Sohaila Abdulali
United States
Sohaila Abdulali's most recent book is What We Talk About When We Talk About Rape. Now based in New York, she was born in Bombay.
Writers' Week
Adelaide Writers’ Week 2019: Telling Truths
In a world where events pass by at breakneck speed, Adelaide Writers’ Week seeks to create the space for reflection and contemplation, for considered debate and thoughtful discussion on this year’s theme Telling Truths. Our aim is to curate a program that can deliver smart, singular, subjective truths to you from an impressive line-up of interesting, erudite and insightful authors.
We hope you can join us.
The centrepiece of our program is six days of free sessions in the idyllic outdoor setting of the Pioneer Women’s Gardens, including a weekend of younger readers and a new Twilight program.
This year we also launch the Writers’ Week Opening Address at the Palais on Thursday 28 February and the Zeitgeist Series in Elder Hall on Wednesday 6 – Thursday 7 March.
Follow the new Adelaide Writers’ Week page on Facebook to keep in touch.
PRESENTING PARTNERS
Explore the Lineup
Lur Alghurabi
Australia
Lur Alghurabi is an Iraqi writer of memoir. In 2017 she won the Scribe Nonfiction Prize for Young Writers and was shortlisted for the Deborah Cass Prize for Migrant Writers.
Jessica Alice
Australia
Jessica Alice is a poet, editor and writer. She is Director of Writers SA, the peak organisation for literature in South Australia.
Gina Apostol
United States
Gina Apostol won the Philippines National Book Award for each of her first two novels and her third won the 2013 PEN Open Book Award. Her latest novel, Insurrecto, was named by Publishers’ Weekly as one of the Ten Best Books of 2018.
Stephanie Bishop
Australia
Stephanie Bishop is the award-winning Australian author of Man Out of Time, the highly anticipated follow up to her acclaimed novel The Other Side of the World.
Sophie Black
Australia
Sophie Black is Head of Publishing at the Wheeler Centre. She is a previous Editor in Chief at Private Media, Director of the 2013 Adelaide Festival of Ideas and editor of Crikey.
Aunty Sue Blacklock
Australia
Aunty Sue Blacklock is a respected Elder of the Nucoorilma people from Tingha, part of the Gamilaraay nation. She lives on her traditional homeland in Tingha, NSW.
Paul Bloom
United States
Paul Bloom is Professor of Psychology at Yale University, the author of Against Empathy: A Case for Rational Compassion, and an internationally recognised expert on the psychology of language, social reasoning, morality and art.
James Bradley
Australia
James Bradley is an award-winning author, poet and critic. His most recent books include Clade (2015) and the young adult novel, The Buried Ark (2018), the second in his Change trilogy.
Oyinkan Braithwaite
Nigeria
Oyinkan Braithwaite’s first novel, My Sister the Serial Killer, has been listed as one of the most anticipated debuts of 2019 by publications including The New York Times, The Guardian and Publishers’ Weekly.
Bernadette Brennan
Australia
Dr Bernadette Brennan is an academic and researcher in contemporary Australian writing, literature and ethics. She is the author of a number of publications, including a monograph on Brian Castro and two edited collections: Just Words?: Australian Authors Writing for Justice, and Ethical Investigations: Essays on Australian Literature and Poetics .
Bob Carr
Australia
Bob Carr is best known for his political service but more recently enjoys a distinguished second career as an author and academic and is currently the Director of the Australia–China Relations Institute at UTS.
Jo Case
Australia
Jo Case is an Adelaide-based writer, editor and bookseller, and the author of Boomer and Me: A memoir of motherhood, and Asperger’s. She works at Imprints Booksellers and Wakefield Press.
Damien Cave
Australia
Damien Cave is head of the Australian Bureau of The New York Times and a former Foreign Correspondent in Central America, the Caribbean and the Middle East.
Gabrielle Chan
Australia
Gabrielle Chan has been a journalist for more than 30 years. Currently with The Guardian Australia, she has previously worked at The Australian, the ABC and The Daily Telegraph and is the author of three books, including Rusted Off.
Soraya Chemaly
United States
Soraya Chemaly is a writer, activist and Director of the New York-based Women’s Media Center Speech Project. She is the author of Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger.
Natasha Cica
Australia
Dr Natasha Cica is the founding Director of Kapacity.org.
Danielle Clode
Australia
Danielle Clode is an award-winning author of narrative nonfiction, history and children’s books. Her most recent publications are The Wasp and the Orchid and From Dinosaurs to Diprotodons.
Peter Cochrane
Australia
Peter Cochrane is one of Australia’s leading writers on war, most recently Best We Forget: The War for White Australia 1914-18.
John Coetzee
Australia
John Maxwell Coetzee is a South African-born novelist, essayist, linguist, translator and recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Phil Cummings
Australia
Phil Cummings is the author of over sixty books for children. His book Boy, won the Children’s Peace Award in 2017. His most recent title Feathers was shortlisted for the Prime Ministers Literary Awards. Phil is currently working with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the moon landing.
Paul Daley
Australia
Paul Daley is a Sydney-based author, journalist and essayist. His books have been shortlisted for major Australian literary awards and his journalism has won numerous prizes including two Walkley Awards and two Kennedy Awards.
Trent Dalton
Australia
Trent Dalton is a Walkley Award-winning journalist for The Weekend Australian Magazine and a former assistant editor of The Courier Mail. Boy Swallows Universe is his first book.
Megan Davis
Australia
Professor Megan Davis is an Aboriginal leader, activist, academic, writer and lawyer.
Sharon Davis
Australia
Sharon Davis is a four-time Walkley award winning documentary producer and journalist whose body of work in television, radio and print spans more than 25 years. Most recently she developed and produced a new podcast "The Monthly Hour" for Schwartz Media.
Reg Dodd
Australia
Reg Dodd is an Arabunna Elder from Finniss Springs and has been a stockman, a train inspector, a heritage officer, a photographer, a singer and a tour guide. Talking Sideways is his first book.
Ceridwen Dovey
Australia
South African-born Ceridwen Dovey’s second book, Only the Animals, won the inaugural Readings New Australian Writing Award. Her most recent novel, In the Garden of the Fugitives, was published in 2018.
Jane Doyle
Australia
Jane Doyle loves to read aloud quite a lot. She’s been doing it on Adelaide’s Channel Seven News for 29 years, but is equally happy with a newspaper, travel guide or story book to anyone who’ll listen. She does draw the line at the phone book though…...
Teddy Dunn
Australia
Teddy Dunn is an independent director, theatre maker and dramaturg who graduated from Flinders Drama Centre in 2015 with First Class Honours and a University Medal.
Esi Edugyan
Canada
Esi Edugyan's new novel Washington Black was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize, as was her previous novel, the award-winning Half Blood Blues. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia.
Kassem Eid
Syria/Germany
Kassem Eid is a Syrian refugee, human rights activist, writer and author of the memoir My Country.
Carolin Emcke
Germany
Carolin Emcke is a German war correspondent, public intellectual and author. How We Desire is her first book to be translated into English.
Anton Enus
Australia
Anton Enus, a broadcast journalist with more than 25 years' experience, has been presenting SBS World News bulletins since 1999.
Victoria Falconer
Australia
Victoria Falconer is a cabaret performer, multi-instrumentalist, musical director, writer and composer.
Future D. Fidel
Australia
Future D. Fidel spent eight years in a refugee camp in Tanzania before being accepted as a refugee in Australia. His debut play Prize Fighter premiered in 2015 before he adapted it into a novel in 2018.
Leta Hong Fincher
United States
Leta Hong Fincher is the author of Leftover Women: The Resurgence of Gender Inequality in China and Betraying Big Brother: The Feminist Awakening in China. Her journalism has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Ms. Magazine and on the BBC and CNN.
Farrin Foster
Australia
Farrin Foster is a journalist, writer and filmmaker. She is a co-founder of independent magazine CityMag and community-driven media platform City Standard.
Zana Fraillon
Australia
Zana Fraillon novel The Bone Sparrow won the ABIA Book of the Year for Older Children, the Readings Young Adult Book Prize and the Amnesty CILIP Honour. Her most recent title The Ones that Disappeared was shortlisted for the 2018 Prime Ministers Literary Awards. Zana lives in Melbourne.
Enza Gandolfo
Australia
Enza Gandolfo is a Melbourne writer, academic and editor. Her first novel, Swimming (2009), was shortlisted for the Barbara Jefferis Award and her second novel, The Bridge, was published in 2018.
Rose George
United Kingdom
Rose George is an award-winning author and journalist whose work has been acclaimed by organisations including The Economist, Radio 4 and the British Maritime Foundation. Her two TED talks, on sanitation and seafaring, have had nearly 3 million views. Nine Pints is her fourth book.
Moreno Giovannoni
Australia
Moreno Giovannoni is a freelance translator and author and the recipient of the prestigious Deborah Cass Prize in 2016. The Fireflies of Autumn is his first book.
Sujatha Gidla
India
Sujatha Gidla was born in India and moved to New York aged 26. The personal history Ants Among Elephants: An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India is her first book.
Jane Gleeson-White
Australia
Jane Gleeson-White’s first book on the origins of accounting, Double Entry, was shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, The Age Book of the Year Award and the Queensland Literary Awards.
Morris Gleitzman
Australia
Morris Gleitzman is one of Australia’s most popular authors. With more than 40 books to his name, he was appointed the Australian Children’s Laureate for 2018–2019.
Andrea Goldsmith
Australia
Andrea Goldsmith is a celebrated author whose books have been shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Award and won the Melbourne Prize for Literature.
Kerryn Goldsworthy
Australia
Kerryn Goldsworthy is an Adelaide writer and critic. She won the Pascall Prize for Cultural Criticism in 2013, and the 2017 Horne Prize for her essay The Limit of the World. She is the author of Adelaide, in NewSouth Publishing’s Cities series.
Jan Golembiewski
Australia
Jan Golembiewski grew up in suburban Canberra and in the jungles of Papua New Guinea. An architect by profession, Magic is his first book.
Ginger Gorman
Australia
Ginger Gorman is an award-winning social justice journalist based in Canberra. After becoming the target of vitriolic online harassment in 2013, her subsequent research became Troll Hunting: Inside the World of Online Hate and its Human Fallout.
Tom Griffiths
Australia
Tom Griffiths’ books and essays have won prizes in literature, history, science, politics and journalism, including the Prime Minister’s Prize for Australian History.
Mohammed Hanif
Pakistan
Born in Okara, Pakistan, Mohammed Hanif is a graduate of the Pakistan Air Force Academy, journalist and writer. His first novel A Case of Exploding Mangoes won the Commonwealth Prize for Best Book and his most recent is Red Birds.
Chris Hammer
Australia
Chris Hammer’s first novel Scrublands was published to critical acclaim and became a No. 1 bestseller. He was previously a journalist for more than 30 years, covering Australian politics and international affairs.
Jane Harper
Australia
Jane Harper is the author of the international bestsellers The Dry and Force of Nature. Her most recent book is The Lost Man.
Jacqueline Harvey
Australia
Jacqueline Harvey is one of Australia’s most popular children’s authors and presenters. She has received numerous short-listings and awards for her bestselling Kensy and Max, Alice-Miranda and Clementine Rose series.
Ashley Hay
Australia
Ashley Hay is an essayist and novelist based in Brisbane. Her most recent novel is A Hundred Small Lessons. She is the editor of Griffith Review.
Sarah Henstra
Canada
Sarah Henstra’s first novel for adults, The Red Word, won the Canadian Governor General’s Award. She is a Professor of English at Ryerson University and the author of the young adult novel Mad Miss Mimic.
Chloe Hooper
Australia
Chloe Hooper’s is an award-winning author of fiction and non-fiction, including the acclaimed The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island. Her new book is The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire.
Linda Jaivin
Australia
Linda Jaivin is the author of eleven books, including seven novels and the Quarterly Essay Found in Translation. She is also a cultural commentator, co-editor of the China Story Yearbook at the Australian National University, and literary and film translator.
Tamsin Janu
Australia
Tamsin Janu is from Sydney. Tamsin debut multi-award-winning novel, Figgy in the World, was written after a three-month stay in Ghana in 2009. Many of the places and the children she met there have inspired her Figgy novels. Figgy Takes the City was recently shortlisted for the 2018 Prime Minister’s Literary Award.
Annaleese Jochems
New Zealand
Annaleese Jochems’ first book Baby was longlisted for the Dublin International Literary Prize and won the Best First Book Award at the 2018 NZ Ockham Book Awards and the 2016 Adam Prize from the International Institute of Modern Letters.
Toni Jordan
Australia
Toni Jordan is the author of five novels that have been published internationally and long and shortlisted for awards including the International Dublin Literary Award, the Miles Franklin Award and the Voss Literary Prize.
Gail Jones
Australia
Gail Jones is the award-winning author of seven novels and two collections of stories and one of Australia’s most celebrated writers. Her new book is The Death of Noah Glass.
Birgitta Jónsdóttir
Iceland
Birgitta Jónsdóttir is an Icelandic politician, anarchist, poet, and activist.
Andrew Joyner
Australia
Andrew Joyner is an internationally published illustrator and author. He has written and illustrated a series about a little warthog called Boris, and has illustrated Tim & Ed, The Terrible Plop and One Little Goat for Ursula Dubosarsky and many other children’s authors. He lives in South Australia.
Jon Jureidini
Australia
Jon Jureidini is a child psychiatrist who heads Adelaide University’s Critical and Ethical Mental Health research group and the Paediatric Mental Health Training Unit. He is chair of Australian-Palestinian Partnerships in Education and Health.
Sarah Jane Justice
Australia
Sarah Jane Justice is the SA state champion of the 2018 National Poetry Slam. She has written and recorded various musical works, including a one woman show for the 2016 Adelaide Fringe Festival.
Bernard Keane
Australia
Bernard Keane has been Crikey's correspondent and politics editor in Canberra since 2008. His books include the War on the Internet, A Short History of Stupid (with Helen Razer) and most recently The Mess We’re In: How Our Politics Went to Hell and Dragged Us With It.
Cath Kenneally
Australia
Cath Kenneally is an Adelaide novelist and poet, and longtime arts journalist and broadcaster. Her poetry collection Around Here won the John Bray National Poetry Award and her latest book of poems will be published by Wakefield Press this year.
Dominic Knight
Australia
Dominic Knight is a writer, broadcaster and co-founder of The Chaser. His latest book is Trumpedia.
Jeremy Lachlan
Australia
Jeremy Lachlan was born and raised in Griffith, country NSW but now calls Sydney home. He came up with the idea for Jane Doe and The Cradle of All Worlds while lost in the Cairo Museum. It is his debut novel.
Laniyuk
Australia
Laniyuk was born of a French mother and a Larrakia, Kungarrakan and Gurindji father. She contributed to Colouring the Rainbow: Blak Queer and Trans Perspectives and awarded the Indigenous residency (Canberra's Noted Writers Festival 2017, Overland’s Writers Residency 2018).
Tali Lavi
Australia
Tali Lavi is a writer and reviewer whose work has appeared in publications including Australian Book Review, Sydney Review of Books, Overland and The Melbourne Review. She is Co-Director of Programming at Melbourne Jewish Book Week.
Jing-Jing Lee
Singapore
Jing-Jing Lee was born and raised in Singapore and now lives in Amsterdam. Her poetry and short stories have been published in various journals and anthologies; How We Disappeared is her first novel.
Melissa Lucashenko
Australia
Melissa Lucashenko is a multi-award winning Goorie writer who writes passionately about ordinary people and the extraordinary lives they lead. Her new book is Too Much Lip.
Scott Ludlam
Australia
Scott Ludlam is a former Australian politician representing the Australian Greens. He served as a Senator from Western Australia from 2008 - 2017, and as Co-Deputy Leader of his party from 2015 - 2017. He is currently a columnist for The Guardian and his first book on ecology, technology and politics will be published in 2019.
Richard McGregor
Australia
Richard McGregor has reported from Asia for two decades. Formerly Chief of the Washington Bureau of the Financial Times, he has won numerous awards for his journalism and is the author of the acclaimed bestseller The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers.
Malcolm McKinnon
Australia
Malcolm McKinnon is an artist, curator, writer and filmmaker.
Bruno Maçães
Portugal
Bruno Maçães was the Portuguese Europe Minister from 2013-2015, and is a strategist and academic. He is the author of The Dawn of Eurasia and the forthcoming Belt and Road: The Sinews of Chinese Power.
Will Mackin
United States
A veteran of the U.S. Navy, Will Mackin served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Bring Out The Dog is his first collection of short stories.
Nancy MacLean
United States
Nancy MacLean is an award-winning author and the William Chafe Professor of History and Public Policy at Duke University. Her most recent book is Democracy in Chains.
David Malouf
Australia
David Malouf ‘s award-winning writings include poetry, novels and short stories, essays, opera librettos and a play, and have been widely translated. In 2000 he was the sixteenth Neustadt Laureate.
Ndaba Mandela
South Africa
Ndaba Mandela is the grandson of Nelson Mandela and co-founder and co-chairman of the Africa Rising Foundation. He is the author of Going to the Mountain: Life Lessons from my Grandfather.
David Marr
Australia
David Marr is one of Australia’s most respected journalists and commentators. He is the recipient of four Walkley Awards for journalism and the author of six best-selling Quarterly Essays. His books include the award-winning Patrick White: A Life.
Audrey Mason-Hyde
Australia
Audrey Mason-Hyde: At 13, Audrey recently appeared in the ABC’s 'F**king Adelaide' and in the feature ‘52 Tuesdays’. In 2017 Audrey presented at TedX Adelaide and won the "Rumble SA" under 26 poetry slam 2018.
Rebecca Makkai
United States
Rebecca Makkai is the author of a short story collection and three novels, the most recent of which, The Great Believers, was short-listed for the 2018 US National Book Award. She is also an academic and Artistic Director of StoryStudio Chicago.
Maeve Marsden
Australia
Maeve Marsden is a writer, director, producer and performer. Her anthology Queerstories is a collection of stories from her celebrated storytelling live events.
Tania Meyer
Australia
Tania Meyer is a producer, educator and science communicator with a passion for discussing ethical issues.
George Megalogenis
Australia
George Megalogenis is an award-winning author and journalist with three decades' experience in the media. His most recent book is The Football Solution, a paean to his beloved Richmond Football Club.
Andrew Miller
United Kingdom
Andrew Miller's novels have been published in twenty countries and have won and been shortlisted for most major international awards. His new novel is Now We Shall Be Entirely Free.
Jennifer Mills
Australia
Jennifer Mills is the author of a short story collection and three novels, the latest of which is Dyschronia,. She was the 2014 recipient of the Barbara Hanrahan Fellowship from the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature.
Sisonke Msimang
Australia
Sisonke Msimang was born in exile to South African parents and raised in Zambia, Kenya and Canada before studying in the US. Her family returned to South Africa after the abolition of apartheid and she now lives in Perth, Australia. Always Another Country is her first book.
Rick Morton
Australia
Rick Morton is an award-winning journalist and social affairs writer for The Australian. One Hundred Years of Dirt is his first book.
Melanie Mununggurr-Williams
Australia
Melanie Mununggurr-Williams is a Djapu woman, a wife, and mother of two young children. She writes about family, place and identity and is the 2018 Australian Poetry Slam champion.
Margaret Morgan
Australia
Margaret Morgan has written for the stage and screen and practised as a criminal lawyer. The Second Cure is her debut novel.
Katharine Murphy
Australia
Katharine Murphy is the political editor for Guardian Australia and has been a journalist in Canberra’s parliamentary press gallery for two decades.
Bob Murphy
Australia
Bob Murphy played for the Western Bulldogs for 17 years and was their captain for 3. Murphy has written regularly for The Age, and his first book was Murphy’s Lore. His new book is Leather Soul.
Molly Murn
Australia
Molly Murn is a South Australian author and poet. Heart of the Grass Tree is her first novel.
Alice Nelson
Australia
Alice Nelson was named one of the Sydney Morning Herald’s Best Young Australian Novelists for her first novel, The Last Sky. Her new book is The Children’s House.
Claire Nichols
Australia
Claire Nichols is the host of The Book Show on ABC RN. She has spent a decade at the ABC, with roles in news, current affairs, local radio and at RN.
Garth Nix
Australia
Garth Nix is the author of the YA fantasy Old Kingdom series, SF novels Shade's Children and A Confusion of Princes. His fantasy novels for children include The Ragwitch, The Seventh Tower sequence, The Keys to the Kingdom series and others. He has co-written several books with Sean Williams, including the Troubletwisters series and Have Sword, Will Travel.
Mads Peder Nordbo
Greenland
Mads Peder Nordbo is a Danish author of five novels, now based in Greenland. His two latest books have been published in eighteen languages; The Girl Without Skin is the first to be published in English.
Patrick Nunn
Australia
Patrick Nunn holds a research professorship at the University of the Sunshine Coast in 2014. He has written several books, the most recent of which is The Edge of Memory.
Kerry O'Brien
Australia
Kerry O'Brien is one of Australia's most respected journalists, with six Walkley awards including the Gold Walkley and the Walkley for outstanding leadership in journalism.
Ben Okri
Nigeria
Ben Okri is an author, poet and Man Booker Prize winner for The Famished Road. His work has been translated into 27 languages and won numerous international prizes. His most recent book is The Freedom Artist.
Kristina Olsson
Australia
Kristina Olsson is a journalist and the award-winning author of the novels Shell, In One Skin, and The China Garden, and two works of nonfiction, Boy, Lost: A Family Memoir and Kilroy was Here.
Lucia Osborne-Crowley
Australia
Lucia Osborne-Crowley is a writer, journalist, and researcher in constitutional and human rights law. Her first book, I Choose Elena, based on her celebrated Lifted Brow essay, will be published in 2019.
Eileen Ormsby
Australia
Eileen Ormsby is a lawyer, author and freelance journalist. Her first book, Silk Road was the world's first in-depth expose of the black markets that operate on the dark web. Her follow-up book is Darkest Web delved further into the Internet’s Evil Twin.
David Penberthy
Australia
David Penberthy co-hosts the Breakfast Show on 5AA and has been a columnist with News Limited for 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 1999-2004.
Fiona Patten
Australia
Fiona Patten is a former sex worker and the founder and leader of the Reason Party (formerly The Australian Sex Party). She is a Member of the Victorian Legislative Council.
Bram Presser
Australia
Bram Presser’s first book, The Book of Dirt, won three NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, the Voss Literary Prize and the Goldberg Prize for Debut Fiction at the American National Jewish Book Awards.
J.P. Pomare
Australia
J.P. Pomare’s writing has been published in journals including Meanjin and Kill Your Darlings and his podcast On Writing has featured bestselling authors from around the globe. Call Me Evie is his first novel.
Alice Pung
Australia
Alice Pung is an award-winning author whose books include Unpolished Gem, Her Father's Daughter and Close to Home. She edited the anthologies Growing up Asian in Australia and My First Lesson, and is currently the writer in residence at Janet Clarke Hall at the University of Melbourne.
Victoria Purman
Australia
Victoria Purman is a bestselling Australian author whose most recent novel, The Last of the Bonegilla Girls, was published in 2018.
Ben Quilty
Australia
Ben Quilty is an Australian artist and social commentator.
Solli Raphael
Australia
Solli Raphael: As the youngest winner of the Australian Poetry Slam, Solli Raphael enjoys writing powerful and emotive poetry to instigate change, sending out the challenge, be a game changer with me!
Caroline Reid
Australia
Caroline Reid: An award-winning writer, Caroline found her feet in the theatre so her poetry is steeped in the oral tradition. In 2016 she read her first poem in public. Two years later she qualified as one of the Top 5 poets in the Australian Poetry Slam.
Peter Rose
Australia
Peter Rose is the author of six collections of poetry and the family memoir Rose Boys. He is Editor of Australian Book Review.
Lyndall Ryan
Australia
Lyndall Ryan is one of Australia’s most respected historians of Indigenous Australia. Her book Remembering the Myall Creek Massacre, co-edited with Jane Lydon, was published in June 2018 to mark the 180th anniversary of the Myall Creek Massacre.
Amy Sackville
United Kingdom
Amy Sackville’s first novel The Still Point was longlisted for the Orange Prize and won the 2010 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and her second, Orkney, won the 2014 Somerset Maugham Award. Her new book is Painter to the King.
Nazanin Sahamizadeh
Iran
Nazanin Sahamizaeh is a theatre maker and activist from Iran and director and co-writer of the play Manus, featured in this year’s Adelaide Festival.
Leigh Sales
Australia
Leigh Sales is one of Australia’s most respected journalists and anchors the ABC’s 7.30. She is the winner of two Walkley Awards, author of three books including Any Ordinary Day, and co-host of the podcast Chat 10, Looks 3 with Annabel Crabb.
Rick Sarre
Australia
Rick Sarre is an Adjunct Professor of Law and Criminal Justice at the University of South Australia. He is a Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology and a previous Chair of the Academic Board of UniSA and member of the University Council.
Clare Sawyer
Australia
Clare Sawyer is a producer and programmer with a focus on youth programming. From 2016-18 she was SWF Head of Children's and YA programs. She has also produced five internationally award-winning films. Currently, Clare curates the Family films for Sydney Film Festival.
Tory Shepherd
Australia
Tory Shepherd is a senior columnist and State Editor at The Advertiser. Her first book, On Freedom, will be published this year by Melbourne University Press.
David Sly
Australia
David Sly is a writer, author and editor with a career spanning over forty years.
Sarah Smarsh
United States
Sarah Smarsh’s first book, Heartland, was a finalist for the 2018 US National Book Award. As a journalist, Sarah has covered class, politics, and public policy for publications including The Guardian and The New York Times.
Carl Smith
Australia
Carl Smith is a science nerd / reporter at ABC Science, who also co-hosts the kids’ podcasts Short & Curly and Pickle. He’s made documentaries, presented the ABCTV series Minibeast Heroes, and was a reporter on ABCME’s Behind the News.
Collette Snowden
Australia
Dr Collette Snowden is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Creative Industries at the University of South Australia.
Hwang Sok-Yong
Korea
Hwang Sok-yong is arguably Korea’s most renowned author. The recipient of Korea's highest literary prizes, he has been shortlisted for the Prix Femina Etranger and was awarded the Emile Guimet Prize for Asian Literature for his book At Dusk.
Jeff Sparrow
Australia
Jeff Sparrow is a writer, editor, broadcaster and a columnist for The Guardian. His most recent book is Trigger Warnings: Political Correctness and the Rise of the Right
Natasha Stott Despoja
Australia
Natasha Stott Despoja is the founding chair of Our Watch (the foundation to End Violence Against Women and their Children). She was Australia's Global Ambassador for Women and Girls from 2013-15 and served as a senator for the Australian Democrats from 1995-2008, leading the party from 2001-2.
David Stratton
Australia
David Stratton is an award-winning film critic, film historian and lecturer, television personality and producer. He has served as President of the International Critics Jury for the Cannes and Venice Film Festivals and is author of three books on film and a memoir.
Adam Suckling
Australia
Adam Suckling is the CEO of the Copyright Agency. His previous roles include the Director of Policy, Corporate Affairs & Community Relation of News Corp and Director of Policy and Corporate Affairs at FOXTEL.
Dominic Symes
Australia
Dominic Symes’ poetry has appeared in journals and anthologies locally and overseas. He curates a monthly poetry reading series NO WAVE in Adelaide. Dominic released two chapbooks in 2018: Minor Seconds and NOW NOW.
Preti Taneja
United Kingdom
Preti Taneja’s novel WE THAT ARE YOUNG won the 2018 Desmond Elliot Prize for the year’s best debut. She teaches writing in prison and universities and works in human rights, including in the UK, Middle East, Kosovo and Kashmir.
Joelle Taylor
United Kingdom
Joelle Taylor is a poet, spoken word artist, playwright and novelist. She is a former UK slam champion and founder and artistic director of the Poetry Society’s national solo youth slam SLAMbassadors UK.
Jared Thomas
Australia
Jared Thomas is a writer and curator. His recent releases include Songs That Sound Like Blood and the Game Day series written with NBA player Patty Mills. He is currently the William and Margaret Geary Curator, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts and Material Culture at the South Australian Museum.
Carrie Tiffany
Australia
Carrie Tiffany’s novels have been shortlisted for awards including the Orange Prize and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and won the Dobbie Award, the Stella Prize and WA and NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.
Deb Tribe
Australia
Deb Tribe is a film reviewer, producer and presenter with ABC Radio Adelaide.
Gillian Triggs
Australia
Professor Gillian Triggs served as President of the Australian Human Rights Commission from 2012 to 2017. Her new memoir is Speaking Up.
Maria Tumarkin
Australia
Maria Tumarkin is one of Australia’s most foremost writers of creative non-fiction. She is an acclaimed author, teacher and cultural historian whose most recent book is Axiomatic.
Marlene van Niekerk
South Africa
Marlene van Niekerk was the first South African author to be shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize and is best known for her award-winning novels Triomf and The Way of Women.
Adam Wakeling
Australia
Adam Wakeling is an historian, legal researcher and author of two books including the recently published account of the Pacific War Crime trials after World War Two, Stern Justice.
Don Watson
Australia
Don Watson is the author of many acclaimed books, including the bestselling Recollections of a Bleeding Heart: A Portrait of Paul Keating PM and The Bush. His many awards include The Age Book of the Year, the National Biography Award and the Walkley Non-Fiction Award.
Amelia Walker
Australia
Amelia Walker has been performing poetry since her teens. She has featured at poetry festivals and events internationally and across Australia. She has published four poetry collections, plus three books on teaching poetry.
Anna Walker
Australia
Anna Walker writes and illustrates children's books and is based in Melbourne. Anna's book, Mr Huff, won the 2016 CBCA Book of the Year for Early Childhood and was shortlisted in the 2016 Prime Minister's Literary Awards. Anna's most recent picture book is Florette.
Toby Walsh
Australia
Toby Walsh is one of the world’s leading researchers in Artificial Intelligence. He is a Professor of Artificial Intelligence at UNSW and his new book is 2062: The World That Made AI.
Debbie Whitmont
Australia
Debbie Whitmont is an award winning journalist, author and former Middle East correspondent for the ABC. She is a two –time Walkley Award winner for her work with ABCs Four Corners and is a three -time winner of the Human Rights Commission award for TV.
Michael Williams
Australia
Michael Williams is the Director of the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas in Melbourne.
Rhiannon Williams
Australia
Originally from, Victoria, Rhiannon Williams now lives and writes in Sydney. Her debut novel and first ever middle-grade winner of the Ampersand Prize is Ottilie Colter and the Narroway Hunt. It is the first book of a trilogy. Rhiannon has a background in theatre and hopes to tell stories until the end of her days.
Robyn Williams
Australia
Robyn Williams has presented ABC Science programs since 1972 and has been the producer and host The Science Show since 1975. Also a documentary maker and author, his latest book is Turmoil: Letters from the Brink.
Sean Williams
Australia
Sean Williams has written over fifty books, one hundred short stories, the odd published poem, and even a sci-fi musical. He is the recipient of the Aurealis and Ditmar Awards in multiple categories and has been nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award, the Seiun Award, and the William Atheling Jr. Award for criticism. He lives in South Australia.
Geordie Williamson
Australia
Geordie Williamson is chief literary critic of The Australian. He's a former publisher of the Picador imprint and a recent Editor of Best Australian Essays.
Clare Wright
Australia
Dr Clare Wright is an award-winning historian and author. Her book, The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka, won the 2014 Stella Prize and her most recent book is You Daughters of Freedom, about the Australian suffragette movement.
Tom Wright
Australia
Tom Wright is a theatre writer, best known for his adaptations and translations, and is the host of the Adelaide Festival’s Breakfast with Papers at the Riverbank Palais.
Eddie Woo
Australia
Eddie Woo is the head mathematics teacher at Cherrybrook Technology High School, Sydney. In 2018, Eddie was named Australia's Local Hero and shortlisted as one of the Top Ten teachers in the world.
Susan Wyndham
Australia
Susan Wyndham is a journalist, writer and book reviewer, and was previously Literary Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald. Her most recent book is My Mother, My Father: On Losing a Parent.
Richard Yaxley
Australia
Richard Yaxley has written novels for adults and young adults, plays, poetry and school musicals. His works Drink the Air, Joyous and Moonbeam have been highly acclaimed and more recently, This is My Song, was the winner of the 2018 Prime Minister’s Literary Award. Richard’s latest book is The Happiness Quest. Richard lives and teaches in Brisbane.
Carl Zimmer
United States
Carl Zimmer is a columnist for The New York Times and the award-winning author of a dozen books about science, on subjects ranging from viruses to neuroscience to evolution.
Markus Zusak
Australia
Markus Zusak is the author of five books, including the international bestseller, The Book Thief. His much-anticipated new novel, Bridge of Clay, was published in October 2018.
John Zubrzycki
Australia
John Zubrzycki has worked in India as a diplomat, consultant, tour guide and correspondent for The Australian. He is the author of three books -The Last Nizam, The Mysterious Mr Jacob and most recently Empire of Enchantment: The Story of Indian Magic.