Randa Abdel-Fattah

Randa refers to herself as an Australian-born-Muslim-Palestinian-Egyptian-choc-a-holic. She has written three novels for young adults, Does my head look big in this?, Ten things I hate about me, and Where the streets had a name. A common theme in her work is the varied and individual experiences of female Muslim teenagers.

Kaye Aldenhoven

Kaye has lived in NT for many years. Her poetry focuses on family and Territory. Many of Kaye's poems and stories have been published in a range of forums – chap-books, anthologies, Poetica, web, Poetry Festivals. Kaye's interest in community based publishing began in 1991. Her work was recently featured in How to look after your poet in the event of a cyclone.

Patrick Allington

Patrick lives in Adelaide and is a lecturer in the Creative Writing department at The University of Adelaide. His first novel, Figurehead, was published in 2009, and in writing it, he was mentored by J.M. Coetzee and Tom Shapcott.

Dael Allison

Teodósio Baptista Ximenes

In 2009, Teodósio won the first prize in the Timorese National Short Novel Writing Competition for his first novel, Tetum, written in Timorese language. His upcoming novel Ha’u Maka Lucas (I am Lucas) is based the removal of Timorese children from their families by the Indonesian army between 1978 and 1980.

José Belo

Mark Bowling

Mark Bowling is an author,  and currently the ABC’s Northern Territory Director. Mark is a Walkley Award winning TV journalist and has worked as an ABC foreign correspondent in Japan, Indonesia and South East Asia. His 2006 book Running Amok describes 4 years of human turmoil covering the transition to democracy in Indonesia and East Timor.

Mary Anne Butler

Mary Anne holds a Master of Philosophy [Creative Writing] and a Master of Arts Education [Theatre in Education]. Her plays and short films have been produced in Queensland and the NT. Her current work The Sound of Waiting is pending production at the 2011 Darwin Festival, and JUTE [Cairns].

www.abc.net.au 

Jennifer Byrne

Jennifer is an Australian  print, radio and television journalist. She began her career in journalism at Melbourne's The Age newspaper. Byrne's television career includes Nationwide, Sunday, Sixty Minutes ,Foreign Correspondent, First Tuesday Book Club, and Jennifer Byrne Presents. In 2008 she joined ABC NewsRadio as a co-host during the evening drive slot.

Deborah Cheetham

Deborah is an Indigenous soprano, actor, and author of the internationally acclaimed play, White Baptist Abba Fan. Since her international debut in 1997, Ms Cheetham has performed in the theatres and concert halls of United States, Europe, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and throughout Australia. Deborah’s new opera, Pecan Summer, debuts early in 2010.

Ali Cobby Eckermann

Ali is a Nunga poet, who spent most of her adult life in the Northern Territory, returning to 'intervention free' South Australia mid 2008.  Her first book of poetry little bit long time reflects on her life journey and includes several award winning poems.

www.australianpoetrycentre.org.au

Julia Christensen

Julia presents the Brekkie show on 105.7 ABC Darwin. After thirty years in Darwin, she's amazed at the diversity of interesting Territorians and topics that she talks to every day. On the two days a week when Julia isn’t on air, she gets up early anyway and heads off to Top End rivers and billabongs in search of the elusive barra!

Leon Compton

Unbothered by midges, comfortable in his own sweat, Leon has been with ABC Darwin for coming up to six years and currently presents the morning show. He came to the NT after stints in regional radio in NSW and Victoria. Outside of work hours he is happiest in the mangroves or in the scrub but always under the stars. 

Jude Conway

Waiata Dawn Davies

Waiata tutors creative writing classes in New Zealand and America. Her poems and short stories have been published in America, Australia, Britain and NZ, and broadcast by the BBC and Radio NZ. She was awarded second prize in the 1995 Katherine Mansfield Short Story Awards. Waiata is the author of four books and numerous T shirts.

Dizzy Doolan

Dizzy is an Indigenous hip hop artist. She grew up in Townsville and Cairns, surrounded by a respected musical family. Dizzy wrote her first song at age eight, and at 18 she headed to Brisbane to pursue her career as a performing artist where she is starting to receive the recognition she deserves.

Nick Earls

Nick Earls is the author of eleven novels and two collections of short stories. Awards his books have won include a Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award and a Betty Trask Award (UK). Two of his novels have been adapted into films and five into plays. His most recent novel is The True Story of Butterfish.

Wesley Enoch

Wesley’s writing credits include The 7 Stages of Grieving, The Sunshine Club, Black Medea and Cookie’s Table which won the 2006 Patrick White Award and was shortlisted for both the NSW and Victorian Premier’s literary Awards. As a director, Wesley has been associated with works including Murri Love, Purple Dreams, Bitin Back, STOLEN, and Parramatta Girls.

Melaina Faranda

Melaina is the author of an international Young Adult series The Circle, the children’s series Abacus Aardvark, (under the pseudonym of M. J. Holiday), as well as Big Sky, Jack No Name, Avatar, The Glass Boy, Freeman’s Feats and Stand Up. Melaina has been a popular guest at numerous literature festivals, writers’ centres, schools and libraries.

Iyut Fitra

Iyut was born in Payakumbuh, West Sumatra, and has published a collection of poetry titled Musim Retak (Burst Season, 2006). His works have appeared in various newspapers and literary magazines in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei Darussalam, giving rise to invitations to events such as Mimbar Penyair Abad 21, Majelis Sastera Asia Tenggara, and others.

Tim Flannery

An internationally acclaimed scientist, explorer and conservationist, Tim has published more than 140 peer-reviewed scientific papers. His books include the landmark works The Future Eaters, Now or Never and The Weather Makers, which won a number of prestigious awards. In 2005 he was named Australian Humanist of the Year, and in 2007 honoured as Australian of the Year.

Lionel Fogarty

Lionel Fogarty is a Qld Murri poet of international acclaim.  He has published ten books of poetry, and an award winning children;s book.  He is well respected for his activism for the rights of Aboriginal Australians, and for 'conquering' the English language through his poetic voice.

Lee Frank

Michael Giacometti

Michael Giacometti is an emerging writer from Alice Springs. His works have appeared in Meanjin, Island, Fishtails in the dust (Ptilotus Press, 2009) and How to look after your poet in the event of a cyclone (NTWC, 2009).   

Kevin Gillam

Kevin is a West Australian writer with work published in numerous Australian and overseas journals. He has had two books of poems published, both by SunLine Press, Other Gravities in 2003, and Permitted to Fall in 2007. He works as a secondary school music teacher and freelance cellist and conductor.

Morris Gleitzman

Morris began his writing career as a scriptwriter of TV’s The Norman Gunston Show. Morris has since written many screenplays and nearly thirty books for younger readers. He has won a host of awards and been published around the globe. Bumface was voted number two in the Angus & Robertson Aussie Kids Top 100 Books of All Time.

Germaine Greer

Germaine Greer was born in Melbourne and educated in Australia and at Cambridge University. Her first book, The Female Eunuch (1969), took the world by storm and remains one of the most influential texts of the feminist movement. Germaine Greer has had a distinguished academic career in Britain and the USA. She makes regular appearances in print and as a broadcaster, journalist, columnist and reviewer.

Phillip Gwynne

Phillip’s first book, Deadly Unna? was the literary hit of 1998. The movie, Australian Rules, was based on this book and the acclaimed sequel, Nukkin Ya. The Build Up, his first foray into adult crime fiction, is set in Darwin. He is adapting the book for a 13 part TV series on SBS.

Wendy Harmer

Wendy began her career as a journalist. She has had a hugely successful career in comedy, hosting The Big Gig, and the Faking It comedy series. Wendy has written dozens of scripts for TV and theatre, in addition to hosting two radio programs. She has written six adult books, and is also is a prolific children’s writer.

Kelly-lee Hickey

Straddling the personal and the political, Kelly-lee’s writing and performance gives voice to the unique identity of Northern Australian women. Described in the Australian as ‘ stark and sparse’ her poetry has been published in journals such as Going Down Swinging, Rattapallax and Voiceworks Magazine. Kelly-lee directed the National Young Writers Festival in 2006 and 2007.

http://www.iwenthometowatchthesky.blogspot.com/

Andrea Hirata

Andrea was born on the island of Belitong in the Malacca Strait. He prefers being identified as an academic (Master of Science) and backpacker. His best-selling novels are Laskar Pelangi (Rainbow Warriors), Sang Pemimpi (The Dreamer), Edensor, and Maryamah Karpov. The film adaptation of Laskar Pelangi won extensive acclaim.

Yvette Holt

Yvette is a member of the Bidjara and Wakaman Nation of central and far north Queensland.  Yvette won the David Unaipon Award (2005) and the Victorian Premier’s Indigenous Writing Prize (2008) for Anonymous Premonition. She has also received the UTS Human Rights award in the category of Reconciliation.

Janet Hutchinson

Jill Jolliffe

Jill is the author of Balibo (Scribe 2009) the tie-in book for Robert Connolly's award-winning film of the same name. Her forthcoming work Finding Santana, which won the Eric Dark Fellowship for best manuscript in 2005 is to be published by Wakefield Press later this year. She runs a project for torture survivors in East Timor.

Barry Jonsberg

Barry is an award-winning writer for Young Adults and children. His books have been translated into seven languages, published in twelve countries and shortlisted for nine major literary awards, both nationally and internationally. At present he is working on his first novel for adult readers.

Isa Kamari

Author of seven novels, two collections of poetry, a collection of theatre scripts and short stories, Isa was conferred the S.E.A. Write Award in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2006 and the Cultural Medallion by the Singapore Government in 2007. He is known for his bold exploration of controversial yet profound themes in his literary works.

Vicki Kerrigan

Vicki likes stories: tall tales and true. She has worked in Scotland as an arts reporter, in post war Kosovo training young journalists and in India making radio documentaries. Vicki worked at Triple J until she got too old, Radio National where she felt too immature, commercial radio where she was "too ABC" and now ABC Local Radio which she says "feels just right".

Charlie King

Territorians are renowned for their love of sport; both as players and spectators. Football, Sepak Takraw, netball, you name it, they play it. Charlie is in the thick of it all each weekend presenting Sporttalk and Grandstand, NT style. Whether its sponsorship, crowd behaviour, or player suspensions, throw Sporttalk the ball and they'll run with it

Marcia Langton

One of Australia's leading authorities on contemporary social issues in Aboriginal affairs, Marcia has published extensively on Aboriginal issues, including land rights, resource management, social impacts of development, Indigenous disputes, policing and substance abuse, and gender and identity. She also contributes to film and art criticism.

Angelo Loukakis

Angelo is the author of the fiction titles For the Patriarch (winner of a NSW Premier’s Literary Award), Vernacular Dreams, Messenger, and The Memory of Tides, as well as a number of non-fiction works. In January 2010 he was appointed executive director of the Australian Society of Authors. Houdini’s Flight will be released in 2010.

Di Lucas

Richard Margetson

Sharanya Manivannan

Sharanya’s first book of poems, Witchcraft, was published in 2008. She won the Lavanya Sankaran Fellowship in 2008, and was shortlisted for both the 2009 Srinivas Rayaprol Prize and 2010 Toto Award for Creative Writing. She is currently writing a second collection of poems, Bulletproof Offering, and a novel, Constellation of Scars.

John Maynard

Professor John Maynard is the Chair of Aboriginal Studies/Head of Wollotuka, School of Aboriginal Studies at the University of Newcastle. John has published 5 books and monographs on Aboriginal history, politics and sports. In 2008, he was short listed for the Victorian Premier’s Prize. John is a descendant of the Worimi people.

Lorraine McGee-Sippel

Lorraine McGee-Sippel - is a descendant  of the Yorta Yorta, Wemba Wemba, people of NSW/Vic. Her autobiography, 'Hey Mum, What's a Half-Caste?' was twice shortlisted for the David Unaipon Award (2006/2007) . It was published in 2009 and is currently in reprint. Lorraine was winner of the Inaugural Yabun Elder of the Year Award in 2008, and received a Deadly Award in 2009 for Outstanding Achievement in Literature. 

Philip McLaren

Philip is a best-selling, prize-winning author of five books - Sweet Water - Stolen Land, Scream Black Murder, Lightning Mine, There’ll be New Dreams and Utopia - most have been translated and published in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Japan, Africa, USA, Canada, and Germany as well as Australia.

Andrew McMillan

Andrew won the 2009 Territory Read NT Book of the Year with An Intruder’s Guide To East Arnhem Land. His other non-fiction books include Strict Rules, Death In Dili and Catalina Dreaming. He’s also won awards for poetry, short stories and essays, had a play produced and writes lyrics for Kitto.

Bronwyn Mehan

Bronwyn Mehan is a Darwin-based writer whose recent short fiction and poetry have been published nationally in Meanjin, Southerly and Etchings. She teaches creative writing and facilitates the Darwin Authors Group.

http://bronwynmehan.wordpress.com/

Jennifer Mills

Jennifer’s first novel, The Diamond Anchor and a chapbook of poems, Treading Earth were both published in 2009. She won the 2008 Marian Eldridge Award, the Pacific Region of the 2008-9 Commonwealth Short Story Competition, and the 2008 NT Literary Awards (short story). Her work has appeared in Hecate, Overland, Heat, Griffith Review, Best Australian Stories 2007, New Matilda and Overland.

Shellie Morris

Shellie is an Australian Indigenous singer who performs earthy and honest songs. She is currently writing the music for her third CD.  She also works with Indigenous communities and youth throughout Australia, helping young people to write music about their experiences.  In 2004 and 2005 Shellie was awarded the Female Musician of the Year at the NT Indigenous Music Awards.

Marie Munkara

Of Rembarranga descent, Marie was born on the banks of the Mainoru River in Arnhem Land and spent the first few years of her life on Bathurst Island. Her first book, Every Secret Thing, won the 2008 David Unaipon Award and the 2010 Territory Read NT Book of the Year Award.

James Murray

James’s first book, My Life in the Sea of Cars: A Letter from Arnhem Land was listed as one of the best books of 2009 by the Adelaide Advertiser. Jame is currently working on his second book, provisionally titled The Condition.

Leonie Norrington

Leonie grew up in central Arnhem Land. Her Children’s Book Council Award winning Barrumbi kids trilogy is set in Northern Australia. The Devil You Know, Leonie’s first novel for adults and older readers, won the Territory Read Young Adult Fiction Prize. She has no idea what she wants to be when she grows up.

O Thiam Chin

Thiam's short stories have appeared in several literary journals and anthologies, including Asia Literary Review, Best of Singapore Erotica, Silverfish New Writing 6 and Body2Body. His début collection of short stories, Free-Falling Man, was self-published in 2006 and his new short story collection, Never Been Better, was published by MPH Publishing in 2009.

Melaine Ostell

Nick Parsons

Nick is a writer and director in film, television and theatre. He has directed short films, television drama, a documentary series, a feature film and more than a dozen stageplays, including Deadheart, and won several awards.  He has written three produced stage plays, a stage musical, several one-act-ers, a feature film, episodes of television series and several radio plays.

Bruce Pascoe

Bruce is an award-winning Australian writer, editor and anthologist. His books include Shark, Ruby-eyed Coucal, Ocean, Earth and Nightjar. Bruce has also written a number of non-fiction works; the latest include Convincing Ground, a Wathaurong language dictionary and The Little Red, Yellow, Black Book.  His most recent novel, launched in August 2009, is Bloke.

John Pulé

John has published several books of poetry, including The Bond of Time and Restless People, as well as three novels, including The Shark that Ate the Sun and Burn my Head in Heaven. In 2004 he was honoured with the prestigious Laureate Award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand.

Alice Pung

Alice’s first novel, Unpolished Gem, won the 2007 Australian Newcomer of the Year Award in the Australian Book Industry Awards and was shortlisted for several other awards. Alice is the editor of Growing up Asian in Australia.  She has had stories and articles published in Good Weekend, Meanjin, the Monthly, Age, The Best Australian Stories 2007 and Etchings.

Caroline Reid

Caroline lives and works in Darwin. Her poetry and prose have been published nationally, her plays produced by Radio National, DADAA W.A., Deckchair Theatre and Urban Myth Theatre of Youth. At times funny and yet painfully savage, Prayer To An Iron God (published by Currency Press) has at its heart themes of loss, identity and love.

Mohamad Guntur Romli

Mohamad is program manager and editor at Women’s Journal and writes prolifically as a freelance columnist and political analyst for many prominent Indonesian media outlets. He also hosts a weekly radio talk show with Indonesia’s former president Abdurrahman ‘Gus Dur’ Wahid and is curator of Utan Kayu and Salihara Communities, two of Indonesia’s most well-known arts and cultural organisations.

Nicolas Rothwell

Nicolas Rothwell lives in Darwin and is the Northern correspondent for The Australian newspaper. He is the author of several books devoted to inland and Northern Australia, and to the ideas these regions set in mind. The most recent in the sequence is Journeys to the Interior, published in 2010.

Claire Scobie

Claire Scobie is an English-born journalist and author of Last Seen in Lhasa, winner of the Dolman Best Travel Book Award, 2007. She writes for The Daily Telegraph and The Observer, UK and is a contributor to The Sydney Morning Herald, Sunday Life, Marie Claire and The Australian Way, the Qantas inflight magazine.

Leni Shilton

Leni Shilton was awarded the Dorothy Hewett Fellowship for Poetry at Varuna, The Writers House in 2008. Whilst there she completed the first draft of her verse novel. She is a prize winning writer of poetry and prose and has been published widely in anthologies and journals and broadcast on Radio National.

Mardijah Simpson

Sue Stanton

Sue Stanton is a Kungarakan-Gurindji woman of the Northern Territory. Born in Larrakia country, she is a widely-travelled historian and a poet, who has studied in both Darwin and Arizona.

Cancio Soares

Jean Tay

In 2006, Jean’s play Everything but the Brain was awarded Best Original Script for the Life! Theatre Awards. In July 2007, she was selected to attend the prestigious month-long International Playwriting Residency (Royal Court Theatre, London). In 2008, Jean was resident playwright at the Singapore Repertory Theatre where she wrote Boom, nominated for Best Original Script, Life! Theatre Awards.

Kim Toft

Kim is an author and silk artist. Her books and artwork reflect her love of the sea and her desire to help the next generation understand the importance of its preservation. Her first children's book, One Less Fish, won an honour book award in the 1998 Australian Book Council Awards and was shortlisted for the Koala Awards and the Wilderness Society Book Awards.

MK Turner

Don Walker

Don Walker’s songs have been mapping Australia, from Kings Cross to regional towns –  and the spaces between – for thirty years, through solo albums and shows, a couple of albums with Tex, Don and Charlie, back to his youth as a member of Cold Chisel. Shots, his first book, was released by Black Inc. in 2009.

Archie Weller

Archie Weller's first novel, The Day of the Dog, won the inaugral Vogel Prize in 1980 and was made into the AFI award-winning film Blackfellas. Going Home, has appeared on school curriculum and Land of the Golden Clouds won the Human Rights Award in 1998. The Window Seat is a collection of nineteen of his best short fiction.

Jacquie Williams

Jacquie has fulfilled a lifetime dream by self publishing Cyclone Child: Cyclone Tracy in the Maternity Ward.  Currently she is typing up 1969 letters she wrote home from her first year in Australia, writing out her history to find the good bits. Her poetry has been published in various anthologies.

Lily Yuianti Farid

Journalist and short-story writer Lily Yulianti Farid has won numerous writing awards and established online citizen journalism portal www.panyingkul.com. Her anthology, Makkunrai and 10 other women’s stories, contains rich thematic exploration of feminine narrative, addressing current issues to Indonesia such as separation, loss, polygamy and the commercialisation of education.

Arnold Zable

Arnold Zable is a dynamic and highly acclaimed writer, storyteller, educator, and human rights advocate. His books include the award winning Jewels and Ashes, The Fig Tree  and the novels Café Scheherazade, Scraps of Heaven, and the recently released Sea of Many Returns. He has written several works for theatre and is president of International PEN, Melbourne.

Dina Zaman

Dina Zaman is a columnist who writes about social issues with a focus on Muslim life, child advocacy and HIV/AIDS issues.  She works for an online news portal and is the author of the book, I Am Muslim. Her works of fiction are still languishing somewhere in her hard drive.