PRESENTERS: MALENY FESTIVAL OF BOOKS & WRITING 2007

ADAIR JONES
Adair has degrees in English, Comparative Literature and Linguistics. She worked for several years as the Fellowship Manager for the Rockefeller-funded Population Council in New York City, which allowed her to travel extensively. While she has worked in the areas of technical and academic writing, with some journalism thrown in, she has concentrated in the past few years much more on fiction. She is currently working on her third novel and undertaking a PhD at the Queensland University of Technology, Creative Industries Faculty.

COLIN BEARD is a highly regarded photojournalist, working extensively for Australian Geographic, The Bulletin and other magazines. From early work for a Rock’n Roll magazine, he ventured into fashion and advertising, winning worldwide awards for his fashion spreads and magazine covers. Colin implemented Photography and Design courses at The Sydney College of the Arts and, at UTS Sydney, digital photography studios. He has produced large format books with author, James Cowan, including The Mountain Men and Sacred Places in Australia, as well as Women of Power with Gael Knepfer, and Australia the Beautiful with James Granville. His work appears in A Day in the Life of Australia. Colin now conducts photography workshops on the Sunshine Coast and is awaiting publication of further books combining photographs and text.

REBECCA BELFIELD-KENNEDY
Los Angeles based screenwriter Rebecca Belfield-Kennedy wrote the Esther Nisenthal Krinitz Holocaust survivor story Hersh’s Daughters (now a book by Hyperion) for Walt Disney Pictures and acclaimed director Lawrence Kasdan. Her romantic comedy Pet Therapy was set up at Castle Rock Entertainment, also with Kasdan, and she developed the children’s animated feature Fly to the Moon for Dreamworks Animation. After graduating from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema-Television, Rebecca received a two picture blind script deal with Warner Bros. and has since developed projects for Scarlett Johansson, Julia Roberts, and Dustin Hoffman. Her adaptation of the young adult novel Betsy and the Emperor starts shooting in March 2008 with Al Pacino as Napoleon and French filmmaker Patrice Chereau directing.

MICHAEL BERRY has 25 years experience as a freelance writer, television producer and media consultant. Hehas produced programs for ABC television including Four Corners, The 7.30 Report and Geoffrey Robertson's Hypotheticals.

CARMEL BIRD's most recent book, Writing the Story of Your Life, is proving to be an invaluable tool for memoirists of all ages. Carmel is well known as a novelist and short story writer, and as a popular teacher of writing. Her non fiction works include The Penguin Century of Australian Stories and The Stolen Children – Their Stories. She is currently writing a novel, and in 2008 she will publish a children’s picture book Finola Fox.

HELENA BOND
Helena Bond, an editor since 1990, has worked on non-fiction and fiction titles in Australia, England and Taiwan. She loves being part of the book-making team adding her technical skills to the writers' knowledge and inspiration to create something that really works. An active member of the Society of Editors (Qld), Helena has served as Newsletter Editor, President and Speaker Secretary. She is a lively speaker (and singer) with a wealth of knowledge to share.

ROSS CLARK: Twenty-five years after his first book, Ross has just brought out his 7th poetry volume: Salt Flung into the Sky (Ginninderra). He currently earns half a living teaching at two universities, and complements this with tours, workshops and performances, solo or with his percussive trio the Bodgie Bards. His most recent tour was along the Capricorn Highway, with Kristin Hannaford, but he has also toured Japan and Texas. Recent performances were at the Qld Poetry festival and Brisbane Writers Festival.

MATTHEW CONDON is a Brisbane-based journalist and the author of seven books of fiction. He also writes for the Arts pages of The Courier Mail. His latest novel, THE TOUT OPERA, will be published in 2007. Matthew Condon is the author of several novels and collections of short stories, including The Motorcycle Café, A Night at the Pink Poodle and The Pillow Fight, and is the recipient of two Steele Rudd awards for short fiction. His latest novel, The Trout Opera, will be published in November.

GARY CREW is one of Australia's most awarded authors, winning the Children's Book of the Year award four times (twice for his novels, twice for illustrated books), the National Children's Book Award, the Ned Kelly Award for Crime Writing and many other awards. Gary writes fiction for both youth and adults as well as the texts of illustrated books. Gary is Senior Lecturer and head of Creative Writing at the University of the Sunshine Coast. He is currently undertaking his Doctorate in Creative Arts, specialising in the writing of the Nineteenth Century 'Boy's Own' novel.

MTC CRONIN has published 17 collections of poetry (including several in translation) the latest being Our Life is a Box. / Prayers Without a God (Soi 3, Thailand/Australia); and Notebook of Signs & 3 Other Small Books (Shearsman Books, UK). Forthcoming are a collection of prose poems (USA), a collection of micro-essays (Australia) and a number of poetry volumes co-written with the Australian poet, Peter Boyle (UK). She currently lives on an organic farm in Maleny (Queensland) with her partner and three young daughters.

TRICIA CULLUM: Until 1977, Tricia worked as a class room teacher in the UK, Australia and Canada, specialising in the Arts, and Dance at Winnipeg University. As a School Principal and later Creative Arts Consultant with the NSW Dept of Education, North Sydney, she helped incorporate Arts into classroom teaching programs and coordinated ‘Education Corner’ at a Sydney Festival. Tricia has tutored in Creative Arts, initiated After-School and Community Arts Centres and offered multi-Arts programs to schools and the public, including as former Owner/Director of the Sydney School of Creative and Performing Arts. Now living in Maleny, Tricia is committed to assisting with the cross-cultural experience provided to visiting Korean Gandhi School students.

JOHN CUNDILL: Before emigrating to Australia in 1988, John Cundill was South Africa's most successful screenwriter. His television credits totalled over 130 hours of drama, comedy and teleplays. Highlights of his writing career in Australia include A Crisis of Confidence, one of several episodes scripted by John for ABCTV’s Embassy series (nominated for a 1992 AFI Award) and An Unnatural Offence (Janus ABCTV), AWGIES ‘95 Best Episode category. His Episode 7 Heartland (ABCTV starring Cate Blanchett, Ernie Dingo) was joint winner of 1994 Australian Film Institute Awards for Best Episode in a TV series. His Feature Film writing has included Love in Limbo (Palm Beach Pictures, starring Russell Crowe) and Never Tell me Never (Palm Beach Pictures featuring Claudia Karvan). Since settling in Maleny four years ago, John has switched to writing for the theatre. Encouraged by the ‘trial run’ success of Unforced Errors, he is currently seeking to interest theatre companies throughout Australia in his work. His short playTwang! is one three finalists in the Noosa One Act Play Competition 2007.

SANDY CURTIS is the author of five Australian-set suspense thrillers, Dance with the Devil, Black Ice, Deadly Tide, Until Death, and Dangerous Deception (Pan Macmillan Australia & Bastei Lubbe Germany). Her literary short stories have won awards, and her crime and romance stories have been published in leading Australian women’s magazines. She is currently the feature writer for Horizon magazine. Sandy has presented many writing workshops, given library talks, and been a panellist at writers’ festivals. For four years, Sandy was the only regional member of the Management Committee of the Queensland Writers Centre. She is President of the Bundaberg Writers’ Club and organizer of Bundaberg WriteFest.

BRUCE DAWE: Widely recognised as Australia’s most popular poet, Bruce Daw was born in Victoria in 1930. He worked in several occupations before embarking on a highly successful academic career, retiring from the University of Southern Queensland in 1992 when he was appointed their first Honorary Professor. Bruce has to his credit 13 books of poetry, one of short stories, a book of essays and five children’s books (Penguin) as well as editing two others. He is a multiple awardee, including Australia Council for the Arts Emeritus Writers Award (2000) for his long and outstanding contribution to Australian literature, and the Centenary Medal (2003). His collected edition Sometimes Gladness was named by the National Book Council as one of the ten best books published in Australia in the previous ten years.

ROWENA CORY DANIELLS writes for both children and adults and has been published in the US, Germany and Australia. She has been involved in Speculative Fiction for thirty years, working in Independent Press, illustration, on the Management Committees of state and national bodies and running workshops. The co-authored children’s series, The Lost Shimmaron has just been launched with Rowena’s book due for release in January 2008. Her adult works, published under Cory Daniells, include The T’En series, Broken Vows and Desperate Alliances.

JAMES DAVIDSON: Scholarly & Professional Publisher, James held management, editorial, marketing and sales roles in global book, journal and database publishing houses (incl. among others Elsevier, Sage, McGraw-Hill & HarperCollins) for 31 years. He and wife Suzanne were drawn to Maleny’s cooperative culture in 2002 and, as eContent Management P/L, provide publishing opportunities on the world stage for Asia-Pacific authors and academic societies.

MARIANNE DE PIERRES is the author of the award-nominated Parrish Plessis series: 'Nylon Angel',' Code Noir' and 'Crash Deluxe'. Her short fiction has appeared in various anthologies and magazines. 'Dark Space' the first book in her new space opera series has just been released. She also currently working on a film project for Enchanter Productions called 'Stalking Daylight' and awaiting the release of her young adult fantasy novel, 'Citrine'. Marianne lives in Brisbane with her husband and three sons.

BRETT DIONYSIUS is a poet, editor and educator who lives in Brisbane. He has published two solo collections of poetry, Fatherlands (FIP, 2000), Bacchanalia (IP, 2002) and a verse novel, Universal Andalusia (soi3, 2006). He is the editor of the annual papertigermedia: new world poetry CDROM. His poetry awards include the Harri Jones Memorial Prize (1998) and shortlistings in the Mary Gilmore Award (2002) and the C.J Dennis Poetry Award (2006). He teaches English at Ipswich Grammar School.

PAUL DURCAN was born in Ireland in 1944 and educated at University College, Cork, where he studied archaeology and medieval history. His nineteen books of poetry have had an emphasis on Irish politics and society. In Cries of an Irish Caveman: New Poems (2001), a central theme of which is death and disintegration, Paul reveals a quieter voice, though still radical and intense, displaying the combined characteristics of conscience, humour, iconoclasm and lyricism which account for his extraordinary popularity, both inside and outside his native Ireland. His later work continues to document the atrocities of Northern Ireland, stamping each collection with an incisive political relevance. Paul lives in Dublin.

JAYNE FENTON-KEANE is the author of three poetry books, a recipient of several awards, scholarships and fellowships. During an Asialink Fellowship she stayed at the Rimbun Dahan Artists' studio in Malaysia. She was the first Poet in Residence at the Ornithology and Bio-Acoustics Laboratories at Cornell University in the USA and the first Poet in Residence at the National Science and Technology Museum in Taiwan. In 2007 JFK was the recipient of an Associate Artist residency at the Atlantic Centre for the Arts. Her practice and scholarship has a global and interdisciplinary focus resulting in international performances, exhibitions and publications.

HEATHER GALL is a Maleny Children’s Book Illustrator having illustrated 5 books in collaboration with Author, Jill Morris. A fine artist in her own right, she has presented many solo exhibitions and sells her work within Australia and overseas. She is largely self taught, specialising in Australian wildlife and the environment. Recently Heather has been exploring creative expression stimulated by poetry and music. Her style is vibrant and flamboyant, using watercolour, acrylics and mixed media. Heather has worked as a presenter with school groups, Voices on the Coast and recently the WARM Festival 2007.

LIBBY GLEESON is a highly acclaimed and awarded writer of fiction and picture books for young people. She has been shortlisted for the CBCA awards eleven times and her picture book The Great Bear, illustrated by Armin Greder, is the only Australian title to have won the prestigious Bologna Ragazzi..Libby is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor in Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney. She was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia in 2007 for services to Australian literature and literacy education.

SIMON GROTH's first novel, Here Today, was shortlisted in the 2006 Queensland Premier's Literary Awards in the emerging Queensland author category. His short fiction has appeared as a "mini shot" by Vignette Press as well as in literary journals Meanjin, Island, and Overland. His web site at www.simongroth.com houses a digital short story emporium, a new work in progress, and a cranky virtual writer. He lives in Red Hill, Brisbane with a growing family of two species.

BEVERLY HAND: A descendent of the Sunshine Coast peoples, Beverly is Indigenous Co-Cordinator with the Burnett Mary Regional group. Her research on the history and heritage of her traditional homelands revealed that much of her ancestors’ story is misrepresented in contemporary literature. Early Indigenous histories were observed through Anglo-Australian perspectives, and largely written by non-Indigenous people. Beverly strives to reflect a ‘true’ and inclusive history through her educative sessions, newsletter articles and ABC Coast FM appearances.

JEFFREY HARPENG is an internationally anthologised and regular award winning haiku writer and poet who enjoys both the craft and experiment of form, in particular haiku, haibun and the sonnet. His personal narrative has been split between Australia and New Zealand. His writing has been noted for its invention, for its wit and its tenderness. His new collection from Post Pressed, Quarter Past Sometime combines the expansiveness of fiction with the precision of haiku. He can carry the reader from the world of the deaf to the world of memory, from elegy to celebration in a single sentence.

SUSAN HAYES is the Manager of Copyright Agency Limited’s philanthropic Cultural Fund. Previously she has been Director of the Australian National Playwrights' Centre and Chair of the Australian Society of Authors. Susan was Director of the WA State Literature Centre. She has edited collections of Western Australian writing for University of Western Australia Press and for the UWA Centre for Studies in Australian Literature.

RON HEARD is a poet and cyclist who lives in the inner Brisbane suburb of Highgate Hill where he enjoys life among the heat, trees, backyard chooks and rain. His first collection, River, She-oak and Wind was shortlisted for the Thomas Shapcott prize. He has just completed a verse novel telling the story of a common soldier at the time of the Trojan War. With Gloria Yates he co-edits The Mozzie which is a very little magazine but publishes over 600 poems a year. Bruce Dawe has called it the best poetry magazine in Australia.

IBBY HEGER has worked as a teacher across all age groups over the past 28 years. Ibby's teaching has been in the areas of drama, dance and English . She is currently working on her first play script .She recently moved to Maleny.

SALLY HENDERSON is a Buderim based writer. Her driving passion to conserve endangered African wildlife was fulfilled in 1990 when she joined an elephant research project in Zimbabwe. Her memoir Silent Footsteps: A Woman’s awakening among the Elephants of Africa was published in March 2007 and quickly made it into the non-fiction Top Ten Best Sellers, selling to Germany, with several other countries pending. Her travel and conservation articles have been published internationally. Sally is currently writing a novel.

GERSHON HOLTZ is the nom de plume of Gary Maller playing the role of historical muse. In 2004 Gary was awarded an Arts Queensland grant to write Death In Full Bloom, a collection of ‘still life poems’ exploring narratives and themes in Renaissance Italian art and set in a contemporary context. A full length multi media performance version of the work featured at the 2006 Brisbane Writer's Festival and poems from the collection are included in Thylazine and The Australian Journal of Arts, Literature and Ethics. Holtz’s previous collections Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Night Breathing have received excellent reviews in Australia and abroad. Gary is completing an MPhil in Creative Writing (Poetry) which includes his third full length collection Voicing Silence.

CAROLE HUNGERFORD became a general practitioner in 1975. After working for five years in London, she has shared her time during the last fifteen years between her rural practice in Bathurst, NSW and her inner-city practice in Sydney. She helps educate young graduates for the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, and also lectures for and is a fellow of the Australasian College of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine, an organisation committed to educating doctors about the nutritional link to disease. Her book, Good Health in the 21st Century, was published by Scribe in 2006. She has also published a range of short articles and letters in medical journals.

DALE JACOBSEN lives in the beautiful green mountains of Maleny in South East Queensland where her life revolves around reading and writing. She writes short stories to relieve the onerous task of working on longer manuscripts. Her stories appear in anthologies and The Pilot won the ABC short story award for 2005. Dale is particularly interested in grass-roots Australian history and, as a committee member of the Brisbane Labour History Association, shares editorship of the Queensland Journal of Labour History.

LYNNE HUME: Anthropologist Dr Lynne Hume, Assoc. Professor at UQ, has published Portals (2007), Popular Spiritualities (2006), Anthropologists in the Field (2004), Ancestral Power (2002), and Witchcraft and Paganism in Australia (1997), & articles in academic journals and encyclopedias. Her anthropological research covers many different cultures. Recently retired, Lynne is living in Maleny, writing her next book, and supervising 6 PhD students.

BILLY JONES is an artist, poet and emotional expatriate born in Camden, New Jersey in 1935. In addition to his seven previously published poetry collections, and numerous exhibitions, he has kept a journal of drawings, paintings and poetry everyday since 28th June 1975. Started on the banks of Mary Smokes Creek five weeks after his then girlfriend, Diane Kelly, was killed in a car accident, his journal now numbers 144 volumes - some 70,000 pages, including approximately 4,500 illustrations. As Thomas Shapcott states, Billy Jones' drawings and poems "...make of the unnoticed and neglected objects that surround us a hymn and a celebration. This mystical awareness of larger forces within the quotidian is what makes his work special...a remarkable record of a life spent simply...and deeply."

JOHN KNIGHT, manager of Post Pressed, is a retired academic and long-standing poetry, short story and literary review editor of the journal Social Alternatives, and co-editor of the Australian haiku journal, Paper Wasp. He brings to publishing a unique understanding of literary authors, their needs and the challenges of the marketplace. Post Pressed is a quality small-scale publisher now operating from an apartment in a converted woolstore near the river in Teneriffe, Brisbane.

STEVEN LANG: An Accidental Terrorist, UTS Award for New Writing, A Strong Brown God, performed at Metro Arts Theatre, Brisbane in 1996, and several short stories in anthologies and literary magazines. He has tutored and lectured extensively in Creative Writing at the University of the Sunshine Coast and has a Masters in Creative Industries, specialising in writing for film. Steven lives in Maleny, where he and his wife previously owned Rosetta Books. Steven is presently concentrating full-time on his writing.

ROWENA LINDQUIST writing as CORY DANIELLS: Rowena Lindquist writes for both children and adults and has been published in the US, Germany and Australia. She has been involved in Speculative Fiction for thirty years, working in Independent Press, illustration, on the Management Committees of state and national bodies and running workshops. The co-authored children’s series, The Lost Shimmaron has just been launched with Rowena’s book due for release in January 2008. Her adult works, published under Cory Daniells, include The T’En series, Broken Vows and Desperate Alliances.

ANDREW LINDSAY has worked as a journalist with the National Times newspaper, studied theatre with Jacques Lecoq in Paris, was a founding director of Red Weather, a Sydney-based theatre company whose first work was hailed by the Sydney Morning Herald as ‘a perfection’. His first novel, The Breadmaker’s Carnival, became a best-seller and won the Jim Hamilton Award. His second novel, The Slapping Man, was shortlisted for the FAW Victoria Christina Stead Award. Drawing on 30 years of experience as a writer, performer and theatre director, Andrew harnesses the fundamental powers of language and imagination in his writing workshops to guide participants towards tightly crafted and compelling new works.

GABRIELLE LORD has published 15 novels including her first YA novel, Monkey Undercover in 2006. last year. Her first novel Fortress (1980) was an international bestseller, translated into many languages, including Finnish and Japanese. Her series novels following the careers of Forensic scientist, Dr Jack McCain of the Australian Federal Police, and of Gemma Lincoln, PI include Baby did a Bad Bad Thing and Shattered (2007). Gabrielle has won both the Davitt Award and the Ned Kelly Award for crime writing. Two of her novels have been made into movies and the Gemma Lincoln novels are under option. She is currently writing a 12 volume YA crime/thriller/mystery – Conspiracy 365 commissioned by Scholastic Australia.

PRUE MASON likes adventure stories and her own life reads like an adventure. After leaving home at 18, she travelled around Australia and then the world, spending a few years in Canada and over 12 years in the Middle East where her debut award-winning novel, Camel Rider is based. With her husband and dog, Tara, Prue now lives outside Maleny in a magical old house where she occasionally runs writers’ retreats. If she’s not at her desk or in the garden, she can be spotted taking to the air in Belle, their old blue aeroplane.

KAVISHA MAZZELLA is an ARIA award-winning singer-songwriter unafraid to cross musical boundaries to create community experiences. Drawing on her Mediterranian heritage, she creates contemporary songs with haunting melody and lyrical depth. Kavisha brings a joy of life and sensitivity to her music as Musical Director of the vivacious Italian Women's choir - La Voce Della Luna. She has won various awards including the 1998 ARIA for her album ‘Fisherman's Daughter’, the 2000 Italia Nel Mondo Award for her contribution to the sharing of Italian Culture in Australia, and the WA Music Industry awards for songwriting. Her play with co-writers Katherine Thompson & Angela Chaplin – Mavis Goes To Timor – won a 2003 AWGIE award in 2003. Recently she collaborated with author Arnold Zable In the two-man show Anytime The Wind Can Change, inspiring tales of Australia's immigrants and refugees. Kavisha has performed extensively and run songwriting workshops at Woodford Folk Festivals, Edinburgh Fringe, Cork Arts Festival and Australia Festival Dublin.

LIDIJA MEDOSH writing as LIDIJA CVETKOVIC: The first poetry collection of Lidija Medosh – War is Not the Season for Figs – won the Thomas Shapcott prize and Victorian Premiers Anne Elder Award, with two shortlistings in the NSW Premiers. Her work engages family and personal history, neatly balancing an emotional openness without over-investing in sentimentality or romanticising the self. With a recurring regard to 20th century conflicts in the Balkans and the violence and disintegration within family history, Lidija’s poetry is written from the perspective of the émigré, often bearing witness to her family’s experience of dispossession and exile. Lidija is a pscyhologist, is married and has a 3 year old daughter, Sasha.

JOSIE MONTANO: From age nine Josie annoyed her librarian by shelving her self-published books for borrowing and being the most diligent library monitor there was. She received her first rejection letter from Golden Books at thirteen. But that didn't stop her, decades later - she finally has 14 'real' published books on those shelves, Including Wogaluccis, Chickenpox Yuck, Pop Starlets, Snot Funny, The Bubble and CBC shortlisted Little Penguin and more. Josie incorporates into her writing her experiences growing up with an Italian family and multicultural community. She is currently working on a YA novel titled Sunlight, for her masters. Josie also runs writing workshops for children for the QWC.

WENDY MORGAN’s book of poems, Tiding Us Over (PostPressed), was published in 2006. She has had poems published in a number of journals in Australia and New Zealand and several anthologies in Australia. Wendy has served the cause of poetry by editing Mattoid for several years, chairing the Queensland Poets Association, and judging the Queensland Premier’s Prize for Poetry. She is currently working on a sonnet sequence, and on a verse novel based on episodes from the Odyssey.

JILL MORRIS is the author of 100 children’s books, an editor, publisher, playwright, Publishing Director of Greater Glider Productions, and Founder-Director of the Book Farm at Maleny. She is a multiple award recipient including the Dame Annabelle Rankin Award for services to children’s literature (Qld) 2005. Jill’s concern for our unique Australian fauna features prominently in her imaginative non-fiction for children. She has worked as Writer-in-Residence at schools and Writers Camps and package-published three series (17 books & audio tape) for Curriculum Corporation.

CRAIG MUNRO: Book editor and Founding Chair of Queensland Writers’ Centre, Craig Munro has also published in a wide variety of books, newspapers and magazines. His acclaimed biographical study, Wild Man of Letters (MUP), won the Herb Thomas Literary Award and the Walter McCrae Russell Prize for Literary Scholarship. As first fiction editor at University of Queensland Press. he received the Barbara Ramsden Award (1985) for editing the work of Peter Carey, and in 1991 won a Churchill Fellowship to study publishing in Canada and the USA. Craig has worked with a diverse range of writers including among others David Malouf, Roger McDonald, Nicholas Jose and Hugh Lunn. While UQP’s publishing manager, in 1998 he compiled The Writer’s Press, a history of UQP from 1948 to 1998. Currently co-editing the third volume of the History of the Book in Australia, he is also writing a book about literary editors entitled Editors at Large. Craig is on the Editorial Board of the Academy Editions of Australian Literature.

SOPHIA NUGENT-SIEGAL is a young poet with a deep interest in classics, mythology and the role of humankind in the process of history. She has been writing poetry since the age of 7 and has won prizes in various national and international poetry competitions and awards, including twice winner of the Taronga Poetry Prize (intermediate age) and the 2007 Fellowship of Australian Writers' Mavis Thorpe Clark Award (individual entry-to age 18).Sophia has also had poems published in Micropress Oz and Lip magazine; and prize-winning poems from the Taronga Prize have been published in Poems by Young Australians, Vols. 3 & 4. Sophia's first book, Oracle, will be published by PostPressed in late 2007.

DUNCAN RICHARDSON is a primary school learning support/ESL teacher who has published poetry and fiction for adults and children since 1982 including  two poetry books, two children’s books a haiku collection and a literary guide to Brisbane.  A verse play The Grammar of Deception was short listed for the Thomas Shapcott Award in 2006. Duncan has served on committees of Qld Poets, QWC and Fellowship of Australian Writers including two years as FAW Qld President. His editorial work covers poetry, fiction and non-fiction and he conducts workshops in poetry and fiction.

JUDITH RODRIGUEZ grew up in Brisbane but now lives in Melbourne. Her ten published collections include New And Selected Poems (UQP). Her work was awarded the FAW Christopher Brennan Prize for Poetry in 1994. She has collaborated with Robyn Archer on a play Poor Johanna, produced in Adelaide in 1994, and with Sydney composer Moya Henderson on the opera Lindy (Opera Australia, 2002). In the 1990s she was poetry Series Editor at Penguin Books Australia. Picaro Press has published a new short collection of her poems in its Wagtail series.

THOMAS SHAPCOTT was born in Ipswich in 1935 (one of twins) and spent the first 47 years of his life in Queensland, moving to Melbourne in 1982 to marry Judith Rodriguez. He started life as a public accountant then in 1978 became, variously, a writer, an arts administrator and finally the inaugural Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Adelaide, a position he held for 8 years. He is now retired. His first book was published in 1961 and he has published some 50 books since then. He received an OA in 1989, the Patrick White prize in 2000 and various other awards and honours.

ROBYN SHEAHAN-BRIGHT operates justified text writing and publishing consultancy services, and is widely published on Australian literature and publishing history, Queensland writing, and children’s literature. Her latest works are Kookaburra Shells: Port Curtis Literature (2006) and (as co-editor with Craig Munro) of Paper Empires: A History of the Book in Australia (1946-2005) (UQP 2006. Robyn was a founding director of both Queensland Writers Centre and Jam Roll Press. She is coordinating judge for the Somerset National Novella Writing Competition for School Age Writers, and on the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards judging panel. She also teaches at Griffith University (Gold Coast) where she completed her PhD on the history and development of the Australian children’s publishing industry.

NATHAN SHEPHERDSON: Born in Brisbane, Nathan Shepherdson now lives at the Glass House Mountains. He was the winner of the Josephine Ulrick Poetry Prize in 2004 and 2006. In 2005 he received the Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Award for an unpublished manuscript. He was also the winner of the Newcastle Poetry Prize and the Arts Queensland Val Vallis Award in 2006. His first book, Sweeping the Light Back into the Mirror was published last year by the University of Queensland Press.

CHRISTINA SLADE is Dean of Humanities at Macquarie University. She is on the editorial board of the Australasian Journal of Philosophy and the Journal of Informal Logic. Working on questions of philosophy and communication, Christie’s research interests range from issues in the philosophical foundations of communication theory to questions relating to the development of reasoning skills using television product. She has written over fifty articles, and produced several short videos. Her book, The Real Thing: Doing Philosophy with Media (Peter Lang, New York 2002), is ‘a rigorous philosophical investigation of modern media....’.

SWEET CHILLI is a group of Maleny, Montville, Mapleton and Mooloolah singers and songwriters with a varied repertoire strongly characterised by the fact that they’re an all-female ensemble. Sweet Chilli sings of the joys and tribulations of being women, of our place in the world, and in the some of the wonderful languages of the world. They sing for peace, for environmental issues and for the pure joy of singing. As part of the Festiva; Opening Night ceremonies, Sweet Chilli will perform originals by group members and is excited and privileged to be performing an Italian song with Kavisha Mazella.

SONNY WHITELAW lived in Vanuatu for 20 years where she ran an adventure tourism and diving and charter yacht business. The lifestyle suited her work as a photojournalist and Sonny contributed feature articles and photographs to several international magazines including National Geographic. She is the author of seven Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels including The Rhesus Factor (2004 Draco Award for Excellence in Science Fiction and recently re-released in PDF format available from her website), Chimera (a bio-terrorism thriller) and four Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis titles (of which Roswell is current mainstream best seller in the UK). Her latest – Blood Ties – is due out in December. Sonny has a degree in anthropology and geography, and recently submitted her Masters thesis in Creative Writing at QUT. She is currently working on The Attraction of Sloppy Nonsense: Making Money from Alien Gods (non-fiction) and a YA science fiction trilogy, Timekey.