in Australia. She hosts The Garret, a podcast exploring the Australian publishing industry, and teaches in the Associate Degree of Professional Writing and Editing at RMIT University. She is the former Chair of Melbourne Writers Festival. 

Abbas El-Zein

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Abbas El-Zein, born and raised in Beirut, was twelve years old when the Lebanese civil war broke out in 1975. His novel Tell the Running Water is set in Beirut and tells the intersecting stories of two young men and a woman coming to terms with the violence around them, while his memoir Leave to Remain is an autobiographical meditation on war, identity and East–West relations. His latest book is Bullet, Paper, Rock: A Memoir of Words and Wars. 

Tylissa Elisara

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Tylissa Elisara is a children's social worker who lives and works in Meanjin (Brisbane) with her husband and children. She descends from the Narungga, Kaurna and Adnyamathanha people of South Australia and was born and raised on Mamu Country in Innisfail, Queensland - a heritage, alongside her Irish ancestry, that she proudly regards as a long legacy of storytelling. Tylissa is studying a Master of Writing, Editing and Publishing at the University of Queensland. Wurrtoo is her first novel. 

Anton Enus

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Anton Enus has been presenting SBS World News for the past 25 years. Before migrating from South Africa in 1999, he worked at the national broadcaster there in radio and television as a reporter, producer and political correspondent. Outside of work, he has run more than forty marathons and is an ambassador for Bowel Cancer Australia, having himself survived this killer cancer. 

Gareth Evans

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Gareth Evans AC was a Cabinet minister in the Hawke and Keating Labor governments, including as Attorney-General and Foreign Minister, from 1983 to 1996, and from 2000 to 2009 he was president and CEO of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group. He has written or edited 14 books, including Good International Citizenship: The Case for Decency (2022), Incorrigible Optimist: A Political Memoir (2017) and The Responsibility to Protect: Ending Mass Atrocity Crimes Once and For All(2008). 

Kate Evans

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Kate Evans has a PhD in history and too many books – she regrets neither. She has worked in publishing, universities, TV and radio, and joined Radio National in 1997. In recent years she has specialised in interviews with authors on Books and Arts, Books Plus and The Bookshelf, which she co-hosts with Cassie McCullagh. 

Marc Fennell

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Marc Fennell is a Walkley-winning journalist and documentary maker. He is the creator of the popular TV series and podcast Stuff the British Stole, and he is also seen each weeknight as the quizmaster of SBS TV’s iconic game show Mastermind. Marc has also written two books and has appeared on ABC’s The Drum and SBS’s Dateline. He has presented the technology program Download this Show on ABC Radio since 2012. 

Sarah Ferguson

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Sarah Ferguson is the presenter of the ABC’s 7.30. She has won four Walkleys, including the Gold Walkley in 2011, the Melbourne Press Club Gold Quill Award, four Logies for most outstanding public affairs report, the George Munster Award for Independent Journalism and the Queensland Premier's Literary Award. She is the author of The Killing Season and On Mother. 

Jeremy Fernandez

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Jeremy Fernandez is a journalist and producer with the ABC, and is one of the country’s most experienced live news & events anchors. He’s presented some of the network’s most complex broadcasts over two decades, including coverage of successive Australian and American elections, the death of Queen Elizabeth, the Black Summer bushfires, Sydney’s Mardi Gras parade, and the Australian Of The Year Awards. Jeremy regularly appears on ABC television and streaming services, is the lead anchor of the ABC NSW 7PM News and co-host of the podcast Not Stupid. 

Richard Fidler

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Richard Fidler presents Conversations with Richard Fidler, an in-depth, up close and personal interview program broadcast across Australia on ABC Radio. He is also the author of the bestselling Ghost Empire, a history of the lost civilisation of Byzantium, and co-author of Saga Land, the story of the great sagas of Iceland. Richard’s most recent book is The Golden Maze: A Biography of Prague.

Orlando Figes

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Orlando Figes is a Professor of History. Previously, he was a lecturer in history and fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. His book A People’s Tragedy received a number of awards, and he is the author of many other books on Russian history.

Prudence Flowers

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Dr Prudence Flowers is a Senior Lecturer in US History at Flinders University and the current President of the Australian and New Zealand American Studies Association. Her historical research focuses on social movements and activism, modern conservatism, and gender and sexuality, particularly the politics of abortion. Her forthcoming book The Reagan Revolution analyses the Reagan presidency and the history of conservatism in the United States from the 1960s to the 2020s.  She is author of The Right-to-Life Movement, the Reagan Administration, and the Politics of Abortion (Palgrave 2018).

Farrin Foster

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Farrin Foster is an editor, journalist, writer and film-maker. She is currently the founding editor of Splinter literary journal, and was previously the editor of independent masthead CityMag. In her early career, Farrin worked as a reporter at traditional media outlets and as a freelance writer she has published with titles like The Guardian, Kill Your Darlings, and The Big Issue. 

Lauren Fuge

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Lauren Fuge is an award-winning science writer who is currently undertaking a PhD exploring creative forms of climate communication. She won the magazine category of the 2023 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Awards and the 2022 UNSW Bragg Prize for Science Writing. Her writing features regularly in the Best Australian Science Writing anthology. Fuge holds a Bachelor of Creative Arts in Creative Writing and a Bachelor of Science in Experimental and Theoretical Physics. 

Zeynab Gamieldien

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Zeynab Gamieldien is the inaugural winner of the 2022 Westwords/Ultimo Prize. Her work has been shortlisted for the Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction and featured in publications such as The Sydney Morning Herald’s ‘Daily Life’ section and the Australian Muslim Times. The Scope of Permissibility, a coming-of-age story, is her first novel. 

Ross Garnaut

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Ross Garnaut is the professorial research fellow in economics at the University of Melbourne. He has held senior roles in universities, business, government and other Australian and international institutions. In 2008 he produced the Garnaut Climate Change Review for the Australian Government. He is the author of many books, including the bestselling Dog Days, Superpower and Reset. 

Helen Garner

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Helen Garner writes novels, stories, screenplays and works of non-fiction. In 2006 she received the inaugural Melbourne Prize for Literature, and in 2016 she won the prestigious Windham–Campbell Literature Prize for non-fiction. In 2019 she was honoured with the Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature. Her books include Monkey Grip, The First Stone and Yellow Notebook. Her latest work of non-fiction is The Season. 

Nikki Gemmell

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Nikki Gemmell is the bestselling author of 13 novels and four works of non-fiction, and her books have been translated into 22 languages. Her best-known work is the 2003 novel The Bride Stripped Bare, an explicit exploration of female sexuality. Gemmell pens a weekly column for The Australian and also writes novels for children. 

Tigest Girma

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Tigest Girma is an Ethiopian writer based in Melbourne, Australia. After graduating with a Bachelor of Education, she splits her time between writing and teaching. Passionate about exploring East African characters and myths, her work weaves Black stories with the dark and fantastical. In her free time, she can be found rewatching her comfort shows where the villain gets the girl. She invites you to visit her at tigestgirma.com or tiktok.com/tigestgirma. Immortal Dark is her debut novel. 

Georgina Godwin

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Georgina Godwin grew up in Zimbabwe, where she became well known for her work in the media as a radio and TV host, and a columnist and features writer. She is an experienced arts and culture interviewer, recording conversations with people in the creative industries for a diverse range of media outlets. For the online arm of Monocle magazine, Georgina anchors current affairs program The Globalist, and she is a frequent presenter of The Monocle Daily. 

Jane Godwin

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Jane Godwin is a highly acclaimed author of over forty books for children, across all styles and ages. Her work is published internationally and she has received many commendations. Jane spends as much time as she can working with young people in schools and communities, running various literature and writing programs, making books and encouraging students in their own creative ventures.
Jane lives in Melbourne with her family.

Peter Godwin

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Peter Godwin is the author of six non-fiction books, including Mukiwa, which received the George Orwell Prize and the Esquire-Apple-Waterstones award, and When a Crocodile Eats the Sun. His book The Fear was selected by The New Yorker as a best book of the year. His most recent book is the memoir Exit Wounds. He has taught writing at Wesleyan and Columbia, and served as president of the PEN American Center.

Sophie Gonzales

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Sophie Gonzales is a YA contemporary author. She graduated from the University of Adelaide and lives in Adelaide, Australia. When she isn't writing, she can be found ice skating, performing in musical theatre, and practicing the piano. 

Daisy Goodwin

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Daisy Goodwin has worked as a TV producer and presenter on productions such as Reader I Married Him, Bookworm and The Nation’s Favourite Poems. She is also the creator of Grand Designs and the hit ITV drama Victoria, which has been sold to 134 countries. She has edited numerous poetry anthologies and is the author of the memoir Silver River as well as four novels, the most recent of which is Diva. 

Alyx Gorman

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Alyx Gorman attended her first demonstration in-utero; her parents, both avowed Marxists, met through the union movement. Alyx rebelled against her red nappy upbringing by becoming a lifestyle journalist. She has written for ELLE, Quartz and The Sydney Morning Herald, and is currently Editorial Director of Time Out Australia and Fashion Editor of The Saturday Paper. 

Erin Gough

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Erin Gough is a Sydney-based writer whose award-winning novels for young adults have been published internationally. Her first novel, The Flywheel, won the Hardie Grant Ampersand Prize, and her second, Amelia Westlake, was winner of the Readings Young Adult Book Prize and the NSW Premier's Ethel Turner Prize for Young Adult Fiction. Erin’s short fiction has appeared in journals and anthologies including The Griffith Review, Kindred: 12 Queer #LoveOzYA Stories, and Best Australian Stories. Into the Mouth of the Wolf is her third novel. 

Stan Grant

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Stan Grant is a writer, journalist and historian, and the author of four bestselling books. He is one of Australia’s most prominent writers about identity, nationhood and belonging. His latest book is Murriyang, in which he shares the things that have shaped him. 

Jonathan Green

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Jonathan Green has been an editor, writer, commentator and broadcaster in a 40-year career as a journalist, beginning with a cadetship at The Canberra Times and including 15 years at The Age. He is the author of Around Australia in 80 Days (2004) and The Year My Politics Broke (2013). He has been editor of literary quarterly Meanjin since 2015, and he presents Blueprint for Living on ABC Radio National. 

Alice Grundy

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Dr Alice Grundy is Managing Editor of Australia Institute Press and a research manager at the Australia Institute. She has worked in book publishing for over fifteen years before researching a PhD at ANU on publishing and editing history. The first half of her PhD was published by Cambridge University Press, Editing Fiction (2022), and her essays, articles and reviews have appeared in the Canberra Times, Sydney Review of Books, The Conversation and Griffith Review. 

Sarah Hanson-Young

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Sarah Hanson-Young has been a senator for South Australia since 2008 and has worked hard to represent her home state and give a voice to those often forgotten about in Canberra. Sarah acts as the Greens spokesperson for arts and communications, and environment and water. In 2008, Sarah published her work En Garde, which sparked a national conversation about sexism in Australian politics. 

Nick Harkaway

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Nick Harkaway was born in Cornwall in 1972. Author of the novels The Gone-Away World, Angelmaker and Tigerman, he lives in London with his wife and two children. 

Natalie Harkin

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Natalie Harkin is a Narungga woman and activist-poet from South Australia. She is a Senior Research Fellow at Flinders University with an interest in decolonising state archives. She engaged archival-poetic methods to research and document Aboriginal women’s domestic service and labour histories in SA, which resulted in her new work Apron-Sorrow / Sovereign-Tea. 

Wendy Harmer

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Wendy Harmer is one of Australia's most versatile and much-loved entertainers – broadcaster, author, journalist and stage performer. Wendy is also the author of eight books for adults including her bestselling novels Farewell My Ovaries, Love and Punishment and Nagging for Beginners, a 'how-to' guide for women. She has also written two teen novels and multiple books for children in the Pearlie in the Park series. 

Eliza Harvey

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Eliza Harvey has more than a decade of experience in journalism. She has spent most of her professional life reporting on politics for the ABC as well as hosting programs on the television News Channel. She’s also worked as a freelance journalist in Jakarta and now lives and works in Beirut.

Rebecca Heath

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Rebecca Heath studied science at university, worked in hospitality and teaching, but she always carved out time to write. She lives in Adelaide, Australia, halfway between the city and the sea with her husband, three children and a much-loved border collie. Her debut adult novel, The Summer Party was released in 2023 by Head of Zeus, followed by The Dinner Party in 2024 and The Wedding Party in 2025. 

Anita Heiss

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Anita Heiss is an internationally published, award-winning author of 23 books ranging across non-fiction, historical fiction, commercial women’s fiction and children’s novels. She is a proud member of the Wiradyuri Nation of central New South Wales, an Ambassador for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation and the GO Foundation, and Professor of Communications at the University of Queensland. Her latest historical novel is Dirrayawadha. 

Lia Hills

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Lia Hills is an award-winning poet, novelist and translator whose work has been published and translated around the world. Her novels have been nominated for numerous state premiers awards, the Miles Franklin and the NZ Book Awards. Her latest novel, The Desert Knows Her Name, was written in consultation with the Barengi Gadgin Land Council and other Wimmera communities. She lives and works on Wurundjeri Country. 

Anthony Horowitz

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Bestselling author Anthony Horowitz has written two highly acclaimed Sherlock Holmes novels, The House of Silk and Moriarty; two James Bond novels, Trigger Mortis and Forever and a Day; five Detective Hawthorne novels, and the acclaimed bestselling mystery novels Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders. 

He is also the author of the teen spy Alex Rider series, and responsible for creating and writing some of the UK's most loved and successful TV series, including Midsomer Murders and Foyle's War. In January 2014 he was awarded an OBE for his services to literature. 

Jane Howard

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Jane Howard is a Walkley award-winning journalist and Arts and Culture Editor of The Conversation. Her writing has appeared in publications including the ABC, The Guardian, Meanjin and The Sydney Morning Herald, and she sits on the board of Writers SA. Jane’s artistic work explores writing in collaborative digital spaces; and her research work has primarily looked at the status of women in the arts. She is currently writing her first book. 

Jackie Huggins

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Jackie Huggins AM FAHA, a member of the Bidjara and Birri Gubba Juru peoples, is currently leading the work for treaty/treaties in Queensland. She is a well-known historian and author, with articles published widely in Australia and internationally. Her acclaimed biography of her mother, Auntie Rita, was published in 1994, and the biography of her father, Jack of Hearts: QX11594, was published in 2022. 

Bettany Hughes

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Bettany Hughes is an award-winning historian, author and broadcaster. Her books include Venus and Aphrodite: History of a Goddess, Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities, The Hemlock Cup: Socrates, Athens and the Search For The Good Life and Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore. Among her numerous awards are the Medlicott Medal for services to history, Europe’s Cultural Heritage Prize, and an OBE for services to history. 

Rebecca Huntley

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Rebecca Huntley is Director of Research at 89 Degrees East and a fellow of the Research Society of Australia. She has authored several books, including How to Talk about Climate Change in a Way that Makes a Difference and, most recently, her memoir Sassafras. 

Tania Ingram

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Born in Whyalla and moving to Adelaide in her teens, Tania Ingram became a child psychologist before taking a break to spend more time with her family, which was when she began writing stories for children. Her Jinny and Cooper series evolved from Tania's daughter begging her to write a story about a magical guinea pig. Oma's Buttons was inspired by the special relationship between Tania's own daughter and her Oma. Tania lives in the Adelaide hills with her family. 

Howard Jacobson

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Howard Jacobson has written 16 novels and five works of non-fiction. He won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Award in 2000 for The Mighty Walzer and then again in 2013 for Zoo Time. In 2010 he won the Man Booker Prize for The Finkler Question; he was also shortlisted for the prize in 2014 for J. Who Will Survive of Us? is his latest book. 

Michelle Johnston

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Dr Michelle Johnston is a consultant Emergency Physician who works at an inner-city hospital. Mostly her days consist of trauma and mess. Also, she writes. 

She studied medicine at UWA, and gained her Fellowship with the Australian College for Emergency Medicine in 1998. 

She believes there is a beating heart of humanity, art, and beauty within the sometimes brutal reality of the Emergency Department, and she has dedicated her career to finding that sweet spot between creativity and critical care medicine. 

Books are her other oxygen, and writing her sustenance. 

Jannali Jones

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Jannali Jones is a Krowathunkoolong woman of the Gunai nation. She holds a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Technology, Sydney. Jannali was the winner of the 2015 black&write! Indigenous Writing Fellowship and an inaugural recipient of Magabala's Australian Indigenous Creator Scholarship. 

Sarah Kanowski

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Sarah Kanowski studied English at the University of Oxford, where she wrote a thesis on the Mosley family. In Hobart she edited the literary magazine Island, until sun and grandparents beckoned her back to Brisbane. She has presented Books and Arts on Radio National and currently presents Conversations twice-weekly. 

Amie Kaufman

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Amie Kaufman is a New York Times and internationally bestselling author of science fiction and fantasy. Her multi-award-winning work has been translated into nearly thirty languages, and is in development for film and TV. 

Raised in Australia and occasionally Ireland, Amie has degrees in history, literature, law and conflict resolution, and is currently undertaking a PhD in Creative Writing. She’s the host of podcasts Amie Kaufman on Writing, and Pub Dates. 

Amie lives by the sea in Melbourne, Australia, with her family and an extremely large personal library. Her latest book is the fantasy adventure The Isles of the Gods. 

Fran Kelly

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Fran Kelly has been chief political correspondent for the AM and PM programs, political editor of The 7.30 Report and the ABC’s Europe correspondent, based in London. In 2005 she became the host of Radio National’s agenda-setting Breakfast program, a seat she filled until 2021. Fran created and co-presents The Party Room podcast with Patricia Karvelas and presents Saturday Extra on Radio National. 

Chris Kennett

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Chris Kennett has been drawing ever since he could hold a pencil (or so his mum says). But professionally, Chris has been creating quirky characters for just over 20 years. He's best known for drawing weird and wonderful creatures from the Star Wars universe, and his School of Monsters and Nerd Herd series. 

Mark Kenny

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Mark Kenny has been a panellist on the ABC's Insiders program for a dozen years. A widely read political columnist unafraid to turn his ire on journalism itself, he joined the Australian National University in 2019 after 6 years as chief political correspondent and national affairs editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, and The Canberra Times. Before that, Kenny was national political editor at The Advertiser. He has appeared in the New York Times, BBC, Al Jazeera and CNN and hosts the popular Democracy Sausage podcast. 

Andrew Knight

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Andrew Knight is one of Australia’s most successful and prolific film and television writer/producers. His writing and producing highlights, include Hacksaw Ridge, The Water Diviner, Ali’s Wedding, Spotswood, Rake (five series), Jack Irish, SeaChange, The Broken Shore, Bay of Fires, After the Deluge, My Brother Jack, Kangaroo Palace,Tripping Over, The Fast Lane and many others. He was head writer, producer and executive producer of the hit comedy shows Fast Forward, Full Frontal and D Generation. He has won 42 industry awards for his shows and 9 awards for his writing. He is a Longford Lyell Award, the Australian film industry’s highest honour. 

Malcolm Knox

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Malcolm Knox has written for The Sydney Morning Herald since 1994 and has won three Walkleys and a Human Rights Award. His novels include Summerland; A Private Man, winner of the Ned Kelly Award; Jamaica, which won the Colin Roderick Award and was shortlisted in the 2008 Prime Minister’s Literary Awards; and his latest work, black comedy The First Freind. His many non-fiction titles include Boom: The Underground History of Australia and Bradman’s War. 

Alan Kohler

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Alan Kohler is the Editor in Chief of InvestSMART group, and founder of The Constant Investor which was sold to InvestSMART in December 2018. Alan is also currently business editor at large of The Australian, finance presenter on ABC News and adjunct professor in the business faculty of Victoria University. Apart from all that, Alan enjoys being part of a monthly book club and walking Maisy the Labrador along the beach. His new book The Great Divide tackles Australia’s housing crisis.

Finegan Kruckemeyer

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Finegan Kruckemeyer was born in Ireland and now lives in Adelaide. He is an award-winning playwright, whose works have been performed on six continents and in eight languages. The End and Everything Before It is his first novel. 

Hanif Kureishi

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Hanif Kureishi was nominated for an Oscar for the screenplay of the 1984 film My Beautiful Laundrette, while his screenplays for The Mother (2003) and Venus (2006) were both directed by Roger Michell. The Buddha of Suburbia (1990) won the Whitbread Prize for Best First Novel, and his first collection of short stories, Love in a Blue Time, appeared in 1997. He has also written non-fiction, including his memoir My Ear at His Heart: Reading My Father (2004). His works have been translated into 36 languages. 

Royce Kurmelovs

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Royce Kurmelovs is an Australian freelance reporter and author covering the intersection of class, finance and climate change. He is the author of critically acclaimed books covering inequality and the finance industry, the decline of automotive manufacturing in Australia, the rise of the far right, and the mining boom. His fifth book, SLICK, was released in July 2024. 

Rachel Kushner

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Rachel Kushner is the author of the novels Creation Lake, The Mars Room, The Flamethrowers and Telex from Cuba; a book of short stories, The Strange Case of Rachel K; and The Hard Crowd: Essays 2000–2020. She has won the Prix Médicis and been a finalist for the Booker Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and (twice) the National Book Award in Fiction. She is a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow and the recipient of the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. 

Matthew Lamb

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Matthew Lamb the author of Frank Moorhouse: Strange Paths (2023), the first in a projected two-volume biography. A former editor of Review of Australian Fiction and Island magazines, he has two PhDs, in Literature and Philosophy, respectively. He received the Hazel Rowley Literary Fellowship in 2016.

Tom Lamont

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Tom Lamont is an award-winning journalist. In 2015 he became one of the founding writers on The Guardian’s ‘Long Read’ desk, and since 2017 he has been a regular correspondent for American GQ. He lives in north London with his wife and two children. Going Home is his first novel. 

Meshel Laurie

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Meshel Laurie is a comedian and radio and television personality. She is a regular panellist on The Project, and has also appeared on Spicks and Specks, Good News Week and Rove. She is the author of The Fence-Painting Fortnight of Destiny, Buddhism for Break-ups and Buddhism for the Unbelievably Busy, and produces and hosts two of Australia's most downloaded podcasts, Australian True Crime and The Nitty Gritty Committee.

Cheryl Leavy

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Cheryl Leavy is from the Kooma and Nguri nations in western and central Queensland. She is an award-winning poet and writer who loves to tell stories that celebrate First Nations culture, history and Country. Yanga Mother is her first picture book. Her second, For You Country, will be published in 2025. 

David Leser

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David Leser is an Australian journalist, author, interviewer and public speaker. In his 43-year career, David has been a Middle East and Washington correspondent as well as a feature writer for various publications. He is the author of seven books, including his anthology of profiles, The Whites of Their Eyes, and his exploration of misogyny, Women, Men & the Whole Damn Thing. He was also the executive producer of the 2012 award-winning documentary Paul Kelly: Stories of Me. 

Sarah L’Estrange

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Sarah L’Estrange has over 15 years of experience in arts and literature broadcasting at Radio National. She has made features for The History Listen and Hindsight, and most recently produced and presented The Book Show series ‘Fakes and Frauds’, on Australian literary scandals. 

Nick Long

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In his job as a TV producer, Nick Long has been up close and personal with five-metre crocodiles, ruthless crime lords, unstable Alaskan glaciers and tight deadlines. Can you guess which of these was the scariest? When he's not avoiding deadlines, Nick lives with his wife and two boys on Sydney's Northern Beaches where he enjoys inventing excuses for not doing handyman stuff. The Forbidden Journal of Rufus Rumble is his first children's book. 

Matthew Longo

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Matthew Longo is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Leiden University. His is the award-winning author of The Politics of Borders and has also written a reconstruction of an epic Cold War border breach, The Picnic. He lives in The Netherlands. 

Wesley Lowery

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Wesley Lowery is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, and one of America’s leading reporters on issues of race and justice. He chronicled the early years of the Black Lives Matter movement and launched Fatal Force, a real-time national database of people shot and killed by the police. His most recent book, American Whitelash, chronicles the rise in white supremacist violence in the United States in the years since Barack Obama’s was elected.

Claire Mabey

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Claire Mabey is a writer, founder of literary organisation Verb Wellington and is the current books editor at The Spinoff. She has worked at many arts and book festivals over the past 15 years and still feels passionate about the role of festivity in our lives. Her first novel is The Raven's Eye Runaways and is  a middle grade adventure novel about the magic of books, the importance of friendship and the secrets buried deep in families. Claire is mum to Charlie and lives on the wildly beautiful south coast of Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Wellington. 

Emily Maguire

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Emily Maguire is the author of seven novels, including An Isolated Incident, shortlisted for the Stella Prize and the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2017; Love Objects, shortlisted for the Australian Book Industry Awards Literary Fiction Book of the Year in 2022; and, most recently, Rapture. She has also written three non-fiction books, and her articles and essays on sex, feminism and culture have been published widely. 

Aftab Malik

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Aftab Malik is a distinguished figure in the field of strengthening social cohesion and a thought leader in Australian countering violent extremism policy and program design. He has dedicated nearly a decade of his career to public service within the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Premier and Cabinet and the Premier's Department. Throughout his tenure, Aftab has continued to work successfully with a diverse network of major peak bodies, organisations, and critical stakeholders, sustaining deep ties of trust and respect. 

Among Aftab’s notable achievements include spearheading the first Government-funded conference in Australia that examined the impacts of the extremist right-wing and Islamophobia on social cohesion after the 15 March 2019 terrorist attack in New Zealand. 

His international influence extends beyond Australia. Aftab has previously served as a Board Advisor to the British Council's "Our Shared Future" project, headquartered in Washington DC, underscoring his global commitment to fostering intercultural dialogue. 

Recognized as a permanent designated "Global Expert" on Muslim Affairs by the UN Alliance of Civilisations, Aftab's knowledge and subject matter expertise have been invaluable in advancing cross-cultural understanding and cooperation on a global scale. 

In 2009, Aftab was acknowledged as a Muslim Leader of Tomorrow, by The Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow; the largest global program creating a new generation of Muslim civic leadership. Renowned scholar Professor John L. Esposito (Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.) has lauded Aftab as “a first-rate scholar”, while the academic journal, The Muslim World Book Review, referred to him as “a rising intellectual star”. Professor Philip Lewis, Department of Peace Studies (University of Bradford, UK) noted that Aftab is at the cutting-edge of research on Islam and at the heart of a group of young, emerging Muslim scholars, as well as established scholars. 

Aftab Malik's multifaceted contributions to academia, public service, and international diplomacy underscore his unwavering commitment to strengthen social cohesion, and challenging hate and extremism.

Peter Malinauskas

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Peter Malinauskas is the 47th Premier of South Australia. Prior to entering the Legislative Council, Peter was the state secretary of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association; in this role, he led the campaign for part-day public holidays on Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Peter served in the Weatherill government as minister for health, mental health and substance abuse, prior to which he was minister for police, correctional services, emergency services and road safety. 

David Marr

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David Marr is an author whose books include Patrick White: A Life, The High Price of Heaven, Dark Victory (with Marian Wilkinson) and Killing for Country. He has also written six Quarterly Essays and articles for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Saturday Paper and The Guardian, and worked as a reporter for Four Corners and presenter of Media Watch and Late Night Live. 

Sarah Martin

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Sarah Martin is an award-winning journalist and senior correspondent with Guardian Australia’s national investigations team. She has worked as a print journalist across several mastheads in Australia over the past 15 years, including as The Guardian’s chief political correspondent in Canberra.

Walter  Marsh 

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Walter Marsh is a journalist based in Tarntanya/Adelaide, and the author of Young Rupert: the making of the Murdoch empire (Scribe 2023). A former staff writer and editor at The Adelaide Review and Rip It Up, his writing has also appeared in The Guardian, The Monthly, The Saturday Paper, Crikey, The Age, and Australian Book Review. His second book, The Butterfly Thief, is forthcoming in 2025. 

Thomas Mayo

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Thomas Mayo is a Kaurareg Aboriginal and Kalkalgal, Erubamle Torres Strait Islander man. He lives on Larrakia land in Darwin and is the elected Assistant National Secretary of the Maritime Union of Australia. He has more than 20 years’ experience in leadership and advocacy, including the development of the Uluru Statement from the Heart in May 2017. Thomas has also authored seven books, including Always Was, Always Will Be, on creating a fairer Australia. 

Cassie McCullagh

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Cassie McCullagh is a presenter, journalist and writer. Since joining the ABC in 2007 she has presented and produced a wide range of programs for Radio National, Local Radio and ABC Classic. Most recently, Cassie presented RN’s flagship social affairs program Life Matters, and the popular culture programs TV Club and The List. In television in recent years, she has been a regular commentator on ABC TV’s arts program The Mix. 

Maxine McKew

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Maxine McKew is an author and Hon. Enterprise Professor at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education. Her most recent publication, Class Act, considers what it takes to deliver effective schooling to children in low socio-economic areas. For many years, Maxine was a familiar face to ABC TV viewers as the anchor of both Lateline and The 7.30 Report. She achieved the historic feat of unseating then prime minister John Howard in the Sydney seat of Bennelong in 2007, where she served until 2010. 

Leah Jing McIntosh

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 Leah Jing McIntosh is a critic, researcher, and the founding editor of Liminal. Most recently, she edited the award-winning collection Against Disappearance: Essays on Memory (Pantera Press, 2022).

Catherine McKinnon

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Catherine McKinnon lives in the Southern Highlands on Gundungurra land with her husband, and teaches creative writing at the University of Wollongong. Her book Storyland was shortlisted for five literary awards, and her latest novel is To Sing of War. Her plays have been produced nationally, and her short stories, reviews and essays have also appeared nationwide. 

Amy McQuire

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Amy McQuire is a Darumbal and South Sea Islander woman from Rockhampton in central Queensland. She is a freelance writer and journalist, and is currently completing a PhD at the University of Queensland into media representations of violence against Aboriginal women. For the past four years she has co-hosted the investigative podcast Curtain with human rights lawyer Martin Hodgson.

Charlotte Mendelson

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Charlotte Mendelson has just published her sixth novel, Wife. Her previous novel, The Exhibitionist, was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and was The Times Novel of the Year 2022, as well as a book of the year in The Telegraph and The Guardian. Her other novels include Almost English and When We Were Bad. She was a publisher for 20 years and has been the gardening correspondent for The New Yorker. 

Shaun Micallef

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Shaun Micallef has graced Aussie TV screens since 1994 in shows such as Full Frontal, Sea Change, the immensely popular Talkin’ ’Bout Your Generation and the news satire Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell. He has been nominated for a number of AFI, Logie and Director’s Guild awards, and even won some of them. He has authored six books, including a new collection of writing, Slivers, Shards and Skerricks. 

Louise Milligan

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Louise Milligan is an award-winning investigative journalist and author. A senior reporter with ABC’s Four Corners, Milligan’s high-profile stories have sparked national conversations on issues like abuse, corruption and accountability. Her acclaimed book Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of George Pell, which won a Walkley Book Award, examines the complex intersection of faith, power, and justice. Her debut novel is Pheasants Nest. 

Jennifer Mills

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Jennifer Mills is an author, editor and critic based on Kaurna Yarta (Adelaide). Her latest novel, The Airways (2021), was longlisted for the Miles Franklin award and shortlisted for an Aurealis Award for Horror. Dyschronia (2018) was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin, Aurealis (for Science Fiction), and Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature. As well as being one of our most celebrated fiction writers, Mills is a widely published essayist, an advocate for the rights of writers and artists, a MEAA freelance delegate and a current Director of the Australian Society of Authors. 

Pankaj Mishra

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Pankaj Mishra writes literary and political essays for The New York Times, The Guardian, London Review of Books and Bloomberg View, among other American, British and Indian publications. His first book was Butter Chicken in Ludhiana (1995), a travelogue that described the social and cultural changes in India in the new context of globalization. His later works have included the novel The Romantics (2000) and An End to Suffering: The Buddha in the World (2004), which mixes memoir, history and philosophy. 

Natasha Mitchell

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Natasha Mitchell is a multi-award-winning journalist, radio presenter, podcaster and documentary maker. She is host of ABC Radio National’s Big Ideas program, was founding host and producer of the radio show and podcast All in the Mind, hosted the ABC’s daily social affairs program Life Matters, and was founding host and producer of Science Friction.

Rick Morton

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Rick Morton has been a journalist and writer for over 15 years. He is the winner of the 2013 Kennedy Award for Young Journalist of the Year and the 2017 Kennedy Award for Outstanding Columnist. Rick regularly appears on panels across both the ABC and commercial networks discussing politics, the media, writing and social policy. His latest book is Mean Streak, on the Robodebt scandal. 

Molly Murn

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Molly Murn is a South Australian poet, author and certified Iyengar yoga teacher. Her debut novel Heart of the Grass Tree (2019) was shortlisted for the Debut Fiction Indie Book Awards 2020 and the MUD literary Prize for best new fiction. She is now writing a second novel, Radiance. Molly’s poetry has appeared in Overland, Transnational Literature and Social Alternatives.

Claire Nichols

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Claire Nichols is the presenter of Radio National’s The Book Show and conducts interviews with the best authors from Australia and around the world. She has spent more than a decade at the ABC, with roles in television and radio news, current affairs, ABC Local Radio and at Radio National.

Anthony Nocera

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Anthony Nocera is a freelance writer and a full-time homosexual. He writes essays, criticism and plays and his work has been published in Krass Journal, The Guardian, Metro, Voiceworks, Overland, and Archer, among others. His work has also been rejected by many publications and companies of note. 

Téa Obreht

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Téa Obreht won the 2011 Orange Prize for Fiction for her debut novel The Tiger’s Wife, which was also a 2011 National Book Award finalist and an international bestseller. Her work has been anthologised in The Best American Short Stories and has appeared in publications such as The New Yorker, Harper’s, Vogue and Zoetrope: All-Story. Her new novel is called The Morningside. 

Kerry O’Brien

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Kerry O’Brien is an Australian journalist based in Byron Bay. He is the former editor and host of The 7.30 Report and Four Corners on the ABC. Kerry has also been awarded six Walkley Awards during his career. 

Sofi Oksanen

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Sofi Oksanen is a Finnish-Estonian author renowned for her bold explorations of historical trauma, political repression and personal resilience. Her international bestseller Purge, which won the Nordic Council Literature Prize and the Prix Femina Étranger, delves into the dark legacies of Soviet occupation in Estonia and the lingering effects on women’s lives, while her latest book, Same River, Twice, focuses on how the current Russian regime poses a grave threat to women. 

Brigitta Olubas

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Brigitta Olubas is Professor of English at the University of New South Wales. Her publications include books and essays on Australian literature, particularly on writing by migrant, diasporic and refugee writers, and she is a late convert to writing literary biography. Her recent collaboration with Susan Wyndham is titled Hazzard and Harrower: The Letters. 

Lucia Osborne-Crowley

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Lucia Osborne-Crowley is an Australia-trained lawyer, legal reporter, journalist and essayist, and the author of I Choose Elena (2020), the Somerset Maugham Award–winning My Body Keeps Your Secrets (2021) and The Lasting Harm (2024). Lucia’s forensic but accessible reporting of the Ghislaine Maxwell trial was described as some of the best and most trauma-informed coverage of the case. She is currently working for Law360 as a court reporter from London. 

Debra Oswald

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Debra Oswald is a two-time winner of the NSW Premier’s Literary Award and the creator/head writer of the first five seasons of the TV series Offspring. Her stage plays have been performed around the world. Debra has also written three Aussie Bite books for kids and six children’s novels, including The Redback Leftovers. Her first adult novel was Useful (2015) and her most recent is One Hundred Years of Betty. 

Stephen Orr

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Stephen Orr is the author of several published works of fiction and nonfiction. His novel, Time’s Long Ruin, which drew on the infamous disappearance of the Beaumont children as inspiration, was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. It was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award, as was The Hands. His debut novel, Attempts to Draw Jesus, was runner-up in The Australian/Vogel’s Literary Award. He won the Griffith Review Novella Competition for Datsunland, which was later published with other stories as a critically acclaimed collection. Stephen’s short fiction and non-fiction has been published widely, including in Meanjin, Island, The Advertiser and the Adelaide Review 

Lauren Oyler

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Lauren Oyler is the author of the novel Fake Accounts. Her essays on books and culture appear regularly in The New Yorker, The New York Times, London Review of Books, Harper’s and other publications, and she has just released a collection of these writings called No Judgment. 

Stephanie Palmer

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Stephanie Palmer is a graduate of Adelaide University and Harvard Law School (LLM and SJD). She has been lecturing on Human Rights and Constitutional law at the Law Faculty of the University of Cambridge for many years. She is a barrister at Blackstone Chambers. Her book on Human Rights (with two colleagues) will be published by Cambridge University Press in 2025. 

Kirstie Parker

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Kirstie Parker is a Yuwaalaraay woman from NSW now living in Adelaide. Her extensive career in First Nations affairs has encompassed elected Co-Chair of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples, and editor of The Koori Mail newspaper. She won the 2018 Unaipon Award for an unpublished manuscript by a First Nations writer; her novel will be published by UQP. Kirstie is a signatory to the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart, and a Co-Chair of Reconciliation Australia.

David Penberthy

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David Penberthy co-hosts the Breakfast Show on 5AA and has been a columnist with News Limited for over 20 years. He has edited The Daily Telegraph, Adelaide’s Sunday Mail and news.com.au. As state political editor for The Daily Telegraph, he covered the NSW Carr Labor government from 1999 to 2004. 

Rachel Perkins

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Rachel Perkins is a proud Arrernte and Kalkadoon woman, and the writer, director and producer of award-winning television drama, documentaries and feature films, including The Australian Wars series, Bran Nue Dae, Redfern Now, Mystery Road and First Australians. Through a career spanning over 30 years in film and media, Rachel has been an educator, leader and mentor, inspiring the next generations of First Nations storytellers. 

Helen Pitt

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Helen Pitt is an award-winning Australian author and senior writer for The Sydney Morning Herald. Known for her in-depth cultural reporting, she authored The House, a well-researched account of the construction and history of the Sydney Opera House. She has also contributed to various international outlets and spent several years reporting for Euronews in France. 

Barbara Pocock

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Barbara Pocock has been a South Australian senator since 2022. She is an economist and emeritus professor who has spent her life fighting for the rights of working people, women and low-income workers. She has written many books and articles, and worked in shearing sheds, on farms, in universities, in government and as a mother. 

Sana Qadar

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Sana Qadar is the award-winning host and producer of All in the Mind, a top ABC podcast that covers the brain, behaviour, psychology and more - everything from addiction to artificial intelligence. She has previously reported and produced for ABC News and ABC Everyday. Sana has worked for the BBC, Al Jazeera English, NPR, CTV, Associated Press and China Radio International with stints in London, Washington DC, Beijing, New Delhi and Doha. Sana has a Masters of Arts in International Studies and Diplomacy from SOAS University of London and a Bachelor of Arts in Radio and Television from Ryerson University, Toronto. 

Annabelle Quince

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Annabelle Quince has forged a varied career across the legal profession (as a researcher and lecturer), film and television (as a director, producer, scriptwriter and researcher) and in radio (as a producer and presenter). During her 10 years with Late Night Live, she produced a number of series with Phillip Adams, including the India program ‘A Billion Voices’. In 2000 she took a year’s leave to produce and direct the documentary Watching the Detective, a film about women private investigators. 

Diana Reid

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Diana Reid is the Australian author of the bestselling novels Love & Virtue, which won a number of awards, including the ABIA Book of the Year Award and the ABA Booksellers’ Choice Fiction Book of the Year Award, and Seeing Other People. Her third novel is titled Signs of Damage.

Amy Remeikis

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Amy Remeikis is a political commentator, analyst, journalist and author. Formally the political live blogger at the Guardian, Amy is now the chief political analyst at the Australia Institute. 

David Remnick

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David Remnick has been the editor of The New Yorker since 1998 and before that was a staff writer for the magazine for six years. He was previously The Washington Post’s correspondent in the Soviet Union. He is the author of several books, including King of the World, a biography of Muhammad Ali, named the top nonfiction book of the year by Time magazine in 1998, and Lenin’s Tomb, winner of the Pulitzer Prize. 

Geoffrey Robertson

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Geoffrey Robertson is a prominent Australian-British barrister, academic, author and broadcaster known for his work in international human rights law and advocacy for civil liberties. He is widely recognised for his engaging public commentary, including his BBC series Geoffrey Robertson’s Hypotheticals, which tackled complex legal and moral dilemmas. Robertson is also a prolific author whose works The Justice Game and Crimes against Humanity provide insights into global justice issues. 

Michael Robotham

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Michael Robotham previously worked as a feature writer and investigative reporter in Britain, Australia and America, and with clinical and forensic psychologists as they helped police investigate complex, psychologically driven crimes. Hs debut thriller The Suspect (2004) has sold more than a million copies and is now a major ABC TV series. Storm Child is the highly anticipated fourth novel in his globally bestselling Cyrus Haven and Evie Cormac series. 

Leo Robson

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Leo Robson is a cultural journalist who has written on books, film, politics and sport for a wide range of publications, including The New York Times, The Guardian and New Statesman. His profile of James Ellroy received the prize for best arts writing at the Foreign Press Association awards. The Boys is his debut novel. 

Kenneth Roth

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Kenneth Roth is the Charles and Marie Robertson Visiting Professor at the Princeton School for Public and International Affairs. He served for nearly three decades as the executive director of Human Rights Watch, prior to which he was a federal prosecutor in New York and for the Iran–Contra investigation in Washington. His book Righting Wrongs, to be published by Knopf, is about the strategies used by Human Rights Watch to defend human rights. 

Dorcy Rugamba

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Dorcy Rugamba is a Rwandan writer, playwright, and director. His work explores political violence and its economic ties (Bloody Niggers, Market Place, Gamblers), African mythology (Les Restes Suprêmes), and documentary theater (Rwanda 94). Founder of Rwanda Arts Initiative (2012) and the Moyo publishing house, he promotes literature in the Rwandan language. In 2024, he launched the Kigali Triennale and published HEWA RWANDA, Lettre aux absents (JC Lattès), a poignant account of his family .

Alan Rusbridger

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Alan Rusbridger was editor-in-chief of Guardian News & Media from 1995 to 2015. He launched The Guardian in the US and Australia as well as building a website that today attracts more than 100 million browsers a month. The paper’s coverage of phone-hacking led to the Leveson Inquiry into press standards and ethics in the United Kingdom. Alan is the author of Play It Again and Breaking News. 

Nick Ryan

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Nick Ryan is the Senior Wine Writer for The Australian and a columnist for the world’s most prestigious wine magazine, The World of Fine Wine. 

He is also an inaugural winner of the 67 Pall Mall Global Wine Communicator Award. 

He is a highly sought after wine show judge, a graduate of the prestigious Len Evans Tutorial and a hugely engaging speaker and presenter. 

Now based in the Clare Valley, Nick is excited by wines that are just as interesting by the fourth glass as they are at the first and would give it all up to play one game for the Port Adelaide Football Club. 

Ronni Salt

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Ronni Salt (a pseudonym) is a citizen journalist and social media commentator with a rural and legal background and a strong interest in environmental issues. She hails from the Riverina and much prefers dogs to people. Gunnawah is her debut novel, a captivating and compulsive crime thriller about guns, drugs and a woman dead in the Murray River. 

Ash Sarkar

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ASH SARKAR is a writer, lecturer, journalist and political commentator. A contributing editor of Novara Media, she has written for The Guardian, Independent and Huffington Post, with regular appearances on British television and radio, including 'Question Time', ‘The Moral Maze’, ’Good Morning Britain' and 'Jeremy Vine' on 5.

She has been called one of ‘the internet’s best left-wing thinkers’ by the Spectator, and was named Media Personality of the Year by the Asian Media Awards in 2019. Sarkar also lectures at the Sandberg Instituut in Amsterdam, and has taught Global Politics at Anglia Ruskin University. Minority Rule is her first book.

Rick Sarre

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Rick Sarre is an Adjunct with UniSA Justice & Society. Before retiring from teaching in 2018, he had taught commercial law, media law, sports law and criminology for 35 years in the United States, Sweden, Hong Kong and Australia. He is a past president of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology and in 2017 was awarded fellow status of that society. His books include Life Actually: A Feast of 500-Word Memories (2021) and Preventing Crime (2024).

Simon Schama

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Simon Schama is one of the most distinguished historians of our time. As a writer, broadcaster, columnist and art critic, his books and documentaries have covered subjects stretching from the histories of art, slavery and public health to Romanticism, baseball and the American future. He is currently Professor of Art History and History at the University of Columbia. His recent investigation of contagion is called Foreign Bodies. 

Mark Scott

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Professor Mark Scott AO is the Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Sydney. 

Under his leadership, the university has embarked on an ambitious 10-year strategy with immediate commitments to more than double scholarship support for under-represented domestic students and invest nearly half a billion dollars in a world-leading biomedical precinct. 

Professor Scott is a highly respected and successful senior leader of large and complex institutions, across public service, education, and the media. His notable roles include Secretary of the NSW Department of Education (2016 to 2021), Managing Director of the ABC (2006 to 2016) and Editor-in-Chief of Fairfax newspapers. 

In addition to his role as Vice-Chancellor, Professor Scott is currently the Chair of the Group of Eight universities and Chair of the Conversation Media Group board. 

Tory Shepherd

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Tory Shepherd is an Australian opinion writer and journalist based in Adelaide. She joined News Limited in 2006, starting with a cadetship at The Advertiser, and spent 15 years there and at other News Corp publications. Since September 2024 she has been a senior reporter for Guardian Australia. 

Ben Shewry

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Ben Shewry is an internationally renowned chef and restaurateur, and a creative obsessive. His CV includes owner of Attica in Melbourne’s Ripponlea (since 2015), writer of two books (Origin in 2012 and Uses for Obsession in 2024), semi-pro playlist builder, amateur filmmaker, part-time photographer and full-time renovator

Emma Shortis

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Emma Shortis is Director of The Australia Institute’s International & Security Affairs program. She is a historian and writer focused on the history and politics of the United States and its role in the world. Emma’s first book, Our Exceptional Friend: Australia’s Fatal Alliance with the United States, was published by Hardie Grant in 2021. She also appears regularly on Australian radio and television. 

Beejay Silcox

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Beejay Silcox is an Australian writer and critic, and the Artistic Director of Canberra Writers Festival. Beejay’s literary criticism and cultural commentary regularly appears in national arts publications and is increasingly finding an international audience, including in the Times Literary Supplement and The New York Times. Her award-winning short fiction has been published at home (including in Meanjin, Westerly and ABR) and abroad, and has also been anthologised. 

Graeme Simsion

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Graeme Simsion is a screenwriter, playwright, and the internationally bestselling author of The Rosie Project, which received the Victorian Premier’s Unpublished Manuscript Award in 2012. He has since published The Rosie Effect and The Best of Adam Sharp. 

Dava Sobel

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Dava Sobel is the author of the international bestseller Longitude and Pulitzer Prize finalists Galileo’s Daughter, A More Perfect Heaven and The Glass Universe. She is the recipient of the Individual Public Service Award from the National Science Board, the Kumpke-Roberts Award from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, among other honours. Her latest book is The Elements of Marie Curie. 

Anna Spargo-Ryan

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Anna Spargo-Ryan is an award-winning Melbourne writer, teacher and editor. She is the author of two novels, The Gulf (2017) and The Paper House (2016). Her latest book, A Kind of Magic (2022) was shortlisted in the Queensland Literary Awards. Anna was the inaugural winner of the Horne Prize for her essay "The Suicide Gene" and she holds a PhD in truth, memory and life writing.

David Speers

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David Speers’ has won two individual Walkley Awards for interviewing, along with a number of other Walkley, Logie and Kennedy Awards for his journalism. He has also won the Press Gallery Journalist of the Year Award. David spent 20 years working from the Canberra Press Gallery, serving 3 years as Gallery President and 15 years on the board of the National Press Club. His first book On Mutiny was published in 2018. 

Rachel Spencer

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Rachel Spencer recently embarked on a freelance writing and consulting career. She has driven her professional life down many roads, winding between legal practice, tertiary education, public speaking, creative writing, research, professional writing, teaching and management. Her current writing project is a book that straddles the genres of true crime and life-writing. 

Luke Springer

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Luke Springer, known by his online followers as internationally renowned internet teacher sensation, Mr. Luke, is a beloved teacher based in Adelaide who teaches children in their first year of school.  With almost a decade of teaching experience under his belt and a passion for plants, Luke shares his experiences and the joys of being a male junior primary educator through engaging content online. 

Natasha Stott Despoja

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Natasha Stott Despoja is an Australian politician who in 1996 became the youngest woman elected to sit in the federal Senate up to that time; she continued to serve until her retirement in 2008. From 2012 to 2016 she served as the Australian ambassador for women and girls. During this time, she also became chair of Our Watch, which sought to prevent violence against women and children. In 2019 she published On Violence. 

Katrina Strickland

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Katrina Strickland is the editor of Good Weekend magazine, which she has helmed since June 2017. Prior to that she was editor of The Australian Financial Review Magazine and has held arts editor roles at both the AFR and The Australian. Her book Affairs of the Art, about the widows and widowers who control the estates of some of Australia’s most renowned artists, was published by Melbourne University Publishing in 2013. 

Yumi Stynes

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Yumi Stynes is an author and broadcaster who has been making content for more than 20 years. Yumi hosts the hit ABC podcast Ladies, We Need to Talk, one of the ABC's most downloaded podcasts. Yumi co-authored the best-selling Welcome To series of guidebooks for young people on topics like consent, getting your period, and sex. Yumi also writes cookbooks, has a food podcast called 'The 5-minute Food Fix', is co-host of 'I Heart Trivia' and can be seen hosting talks at places like Art Gallery of N

Norman Swan

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Norman Swan is a multi-award-winning producer and broadcaster who presents the ABC podcast Health Report. He has won three Walkley National Awards for Australian journalism. He presents the popular Health Minutes on ABC NewsRadio each week, and edits his own newsletter, The Choice Health Reader, published in association with the Australian Consumers Association. On television, Dr Swan has hosted the ABC’s Quantum, and he created, wrote and narrated a four-part series on disease and civilisation, Invisible Enemies, which has been shown in 27 countries. 

Kara Swisher

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Kara Swisher is host of the podcast On with Kara Swisher and the co-host of the Pivot podcast with Scott Galloway. She was also the co-founder and editor-at-large of Recode, is a former contributing opinion writer for The New York Times and host of its Sway podcast, and has worked for The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. Burn Book, released in 2024, is her third book. 

Robin Tatlow-Lord

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Robin Tatlow-Lord is an illustrator, cartoonist, arts educator, bird fancier and hand puppet enthusiast who has never been to outer space, but knows that it has a smell. She lives in South Australia, on Kaurna land. When she's not drawing, she spends her time hitting her friends (otherwise known as playing roller derby) and chasing a small, adorable but highly mischievous pixie (otherwise known as parenting a toddler). 

Hedley Thomas

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Hedley Thomas investigates the unsolved murders of women in Australia. His podcasts - The Teacher’s Pet, The Teacher’s Trial, The Teacher’s Accuser, The Night Driver, Shandee’s Story, Shandee’s Legacy and Bronwyn - have had more than 100 million downloads. He has won eight Walkley Awards in his career. He has won the Gold Walkley twice, most recently for his podcast The Teacher’s Pet which contributed to the prosecution and conviction of Chris Dawson, four decades after killing his wife, Lyn. For his internationally renowned podcasts and investigative reporting, Hedley was awarded Australia’s Journalist of the Year in 2022. 

Jared Thomas

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Jared Thomas is a Nukunu person of the southern Flinders Ranges; a William and Margaret Geary Research Fellow, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Material Culture and Art at the South Australian Museum and the University of South Australia; and an Indigenous Literacy Foundation Ambassador. He is the highly regarded author of critically acclaimed books for young adults, including Sweet Guy and Songs that Sound Like Blood, and is the co-author of the Patty Mills series Game Day. 

Ruby Todd

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Ruby Todd is a Melbourne-based writer with a PhD in writing and literature. She is the recipient of the 2019 Ploughshares Emerging Writer's Contest award for Fiction and the inaugural 2020 Furphy Literary Award, among others. Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, Crazyhorse, Overland and elsewhere. Shortlisted for the 2023 Victorian Premier's Unpublished Manuscript Award, Bright Objects is her debut novel. 

Jessie Tu

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Jessie Tu is a book critic at The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, and a journalist for Women’s Agenda. Her debut novel, A Lonely Girl Is a Dangerous Thing, won the ABIA for 2020 Literary Fiction Book of the Year. The Honeyeater is her second novel. 

Sue Turnbull

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Sue Turnbull is Senior Professor of Communication and Media at the University of Wollongong. Her publications include Media Audiences (2020), The TV Crime Drama (2014) and Media and Communications in Australia (2023) with co-editor Bridget Griffen-Foley. Sue is also the chief crime fiction reviewer for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, and Chair of the Bad Sydney Crime Writers Festival

Jordan van den Lamb

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Jordan van den Lamb, who is known as ‘purplepingers’ online, is a high-profile critic of the real estate industry. He has gained over 200,000 followers on TikTok and become an activist and advocate for renters. He has announced that he will be running for the Senate in the next federal election with the Victorian Socialist Party. 

Amanda Vanstone

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Amanda Vanstone entered the Australian Parliament in 1984 and was a Liberal senator for South Australia from 1984 to 2007. Her portfolios included employment, education, training and youth affairs, and immigration and multicultural and Indigenous affairs. After resigning from the Senate in 2007, Amanda served as the Australian ambassador to Italy until July 2010. She now serves on the boards, councils and committees of various organisations, including the Adelaide Festival of Arts. 

Alexander Ward

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Alexander Ward AM has over 30 years’ experience as a solicitor and now barrister. He has been the Australian representative on the Commonwealth Lawyers Association since 2008 and has practised as a barrister at Edmund Barton Chambers in Adelaide since 2002. He practises in civil litigation, with an emphasis on accident cases, fraud cases and cases involving complicated liability issues, in addition to insurance law, workers compensation and military law. 

Dave Warneke

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Dave Warneke is an award nominated (and losing) comedian, podcaster and producer from Melbourne. Over the last decade he has toured shows to dozens of podcast, writers, fringe, music, film, arts and comedy festivals across Australia - including the last eleven Melbourne International Comedy Festivals. You might have seen his mug on TV- he's appeared on ABC shows The Librarians and Upper Middle Bogan and on Channel Nine's True Story with Hamish & Andy. Dave's day job is as the Comedy Producer on Network Ten's current affairs panel program 'The Project'. He regularly works with comedians Peter Helliar, Tommy Little, Rove McManus, Claire Hooper and Susie Youssef. 

Jamieson Webster

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Jamieson Webster is a psychoanalyst in private practice in New York City and part-time faculty at The New School for Social Research. She is the author, most recently, of On Breathing, as well as Conversion Disorder: Listening to the Body in Psychoanalysis (2018). She has written for Artforum, The New York Times, The New York Review of Books and many psychoanalytic publications. 

Nova Weetman

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Nova Weetman has written for TV and is the author of many middle grade and young adult novels. The Secrets We Keep was shortlisted for the Readings Children’s Book Prize, the Speech Pathology Book of the Year Awards and the ABIA Awards, while the sequel, The Secrets We Share, was a 2018 CBCA Notable Book. In 2022, The Edge of Thirteen won the ABIAs Small Publishers’ Children’s Book of the Year. Her latest book is the memoir Love, Death and Other Scenes. 

Jessica White

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Jessica White is the author of A Curious Intimacy and Entitlement. Her hybrid memoir, Hearing Maud, won the Michael Crouch Award and was shortlisted for four national awards. Jessica has published short fiction, poetry, and essays, and has won funding and residencies. She is also co-founder and co-editor of Science Write Now, a literary magazine of creative writing inspired by science. Jessica’s essay collection, Silence is my Habitat: Ecobiographical Essays will be published by Upswell in 2025. 

Debbie Whitmont

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Debbie Whitmont began working at the ABC as a researcher in 1989 before joining Four Corners as a reporter, producer and later associate producer. From 1993 to 1996, she served as a Middle East correspondent, filing reports from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Pakistan for Lateline, Foreign Correspondent and The 7.30 Report. In 1998, she returned to report for Four Corners. 

Cathy Wilcox

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Cathy Wilcox is a Sydney-based cartoonist and illustrator who has been drawing cartoons since 1989. Her work appears almost daily in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. She is the president of the Australian Cartoonists Association and also an award-winning illustrator of children’s books. Wilcox received a Gold Stanley in 2021 and she was the Museum of Australian Democracy’s Political Cartoonist of the Year in 2009, 2016 and 2020. 

Lili Wilkinson

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Lili Wilkinson is the award-winning author of more than twenty books for young people, including A Hunger of Thorns, which won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award, and was a CBCA Honour Book. Lili has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, and is a passionate advocate for YA and the young people who read it. Her latest books are the Bravepaw series and Unhallowed Halls. 

Kim Williams

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Kim Williams is the current Chair of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and a composer. He was formerly the CEO of the Australian Film Commission, where he ran the TV production house Southern Star Group. In 1988 he was appointed foundation chairman of Film Finance Corporation Australia, and he chaired the Australian Copyright Agency from 2015 to 2021. 

Niall Williams

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Niall Williams is the author of nine novels, including History of the Rain, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize; Four Letters of Love, which was made into a major motion picture; This Is Happiness, which was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards Book of the Year; and most recently, Time of the Child. 

Pip Williams

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Pip Williams has spent most of her working life as a social researcher, studying how people live their lives and what makes life good. She is the co-author of Time Bomb: Work, Rest and Play in Australia Today (2012), with Barbara Pocock and Natalie Skinner, and has also published travel articles and flash fiction. Her debut novel was The Dictionary of Lost Words (2020). 

Tim Winton

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Tim Winton is the author of 30 books. His work has been widely translated and adapted for film, television, stage and radio. He lives in Western Australia 

Clare Wright

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Clare Wright is an award-winning historian, author, broadcaster and public commentator who has worked in politics, academia and the media. She is currently Professor of History and Professor of Public Engagement at La Trobe University. Clare is the author of the bestselling Beyond the Ladies Lounge: Australia’s Female Publicans (2003) and The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka (2013). Her latest book is Ṉäku Dhäruk: The Bark Petitions. 

Karen Wyld

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Karen Wyld is an author living on the coast south of Adelaide. They’ve published novels, children’s non-fiction, short stories, narrative non-fiction, poetry, and more.

Susan Wyndham

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Susan Wyndham is a journalist, writer and former literary editor of The Sydney Morning Herald. She co-edited Hazzard and Harrower: The Letters with Brigitta Olubas. Her biography of Elizabeth Harrower will be published by NewSouth in 2025. 

Julia Zemiro

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Julia Zemiro is one of Australia’s most recognisable television faces. As the host of the iconic music quiz show, RocKwiz (SBS, 2005 – 2016) she made her name as a charismatic ringmaster of live television. She took those skills into her co-hosting role of (Australia’s coverage of) the Eurovision Song Contest (2008 – 2016) where her agile presence made those original broadcasts some of the most memorable and gently irreverent in Australian television history. In 2024, she will be touring Australia hosting Never Mind the Buzzers, here’s RocKwiz Live! Tour. 

From 2013 – 2022, Zemiro co-produced and hosted nine seasons of the hugely successful, Julia Zemiro’s Home Delivery (ABC) proving she could also handle more serious, long-form interviews with ease. The series’ longevity firmly cemented her as one of Australia’s most likeable television talents. She is currently Executive Producer and Host of Great Australian Walks (SBS), now in its second series. 

A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, Zemiro returned to her thespian roots in 2020 when she starred in the Logie-award-winning ABC sitcom, Fisk. Over three high-rating seasons, Zemiro proved she is also a virtuoso comedic actress. 

In 2019 and 2020 she brought her big vision producing skills to the Adelaide Cabaret Festival as Artistic Director, curating a diverse and dynamic program of international and local artists. 

With a work ethic to match her talent, she has also been the captain’s pick for many high-profile international interviews and specials including, Louis Theroux, Bill Bryson, Stephen Fry, Michael Mosley, Peter Capaldi (Dr Who press tour) and Brian Cox (Stargazing Live). 

Markus Zusak

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Markus Zusak is the international bestselling author of six novels, including The Book Thief, one of the best-loved books of the 21st century and a New York Times bestseller for more than a decade. He has been awarded numerous honours, ranging from literary prizes to bookseller and readers’ choice awards, and his books have been adapted for film, television and theatre. Three Wild Dogs (and the Truth) is his first work of non-fiction.