Sarah Malik is a Walkley award winning senior investigative journalist, author and broadcaster, with two decades of media experience. She is the creator and EP of the SBS podcasts My Ramadan and The SBS Book Club. She also co-hosted and co-produced Let Me Tell You (winner of the gold Best Arts/Culture podcast at the 2022 Australian Podcast awards, and honoree at the 2023 Webby Awards), and the New Writers Room podcast. Her New Writers Room interview with Larissa Behrendt and Jazz Money was awarded bronze for Best Interview at the 2022 Australian podcast awards. Her work focuses on domestic violence, asylum and in its intersection with gender and race. She has been featured in the Sydney Review of Books, New York Times, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Guardian. She has also produced and presented programs for ABC Radio National and Al Jazeera. Her debut memoir Desi Girl: On feminism, race, faith and belonging was published by UQP 2022. Her second book Safar: Muslim women’s stories of travel and transformation was published by Hardie Grant. In 2023 she was a keynote speaker for International Women’s Day at UTS speaking on the power of education, intersectionality and advancing women’s rights globally.
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Website: https://sarahbmalik.com/

Author, Mentor, Developmental Editor: Jane has worked with many writers at all stages of their careers over the past thirty years. She offers mentoring, developmental editing, writing workshops, and grant writing assistance. Jane has published and broadcast works across fiction, memoir, radio drama, and scholarly essays. Her books include the novels Hopscotch, Provenance, and Night By Night. For over 15 years she led the postgraduate creative writing programs at Macquarie University.
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Website: https://janemesser.com/

Annika Tague is a publishing professional, having worked for Australia's largest independent publisher and as a bookseller for 4+ years. She has both an undergrad and postgrad degree in Creative Writing and currently works as a freelance literary editor and content writer. Annika has worked on editorial projects with a number of major publishing houses in Australia. She helps writers and aspiring authors fine-tune their manuscripts to reach their full potential. Annika works as a copywriter for businesses of all sizes. Annika is currently working on her debut novel, a family drama set in the heart of wine country.
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Website: http://www.polishedprose.com.au/

Kathy Prokhovnik writes fiction (long form, short stories, microfiction) and nonfiction. She is currently finalising her second novel and preparing her social history of Sydney, Seeking Sydney, for a podcast series. She is also a technical writer with extensive training and experience in research, writing and editing expertise. She has worked extensively on the production of examination materials, print books, ebooks, articles, newsletters, media releases, user guides, publicity material, fact sheets, equipment manuals, business reports and websites. She has been successful in many Australian short story writing competitions and has been published in anthologies and online and print journals.
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Website: http://kathyprokhovnik.com/

Michelle Law is a writer and actor – working in print, screen and stage – currently based on Gadigal Land. Her works include the plays, Single Asian Female (La Boite Theatre Company), Top Coat (Sydney Theatre Company), and Miss Peony (Belvoir St Theatre); the television shows Homecoming Queens (SBS) and Safe Home (SBS); and the book Asian Girls are Going Places (Hardie Grant). Her awards include two Australian Writers Guild Awards, the Queensland Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Award, and the Arts & Culture 40 Under 40 Awards, which celebrates the country’s most influential Asian Australians. Michelle is also a widely published freelance author and a prolific speaker who regularly appears on panels and at festivals.
Website: http://michelle-law.com/

Aleesah Darlison is an award-winning author of over 65 books for children. She is well-known for her books that empower children and champion the cause of animals and the environment. Aleesah has won or been shortlisted for many awards including the Book Excellence Awards, the Environment Award for Children’s Literature, the CBCA Awards, the Speech Pathology Book of the Year Awards, and WAYBRA. Aleesah has written numerous creative fiction and non-fiction titles for the educational and commercial markets including the Space Kids Series, the Super Sloth Series, the Endangered Animal Tales Series, Emerald, The Green Turtle’s Tale, Our Class Tiger, Puggle’s Problem, Warambi, Netball Gems, and the League of Llamas Series. Her 2024 releases include Grace the Amazing, Stella’s Bright Idea, Super Sloth Books 2 and 3, and Coral the Dolphin. She has extensive experience teaching and mentoring both adults and children in the craft of writing and is a regular presenter at schools, festivals, and libraries.
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Website: http://www.aleesahdarlison.com/

Paul Anderson is a freelance editor, a book reviewer, and loves to read literary fiction. He is an active member of the Institute of Professional Editors (IPEd) and an Editors NSW branch committee member. He has a Graduate Certificate of Editing and Publishing from the University of Technology Sydney (2019) and occasionally publishes in The Newtown Review of Books. Paul was part of the editorial committee for the UTS writers' anthology Empty Sky (Brio Books, 2020) and was a co-editor (with Margrete Lamond) of the Reclink stories collection The Power of a Football (WestWords, 2022).
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Dr Lee Kofman is a Russian-born, Israeli-Australian author based in Melbourne. Lee holds a PhD in social sciences and MA in creative writing. She is the author of three fiction books, and memoirs Imperfect (Affirm Press, 2019), which was shortlisted for the Nib Literary Award 2019, and The Dangerous Bride (Melbourne University Press, 2014), which was included in Best Books 2014 (The Age and Australian Book Review) and 2015 (The Age). Lee is the editor of Split (Ventura Press, 2019), which was longlisted for ABIA Awards 2020, and co-editor of Rebellious Daughters (Ventura Press, 2016), anthologies of personal essays by prominent Australian authors. Her short works have been published in Australia, Scotland, UK, Israel, the USA and Canada. Her blog about writing was a finalist for Best Australian Blogs 2014. She teaches writing and mentors writers. Her most recent book is The Writer Laid Bare (Ventura Press, 2022).
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Website: https://leekofman.com.au/

Originally from Western Australia, Leonie now lives in the Upper Hunter. She is the author of the Frontier Trilogy (glowing cats, aliens, and a dangerous planet) and The Chronicles of Albatar (Kazari defends her homeland against the Gorgone Horde) - all published by Hague Publishing. She also works part time as a physiotherapist. Leonie has a past life as an emergency services volunteer, and once trekked almost six hundred kilometres with eight camels and several other human beings. She is married with one dog and two cats, one of whom frequently handicaps her ability to use a laptop computer.
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Website: http://www.leonierogers.me/