Bec Kavanagh is a PhD candidate at La Trobe University. Her research explores the homogenisation of the adolescent female body in coming of age narratives. Bec is a recognised expert in youth literature and has worked extensively in feminist literary spaces. She was the inaugural chair of #LoveOzYA and currently manages the Schools Program at…

Peggy Frew’s work has appeared in New Australian Stories 2, Kill Your Darlings, Meanjin, and The Big Issue. Her novels have been awarded the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript and the Barbara Jefferis Award, shortlisted for the Stella Prize, the Miles Franklin Literary Award, the UTS Glenda Adams Prize for New Writing, and longlisted for…

Danielle Binks is a Melbourne-based writer and literary agent with Jacinta di Mase Management. In 2017, she edited and contributed to Begin, End, Begin, an anthology of new Australian young adult writing inspired by the #LoveOzYA movement, which won the ABIA Book of the Year for Older Children (Ages 13+). The Year the Maps Changed, Danielle’s debut middle-grade…

After more than 20 years’ experience in the book industry, Jacinta di Mase started her own agency in 2004. Jacinta has a background in book selling and publishing, and worked for ten years in two of Australia’s premier literary agencies: Australian Literary Management (ALM), and Jenny Darling & Associates. She graduated with distinction from the RMIT Graduate…

Omar Sakr is the son of Arab and Turkish Muslim migrants. He is the author of three poetry collections, including The Lost Arabs (UQP), which won the 2020 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Poetry, and a novel, Son of Sin (Affirm Press, 2022) due out in the UK this October with the87press. His latest book, Non-Essential…

Sally Rippin has been writing and illustrating children’s books for over fifteen years. She has over forty books published, many of them award-winning, including two novels for young adults. She has taught writing for children courses at the Council of Adult Education, the Victorian Writers’ Centre and as a part of the Professional Writing and Editing…

Martine Murray writes for children and young adults. Her first novel The Slightly True Story of Cedar B Hartley was included in the White Ravens international list of outstanding children’s books, and was shortlisted for the Victorian, NSW and Queensland Premier’s Awards, and the CBCA Awards. She won the Queensland Premier’s Award for How to Make a Bird and again…

Simmone Howell is a Melbourne-based award-winning writer of books for young adults (Notes from the Teenage Underground, Girl Defective, Take Three Girls). Her non-fiction is regularly published in the Age/SMH. She recently completed a PhD at La Trobe University, researching life writing and the teenage experience. www.simmonehowell.com.au

Katherine Kovacic is the award-winning author of the Alex Clayton art mysteries, historical true crime, The Schoolgirl Strangler, and TV tie-in, Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries, Just Murdered. Katherine’s latest book, Seven Sisters, was published by HarperCollins in January 2023. When she’s not writing crime – or thinking about it – Katherine works in the…

R.W.R. McDonald (Rob) is an award winning author. His debut novel, The Nancys won Best First Novel in the 2020 Ngaio Marsh Awards, as well as being a finalist in the Best Novel category.  It was shortlisted for Best First Novel in the 2020 Ned Kelly Awards, and Highly Commended for an Unpublished Manuscript in the 2017…

Jane Novak is a literary professional with over twenty years’ experience in bookselling and publishing. She is passionate about Australia’s local industry and the creation and promotion of Australian books and writers. Her agency represents writers across many genres and her clients include Helen Garner, Kate Grenville, Liz Byrski, David Malouf and Tim Flannery.

Patti Miller is the author of ten books, including Australia’s best-selling life writing texts, Writing Your Life, The Memoir Book and Writing True Stories (A&U) as well as a novel Child (A&U) and The Last One Who Remembers (A&U) Whatever The Gods Do (Random House), the critically acclaimed The Mind of a Thief (UQP), long and…

Gretchen Shirm is the author of a collection of short stories Having Cried Wolf, for which she was named a Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist. Her first novel Where the Light Falls, was shortlisted for the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. Her fiction has been published in…

James Bradley  is an award-winning writer and literary critic. His books include the novels Wrack, The Deep Field, The Resurrectionist and Clade, a book of poetry, Paper Nautilus, The Penguin Book of the Ocean, The Change Trilogy for young adults and his latest novel, Ghost Species which was published in 2020. His articles and reviews have appeared in The Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian,…

Carrie Tiffany was born in West Yorkshire and grew up in Western Australia. She spent her early twenties working as a park ranger in Central Australia and now lives and works in Melbourne. Her first novel, Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living, was shortlisted for the Orange Prize, the Miles Franklin Literary Award, the Guardian First Book…

Emily Bitto is an award-winning writer of fiction, poetry and non-fiction. Her debut novel, The Strays, was the winner of the Stella Prize in 2015. Her second novel, Wild Abandon, was published by Allen & Unwin in 2021. She has a Masters in Literary Studies and a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Melbourne and has…

Sophie Cunningham has worked as an editor and publisher at McPhee Gribble, Penguin Books, Allen & Unwin, Lonely Planet and Meanjin. She established the Faber Writing Academy’s Melbourne chapter in 2011, has taught in the WAN stream with Emily Bitto and Miles Allinson and taught Writing True Stories online in 2025. She has written ten books…

Margo Lanagan has published two dark fantasy novels (Tender Morsels and Sea Hearts), seven short story collections including the breakout Black Juice, ten teenage romance novels, three junior fantasy novels, two young adult novels and a children’s picture book. She collaborated with Scott Westerfeld and Deborah Biancotti on the New York Times bestselling YA superheroes trilogy, Zeroes. Her most recent…

Kathryn Heyman is the author of six novels, most recently Storm and Grace. She has won numerous awards including an Arts Council of England Writers Award, the Wingate and the Southern Arts Awards, and been nominated for the Orange Prize, the Scottish Writer of the Year Award, the Edinburgh Fringe Critics’ Awards, the Kibble Prize, and the…

Annette Barlow has worked in the publishing industry for over 30 years, in bookshops, in sales, in editorial and for over 20 years as a publisher. Her list comprises fiction titles, including the twice Miles Franklin-winner Alex Miller and many successful writers of commercial fiction such as Kate Morton, Fleur MacDonald, Minette Walters and Tony Jones….