AustLit

'Bri Lee is a writer and editor with a career to watch.

'Her first book, Eggshell Skull, was published in 2018. It was shortlisted for the 2019 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards in non-fiction, winning the 2019 People's Choice Award, and also won the 2018 People's Choice at the Nib Awards for research in writing, and the 2019 ABIA for Biography of the Year. Eggshell Skull was also shortlisted for the 2019 Indie Book Awards and longlisted for the 2019 Stella Prize.

'Her second work, Beauty, is a meditation on beauty and body image. It was published in 2019, and will be followed by Brains in 2020.

'Bri was the Founding Editor of the quarterly print periodical Hot Chicks with Big Brains, commissioning and publishing diverse non-fiction about women and their work from 2015 to 2018.

'Bri's shorter pieces have been published in The Monthly, Harper's Bazaar Australia, The Saturday Paper, Crikey, The Guardian, Griffith Review, i-D, VAULT Art Magazine, and elsewhere. She regularly appears on The Drum on ABC TV, various ABC Radio National programs, and often gives talks on writing, law, feminism, fashion, pop culture, and art.

'In 2016 Bri was the recipient of the inaugural Kat Muscat Fellowship, and in 2017 was one of Griffith Review's Queensland writing fellows. She has received numerous other fellowships, residencies, and mentorships, most recently the 2018 Premier's Young Publishers and Writers Award at the Queensland Literary Awards.'

Source: The Garret.

'Hilary McPhee is a legendary writer and editor. She founded McPhee Gribble Publishers with Diane Gribble in 1975, was Chair of the Australia Council for the Arts from 1994 to 1997, and was the inaugural Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow at Melbourne University until 2004.

'Hilary's books include Other People’s Words (2001), Wordlines (2010), Memoirs of a Young Bastard: the Diaries of Tim Burstall (2012) and Other People's Houses (2019).'

Source: The Garret.

'Carly Findlay is an award winning writer, speaker and appearance activist. She is the author of the memoir Say Hello, and has been published in The Guardian, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, Daily Life, SBS and Frankie. In 2020 Carly is editing the anthology Growing Up Disabled in Australia.

'In 2020 Carly was awarded an Order of Australia (OAM) for services to people with a disability, and in 2014 she was named as one of Australia's most influential women in the Australian Financial Review and Westpac 100 Women of Influence Awards. She has appeared on ABC's You Can't Ask That and Cyber Hate with Tara Moss, and has been a regular on various ABC radio programs. She organised history making Access to Fashion - a Melbourne Fashion Week event featuring disabled models. Carly identifies as a proud disabled woman - she lives with a rare severe skin condition - Ichthyosis.

'Growing Up Disabled in Australia is part of a series. You can listen to previous episodes on The Garret about the series, including Ben Law discussing Growing Up Queer in Australia and Maxine Beneba Clarke, Magan Magan and Shantell Wetherall discussing Growing Up African in Australia.'

Source: The Garret.

'Favel Parrett has an extraordinary command of the literary form. Her first novel, Past the Shallows, received the Dobbie Literary Prize and was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin. She herself was awarded Newcomer of the Year at the Australian Book Industry Awards. Her second novel, When the Night Comes, overcame all the challenges a second novel often faces and was shortlisted for a host of prizes and longlisted for the Miles Franklin. There Was Still Love is Favel’s third novel, and in 2020 it was shortlisted for the Indie Book Awards and longlisted for The Stella Prize.'

Source: The Garret.

'Ilka Tampke is one of Australia's finest writers of historical fiction. Her first novel, Skin, was nominated for the Voss Literary Prize and the Aurealis Awards in 2016, and went on to be published in eight countries. The follow up, Songwoman, received the Most Underrated Book Award in 2019, and there is a third novel on the way. Ilka teaches fiction at RMIT University.'

Source: The Garret.

'Melissa Lucashenko is a multi-award winning Goorie writer. Her novel Too Much Lip received the 2019 Miles Franklin Literary Award. It was also shortlisted for the Stella Prize, the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards, the NSW Premier's Literary Awards and the Australian Book Industry Association Awards.

'Her 2013 novel Mullumbimby was awarded the Deloitte Queensland Literary Award for Fiction, won the Victorian Premiers Prize for Indigenous Writing, and was longlisted for both the Stella and Miles Franklin awards as well as the Dublin IMPAC Literary Prize 2015.

'Melissa is a Walkley Award winner for her non-fiction, as well as a founding member of the prisoner’s human rights group, Sisters Inside.'

Source: The Garret.

'Charlotte Wood is one of Australia's most provocative writers. This interview is an in-depth exploration of her most famous work, The Natural Way of Things, which is on its way to becoming an international classic. Be warned, there are spoilers.

'The Natural Way of Things received the 2016 Stella Prize, the 2016 Indie Book of the Year and Novel of the Year, was joint winner of the Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction and was the University of Canberra Book of the Year for 2019.

'In 2019 she was made a Member of the Order of Australia for significant services to literature, and was named one of the Australian Financial Review's 100 Women of Influence.'

Source: The Garret.

'Mandy Beaumont's writing is powerful, brutal, magnificent and complex. Her debut short story collection Wild, Fearless Chests was shortlisted for the 2018 Hachette Richell Prize and the 2019 UWAP Dorothy Hewett Award.

'Her work has been published in Griffith Review, Cordite, Black Inc. Best Poems and The Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library Journal, and she has produced large-scale interactive text work for Brisbane Festival, Queensland Poetry Festival, The State Library of Queensland and the Brisbane Writers Festival.

'Mandy is currently a PhD candidate at RMIT's School of Media and Communication.'

Source: The Garret.

'Zana Fraillon's The Bone Sparrow is an exceptional book for young adult readers, and this interview is an in-depth discussion of the themes and structure of the work.

'The Bone Sparrow was awarded the Amnesty CILIP Honour Award, the ABIA Book of the Year for Older Readers, the Readings YA Book Prize, the IBBY Australian Honour Book and was listed on the the CBCA Honour Book. The Bone Sparrow was also shortlisted for the Carnegie Award, the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, the 2017 Prime Minister's Literary Award, the Victorian Premier's Literary Award, the Queensland Literary Award and the INKY Awards.'

Source: The Garret.

'Ali Alizadeh is an acclaimed writer and poet. His books include the historical novel The Last Days of Jeanne d’Arc, the short story collection Transactions, and the literary memoir Iran, My Grandfather (shortlisted for a NSW Premier’s Literary Award), as well as three poetry collections Towards the End, Ashes in the Air (shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Award for Poetry) and Eyes in Times of War.

'Ali is a senior lecturer in Literary Studies at Monash University. His poetry is set for high school study in Queensland.'

Source: The Garret.

'Leah Purcell, a proud Goa, Gunggari, Wakka Wakka Murri woman, is a multi-award-winning author, playwright, screenwriter, actor, director and producer.

'The Drover’s Wife was first a play written by and starring Purcell, which premiered at Belvoir St Theatre in late 2016 and swept the board during the 2017 awards season, winning the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Award for Playwriting and Book of the Year, the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Drama and the Victorian Prize for Literature, the Australian Writers’ Guild Award for Best Stage Work, Major Work and the David Williamson Prize for Excellence in Writing for Australian Theatre, the Helpmann Award for Best Play and Best New Australian Work, and the Sydney–UNESCO City of Film Award.

'In 2019 Leah adapted her play to the novel form in the fictional The Drover's Wife (and we can expect a sequel).

'The feature film adaptation of The Drover’s Wife, written, directed and starring Leah Purcell, is slated for a 2021 release.'

Source: The Garret.

'This interview with Anna Spargo-Ryan is the first instalment of The Garret At Home - the same podcast as always, now recorded with everyone... at home.

'Anna is the Non-Fiction Editor of Island Magazine. She received the 2016 Horne Prize for her essay ‘The Suicide Gene’, and is currently writing a memoir. She has also written for The Guardian, ELLE, Meanjin and Good Weekend.

'Anna also publishes fiction, and she is the author of The Gulf and The Paper House. Her short fiction has been published inThe Big Issue, Island, Kill Your Darlings and The Lifted Brow.

'She is a PhD candidate in Creative Writing at Deakin University, where she also teaches nonfiction writing.'

Source: The Garret.

'Mirandi Riwoe is the author of 2020's Stone Sky Gold Mountain, as well as the novella The Fish Girl, which won Seizure’s Viva la Novella V and was shortlisted for The Stella Prize and the Queensland Literary Award’s UQ Fiction Prize.

'Mirandi also publishes under the name M.J. Tjia, and she is the woman behind the Heloise Chancey historical crime series She Be Damned, A Necessary Murder and The Death of Me.

'Her work features in Best Australian Stories, Meanjin, Review of Australian Fiction, Griffith Reviewand Best Summer Stories.'

Source: The Garret.

'Ali Cobby Eckermann is one of Australia's finest poets. In this interview, she talks at length about Ruby Moonlight, her massacre verse novel exploring colonisation in Australia.

'Ruby Moonlight received the black&write! kuril dhagun Indigenous Writing Fellowship and the Deadly Award Outstanding Achievement in Literature in 2012, as well as the Kenneth Slessor Poetry Prize and Book of the Year Award in the NSW Premier’s Literary and History Awards in 2013.

'In 2020 Ali is an Adjunct Professor at RMIT University. To listen to Ali speak about her other works, listen to this interview on The Garret, recorded in late 2019.'

Source: The Garret.

'Leah Kaminsky is a physician and award-winning writer of fiction and non-fiction. Her work explores illness, medicine, science and the end of life.

'Her debut novel The Waiting Room won the Voss Literary Prize and was shortlisted for the Helen Asher Award. Her second novel, The Hollow Bones won the 2019 International Book Awards in both Literary Fiction and Historical Fiction categories and the 2019 Best Book Awards for Literary Fiction.

'We’re all Going to Die has been described as ‘a joyful book about death’. She also conceived and edited Writer MD, a collection of prominent physician-writers, and is co-author of Cracking the Code.

'She has written for the BBC, Huffington Post, Sydney Morning Herald, Griffith Review, SBS and LitHub, amongst others.'

Source: The Garret.

'Dervla McTiernan's novel, The Rúin (2018), was a critically acclaimed international bestseller. In Australia, The Rúin won the Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction, the Davitt Award for Best Adult Fiction. In America, it won the Barry Award for Best Original Paperback, and was on the Amazon US Best Book of the Year list.

'Dervla continued the crime trilogy with The Scholar (2019) and The Good Turn (2020, both of which are also best sellers around the world. The screen rights have been snapped up by Hopscotch Features.'

Source: The Garret.

'James Bradley's work explores the environment and climate, as well as time - our past, our present, and our possible futures.

'He is the author of five novels - Ghost Species, Wrack, The Deep Field, The Resurrectionist and Clade. His works are highly awarded, and he has been shortlisted for both the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Christina Steed Prize for Fiction.'

Source: The Garret.

'Jess Hill is an investigative journalist. Her exceptional 2019 work See What You Made Me Do: Power, Control and Domestic Abuse received the 2020 Stella Prize, and is now being published around the world.

'Jess has done what few writers can - she has taken difficult subject matter and not only made it compelling, she has contributed to a societal shift. In this interview, Jess discusses how writers can 'find the way' to the story, and also reflects on what topics she may tackle next.'

Source: The Garret.

'Ellen van Neerven is an award-winning poet and writer of Mununjali Yugambeh and Dutch heritage. They write fiction, poetry, plays and non-fiction.

'Ellen’s first book, Heat and Light, was the recipient of the David Unaipon Award, the Dobbie Literary Award and the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Indigenous Writers Prize. Ellen’s second book, a collection of poetry, Comfort Food, was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Kenneth Slessor Prize and highly commended for the 2016 Wesley Michel Wright Prize. Throat is Ellen’s third word and her second poetry collection.'  (Production introduction)

'Ronnie Scott is a novelist, editor, critic and comic specialist. He published the Penguin Special Salad Days in 2014 and released The Adversary, his first novel, in 2020. In this interview, Ronnie unpicks the idea of writing craft using the example of how he wrote The Adversary.

'Ronnie lectures at RMIT University and has edited several anthologies. His short works are published in everything from major news outlets to independent journals.' (Introduction)

'Ellena Savage is an author and academic. Her work is published in literary journals and anthologies around the world, including Paris Review Daily, Sydney Review of Books, Choice Words and Lifted Brow. Blueberries is her first collection.

'Ellena is the recipient of several grants and prizes, including the 2019–21 Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship.' (Introduction)

'Kate Grenville is one of Australia’s most celebrated writers. Her international bestseller The Secret River was awarded local and overseas prizes, has been adapted for the stage and as an acclaimed television miniseries, and is now a much-loved classic. Grenville’s other novels include Sarah Thornhill, The Lieutenant, Dark Places and the Orange Prize winner The Idea of Perfection.

'In 2020 she returns to the first years of European settlement in Australia with A Room Made of Leaves, an alternative memoir of Elizabeth Macarthur.

'Kate has also written non-fiction, including One Life: My Mother’s Story and The Case Against Fragrance, as well as three books about the writing process.

'In 2017 Grenville was awarded the Australia Council Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature.' (Introduction)

'Larissa Behrendt, a Eualeyai and Kamillaroi woman, is a writer, lawyer and academic. This interview is an in-depth discussion of her work Finding Eliza: Colonial Power and Storytelling.

'Larissa is the Distinguished Professor at the University of Technology Sydney and at the Director of Research and Academic Programs Jumbunna Institute of Indigenous Education and Research.

'Larissa won the 2002 David Unaipon Award and a 2005 Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for her novel Home. Her second novel, Legacy, won a Victorian Premiers Literary Award. She has also published numerous textbooks on Indigenous legal issues.

'Larissa wrote and directed the feature films, After the Apology and Innocence Betrayed and has written and produced several short films. She won the 2018 Australian Directors Guild Award for Best Direction in a Feature Documentary.

'Larissa is on the board of Sydney Festival and a board member of the Australia Council’s Major Performing Arts Panel. She was awarded the 2009 NAIDOC Person of the Year award and 2011 NSW Australian of the Year.' (Introduction)

'Michael Mohammed Ahmad is both a writer and editor. He received the Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Australian Novelist Award for his debut novel The Tribe, and the sequel, The Lebs, was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award.

'In 2020 he is the editor behind After Australia, a collection of short stories about Australia's potential futures, and it is this work that the interview focuses on. The anthology includes works from Ambelin Kwaymullina, Claire G. Coleman, Omar Sakr, Future D. Fidel, Karen Wyld, Khalid Warsame, Kaya Ortiz, Roanna Gonsalves, Sarah Ross, Zoya Patel, Michelle Law and Hannah Donnelly.

'Mohammed is also the founder and director of Sweatshop Literary Movement in Western Sydney.' (Introduction)

'Sophie Cunningham is the editor behind the 2020 anthology Fire, Flood, Plague. She is also the author of six books, including City of Trees and Warning: The Story of Cyclone Tracy.

'Sophie is a former publisher and editor, was a co-founder of the Stella Prize and is now an Adjunct Professor at RMIT University’s Non/fiction Lab. In 2019 Sophie Cunningham was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for her contributions to literature.' (Production introduction)

'Maxine Beneba Clarke explores her gorgeous picture book, When We Say Black Lives Matter, in this 2020 interview.' (Production introduction)

'Ceridwen Dovey writes fiction, creative non-fiction, and in-depth essays and profiles. Born in South Africa, she grew up between South Africa and Australia, 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 and selected for the U.S. National Book Foundation’s prestigious "5 Under 35" honours list.

'Her second book, Only the Animals, won the inaugural Readings New Australian Writing Award, the Steele Rudd Award for a short story collection in the Queensland Literary Awards, and was co-winner of the People's Choice Award for Fiction at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards.

'Her 2018 novel, In the Garden of the Fugitives was longlisted for the 2019 ABIA Awards. Life After Truth, published in 2020, is her latest work.' (Production introduction)

'Louise Milligan is an investigative reporter for ABC TV's Four Corners. Her first book was Cardinal: The rise and fall of George Pell (2017), which won the Walkley Book Award and broke massive international news about the court case and successive and ultimately successful appeals involving one of the most senior members of the Catholic Church hierarchy.

'Her second book is Witness: An investigation into the brutal cost of seeking justice (2020). Among many awards for her work, she's also the recipient of the 2019 Press Freedom Medal.

'Louise mentions her ongoing professional relationship with her publisher Louise Adler, who has been a guest on The Garret before.'(Production introduction)

'Evelyn Araluen is Co-Editor of Overland, as well as a poet, educator and researcher working with Indigenous literatures at the University of Sydney.

'Her work has won the Nakata Brophy Prize for Young Indigenous Writers, the Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize, and a Wheeler Centre Next Chapter Fellowship. Her debut poetry collection Dropbear will be published in 2021.

'Born, raised, and writing in Dharug country, she is a Bundjalung descendant.'(Production introduction)

'In 2020 Jamila Rizvi is the force behind two books pitched, written and published during the pandemic. The first is Untold Resilience: Stories of Courage, Survival and Love from Women Who Have Gone Before - an anthology of life stories from 19 older women. The second is I'm A Hero Too - an illustrated story for children about living during a time of pandemic.

'Jamila is the Chief Creative Office of the Nine Network’s Future Women, and a weekly columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. She has previously published two best-selling books - Not Just Lucky (2017) and The Motherhood (2018). Jamila is also a regular commentator on The Project, Today, The Drum and Q and A.' (Production introduction)

'Lisa Fuller is a Wuilli Wuilli woman from Eidsvold, Queensland, and is also descended from Gooreng Gooreng and Wakka Wakka peoples. Ghost Bird is her debut YA novel. She received the 2017 David Unaipon Award for an Unpublished Indigenous Writer, the 2018 Varuna Eleanor Dark Flagship Fellowship, and was a joint winner of the 2018 Copyright Agency Fellowships for First Nations Writers.

'Lisa is an editor and publishing consultant, and is passionate about culturally appropriate writing and publishing.' (Production introduction)

'Richard Flanagan is one of Australia's most beloved novelists. He is also Australia's most recent recipient of The Booker Prize for The Narrow Road to the Deep North. In this interview, he discusses his latest work, The Living Sea of Waking Dreams.

'We recorded this interview remotely and Richard was at his home in Tasmania.'(Production introduction) 

'Alice Robinson is the author of two novels. Her debut novel, Anchor Point, was longlisted for The Stella Prize and the Indie Book Awards. The Glad Shout was shortlisted for an Aurealis Award and The Colin Roderick Literary Award and won the Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction.

'Alice's stories, essays and reviews have been published widely in literary journals, including in Meanjin, Overland, The Lifted Brow, Kill Your Darlings, The Big Issue Fiction Edition, Fireflies, Arena, The Australian Humanities Review and Australian Book Review.' (Production introduction)

'Jessica Townsend is the mind behind the record-breaking middle grade fantasy series The Chronicles of Morrigan Crow. Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow kicked off the series, followed by Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow and Hollowpox: The Hunt for Morrigan Crow.

'This is projected to be a nine-book series, and honestly, this is a magical series of inclusivity, adventure and excellent reader pay offs.

'Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow was the biggest-selling Australian children's debut since records began. It received the 2018 ABIA for Book of the Year, Book of the Year for Younger Readers and Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year; the 2018 Indie Book Awards Book of the Year and Children's Category; the 2017 Aurealis Award for Best Children's Fiction and the 2018 Waterstones Children's Book Prize for Younger Fiction.' (Production summary)

'Trent Dalton is a dual Walkley Award winning journalist, who also happens to be an exquisite novelist. Boy Swallows Universe took out the awards season – and the hearts of readers – and there is little doubt All Our Shimmering Skies will do the same. This interview is one of Trent's first in depth interviews about All Our Shimmering Skies, and believe it or not, he also has news about Boy Swallows Universe.

'Boy Swallows Universe is a much-loved national bestseller and critically acclaimed novel. It received the Indie Book of the Year Award and the People's Choice Award at the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, as well as a record of four ABIA Awards in one year.

'Trent is a staff writer for the Weekend Australian Magazine. He is a two-time winner of the Walkley Award for Excellence in Journalism, a four-time winner of a Kennedy Award for Excellence in NSW Journalism and a four-time winner of the national News Awards Features Journalist of the Year.' (Production introduction)

'Paddy Manning is the author of four books, including 2020's Body Count: How Climate Change is Killing Us. In this interview, Paddy explores what may be one of our biggest questions, how do we write about the climate crisis? He also explains how he went about interviewing the family members of Australia's first climate casualties.

'Paddy is contributing editor for The Monthly. Over a twenty-year career in journalism he has worked for the ABC, Crikey, SMH/The Age, AFR, and The Australian, and he was the founding editor and publisher of Ethical Investor magazine.' (Production introduction)

'Jane Harper's debut novel, The Dry, received too many awards to list here and has now been turned into a feature film (to be released in 2021). Her subsequent novels, Force Of Nature and The Lost Man, received similar praise, and there is little doubt her most recent work, The Survivors, will as well.

'Jane's books are published in forty territories worldwide. She worked as a print journalist for thirteen years both in Australia and the United Kingdom before beginning to write full time.' (Production introduction)

'Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner are New York Times bestselling author duo. They have now published three YA series together, and in this interview Amie and Meagan discuss how they write together (even when living on different continents), how they ensure so many gripping pay-offs for their devoted readers, and even how they achieved the impossible - combining fantasy and science fiction in one novel.

'Their first series together was The Starbound Trilogy (These Broken Stars, This Shattered World and Their Fractured Light), followed by the Unearthed duology (Unearthed and Undying). They have just released The Other Side of the Sky, the first in a series.' (Production introduction)

'Omar Sakr is a poet and writer who brings the personal and political to life. In this interview, he discusses his writing craft, his foray into speculative fiction and the difference between what he publishes and what he writes for himself.

'Omar is the author of These Wild Houses, a collection of poetry shortlisted for the Judith Wright Calanthe Award and the Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, as well as The Lost Arabs, which was shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards, the John Bray Poetry Award and the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. In 2020, Omar contributed to the anthology After Australia with the short story White Flu.

'Elsewhere, Omar's articles and essays are published in The Saturday Paper, The Guardian,The Sydney Morning Herald, Archer, Meanjin, Kill Your Darlings, Going Down Swinging, SBS Online, SBS Life, SBS Comedy, The Wheeler Centre, and Junkee.' (Production introduction)

'Kate Mildenhall tackles the big questions. In this interview she considers how to write about our rapidly changing world (including about climate change and online surveillance), the role of writers in this time of crisis, and whether or not there could be a sequel to her dystopian literary thriller.

'Kate is a writer, teacher, and the mind behind the novels Skylarking and the utterly brilliant The Mother Fault.

'Kate mentions her mentor Charlotte Wood and her phenomenal work The Natural Way of Things.' (Production introduction)

'Bruce Pascoe, a Yuin, Bunarong and Tasmanian writer, has turned his craft to picture books. Found, illustrated by Charmaine Ledden-Lewis, is the story of a lost calf finding his family. It is also an allegory for the Stolen Generations.

'In this interview, Bruce introduces the stunning illustrator Charmaine Ledden-Lewis, explores the real life impetus behind Found, reflects on Dark Emu and looks forward to his forthcoming novel, Imperial Harvest.

'Note, this interview was recorded via Zoom and in parts you can hear Bruce's dog in the room with him.' (Production introduction)

'Richard Fidler, host of ABC's Conversations, discusses his love of history and what drives him to write about it, the role of literature in this most tumultuous of years and what we can learn from the history that has gone before.

'Richard is a writer of historical travel non-fiction and his works include The Golden Maze, Saga Land and Ghost Empire.'(Production introduction)

'A. J. Betts' novel Zac and Mia won the 2012 Text Prize and the 2014 Ethel Turner Prize for Young Adults at the New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards. Not only is the novel published in 14 countries, it was adapted for American television and will soon be available globally.

'Her other novels include Hive, which was shortlisted for the 2019 Indie Book Awards and 2019 ABIA Book of the Year for Older Children, and its sequel Rogue. And believe it or not, she has a PhD on the topic of wonder in life and in reading.' (Production introduction)

'Jane Harrison, a descendant of the Muruwari people of NSW, is a playwright, novelist, and the Festival Director of Blak & Bright, the First Nations Literary Festival based in Melbourne.

'Her novel Becoming Kirrali Lewis won the 2014 Black&Write! Prize, and was shortlisted for the Prime Minster’s Literary Awards and the Victorian Premier’s Awards.

'In terms of her works for the stage, Stolen, her first play, was the co-winner of the Kate Challis RAKA Award and has been performed throughout Australia as well as the United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Japan. She has also written The Visitors, Rainbow’s End, On A Park Bench and Blakvelvet.' (Production introduction)

'Trent Jamison discusses writing children's literature and creating fantasy worlds, as well as how we communicate about climate change to the next generation.

'Trent is a multi-award winning novelist and short story writer. He is the author of the picture book The Giant and the Sea, the fantasy work Day Boy, and the Death Works series. He has twice won Aurealis Awards for his short stories.' (Production introduction)