Speakers

Kultar Ahluwalia is a hip hop artist from Southern Adelaide, South Australia with Punjabi and Irish roots. He wears his heart on his sleeve in his writing which often reflects other important aspects of his identity.

Appearing in: Session 14

Kamilaroi Country, Sydney, Australia

Drew Ambrose is an international correspondent, series producer, and investigative journalist who specialises in reporting on Human Rights and Global Affairs. He is known for his intrepid documentary-making across the world for Al Jazeera English programmes unit. Drew’s journalism has won over 45 awards. 

Appearing in: Session 1, Session 7 

Naarm, Melbourne, Australia 

Khalid Amiri, an Afghan refugee and former journalist for Radio Television of Afghanistan, fled Kabul after the Taliban takeover. Now a refugee rights activist, he advocates for Afghan people suffering in Afghanistan. He holds a Master’s degree from the University of Melbourne.  

Appearing in: Session 1, Session 7 

Wurundjeri Country, Melbourne, Australia 

Rachel Ang is an artist and writer who makes comics. Their work has previously been published in international journals such as The New Yorker and kuš!, The Age, and Meanjin. Their first book, Swimsuit, won a Silver Ledger from the Comic Arts Awards of Australia. 

Appearing in: Session 6 

Wadawurrung Country, Melbourne, Australia 

Shokoofeh Azar is an Iranian-Australian author and journalist known for her evocative storytelling and poetic prose. Her work often explores  hemes of religious and political pressures, displacement, resilience, and the intersection of mythology and reality, drawing heavily on her rich cultural heritage and personal experiences. 

Appearing in: Session 4 

Boonwurrung Country, Melbourne, Australia

Mridula researches and teaches multicultural and postcolonial literatures, with an emphasis on diasporic writings of South Asia around the world (including in Asia, Africa and the Americas), Asian literatures in translation, and culinary cultures.

Appearing in: Session 4, Session 10, Session 13

Colombo, Sri Lanka 

Vajra Chandrasekera is from Colombo, Sri Lanka and is online at vajra.me. His debut novel, The Saint of Bright Doors, won the Nebula, Locus, and Crawford awards, and was a New York Times Notable Book of 2023. His second novel Rakesfall is out now. 

Appearing in: Session 2, Session 16, Opening Night Gala 

Singapore 

Benjamin Chee enjoys mashing up genres and themes in the comics he draws. He is the co-creator of Work-Life Balance: Malevolent Managers and Folkloric Freelancers, winner of Best Literary Work and Book of the Year at the 2023 Singapore Book Awards. 

Appearing in: Session 2, Session 6 

Kaurna Country, Adelaide, Australia 

Jason has been performing standup comedy for more than 20 years, appearing in festivals around the world, radio, and TV. You can hear Jason presenting the Evenings Program on ABC Local Radio (SA, NT and Broken Hill). 

Appearing in: Session 6, Session 15, Closing Night Debate 

Naarm, Melbourne, Australia 

Keshe is a multi-award winning author of fantasy, romance, and speculative fiction. Her debut novel, The Girl With No Reflection, was released this year with Penguin Australia. Currently, she lives in Naarm with her partner, kids, her cat, and far too many houseplants. 

Appearing in: Session 3, Session 12 

Pohang, South Korea 

Bora is the author of Cursed Bunny and Your Utopia. Cursed Bunny was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2022. Bora likes dark,  magical tales and stories about strong women battling to survive in an unjust, violent world. 

Appearing in: Session 10, Session 13 

Kaurna Country, Adelaide, Australia 

Smriti Daniel has followed her diverse interests across a number of subjects ranging from the arts to science and health reportage. Her byline has appeared in The Guardian, ABC, and Reuters among others. She is currently the Digital Manager at CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency. 

Appearing in: Session 8, Session 9, Session 11 

Gadigal Country, Sydney, Australia 

Mithila is a highly experienced creator/writer/producer who has written popular Australian drama for 15 years. She has recently created and showrun Four Years Later, an Indian/Aussie romance for SBS. She carries a slate of global projects across Australia, India, and the US. 

Appearing in: Session 5, Workshop: Perfecting the Pitch 

Seoul, South Korea 

Anton Hur is the author of Toward Eternity and No One Told Me Not To. As a translator, he was double longlisted and shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize. Anton resides in Seoul. 

Appearing in: Session 10, Session 16, Opening Night Gala 

Dharug Country, Sydney, Australia 

Yumna Kassab is a writer based in Sydney. She is the author of The House of Youssef, Australiana, and The Lovers. Her latest book is Politica. It is available through Ultimo Press. She is the inaugural Parramatta Laureate in Literature. 

Appearing in: Session 4 

Noongar Country, Perth, Australia 

Sukhjit is a writer, performer, producer, and cultural leader based in Boorloo. Sukhjit is the Executive Director of The Blue Room Theatre and her debut novel will be released in 2025 with Upswell Publishing. 

Appearing in: Session 3, Session 14, Closing Night Debate 

Dharawal Country, Sydney, Australia 

sydney khoo is a nonbinary and aromantic asexual writer, born on Dharawal Country, to Malaysian Chinese parents. Though typically drinking bubble tea in Cabramatta, or reading fanfiction in a McDonald’s carpark, they can occasionally be found writing at cafés with their dog Gizmo. 

Appearing in: Session 2, Session 16, Opening Night Gala

Bunurong & Naarm, Melbourne, Australia 

Melanie La’Brooy writes funny, fantasy adventure novels for middle-grade readers. Her debut children’s novel, The Wintrish Girl, won the Aurealis Award for Best Children’s Fiction and the DANZ Children’s Book Award. Her new novel, The Lost History, is the sequel to The Wintrish Girl. 

Appearing in: Session 9 

Gadigal Country, Sydney, Australia 

Benjamin Law is an essayist, journalist, author, screenwriter, and playwright. He’s best known for the books The Family Law, Gaysia, Moral Panic 101, Growing Up Queer in Australia, and the TV shows The Family Law and Wellmania. 

Appearing in: Session 5, Session 11, Stop Everything! Live, Closing Night Debate 

Wurundjeri Country, Melbourne, Australia 

Vanessa Len is an internationally bestselling Australian author and educational editor. Her first novel, Only a Monster, won the 2022 Aurealis Award for Best Young Adult Novel, and has been translated into nine languages. The sequel, Never a Hero, is out now. 

Appearing in: Session 12 

Naarm, Melbourne, Australia 

Lawrence Leung is a screenwriter, actor, and award-winning standup comedian. He created the ABC1 comedies Lawrence Leung’s Unbelievable and Choose Your Own Adventure. He also hosted the TV series Our Brain and was recently a writer/performer for WTFAQ on ABC1. 

Appearing in: Session 5, Session 15, Opening Night Gala 

Naarm, Melbourne, Australia 

Louisa Lim’s most recent book Indelible City was shortlisted for five awards including the Stella Prize and the Walkley Book Award. Louisa reported for the BBC and NPR for a decade from China. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post and Guardian, and she currently teaches at the University of Melbourne. 

Appearing in: Session 1, Session 7

Dharawal Country, Sydney, Australia 

ARIA Award and Double J Artist of the Year nominee, L-FRESH The LION has shared the stage with the likes of Nas and Sir Elton John. He is a contributing writer to Sweatshop Literacy Movement’s Another Australia anthology and has had his written poetry commissioned and published by Red Room Poetry. 

Appearing in: Session 3, Workshop: Rhythms and Rhymes 

Turrbal Country, Brisbane, Australia 

Siang Lu is the author of Ghost Cities and the multi-award-winning The Whitewash, which won Audiobook of the Year at the 2023 ABIAs and the Glendower Emerging Writer Award at the Queensland Literary Awards. He was named a Top 40 Under 40 Asian Australian in 2023. 

Appearing in: Session 13, Opening Night Gala 

Naarm, Melbourne, Australia 

Urvi Majumdar is a stand-up comedian, writer, producer, and actor. She has written for The Project and The Weekly, and recently wrote and starred in her own online series, Urvi Went To An All Girls’ School, as a part of the ABC Freshblood initiative. 

Appearing in: Session 5, Session 15, Closing Night Debate, Stop Everything! Live

Bediagal Land, Sydney, Australia 

Sarah Malik is a Walkley-award winning Australian investigative journalist, author, and television presenter. She is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir Desi Girl: On Feminism, Race, Faith and Belonging, and a travel anthology Safar: Muslim women’s stories of travel and transformation. 

Appearing in: Session 1, Session 11, Closing Night Debate

Turrbal Country, Brisbane, Australia 

Sandhya Parappukkaran writes stories which are inspired by her childhood experiences traversing different cultures and are steeped in the theme of ‘embracing your cultural identity’. Scrumptious food and glimpses of nature inspired by her Kerala Indian heritage feature heavily when she sits down to write. 

Appearing in: Session 3, Session 9 

Wurundjeri Country, Naarm, Australia 

Shelley Parker-Chan is the author of award-winning epic fantasy novels in which murderous queers make extremely bad life decisions. Their bestselling series, The Radiant Emperor, has been translated into 15 languages. They live in Melbourne, Australia. 

Appearing in: Session 2, Session 12, Session 16

Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country, Canberra, Australia 

Qin Qin’s mission is to live consciously and help others do the same. Born in China and raised in Canberra, she defied expectations to find success on her own terms. Her memoir, Model Minority Gone Rogue, details her journey of choosing love over fear. 

Appearing in: Session 8, Opening Night Gala 

Singapore 

Wayne Rée is the co-creator of the award-winning prose/comics hybrid, Work-Life Balance: Malevolent Managers and Folkloric Freelancers. In 2023, Wayne was a resident at the National Centre for Writing in Norwich, where he started work on his first novel. 

Appearing in: Session 6, Session 13 

Bidjigal Country, Sydney, Australia 

Sara M. Saleh is a writer, human rights lawyer, and the daughter of Palestinian, Lebanese, and Egyptian migrants. Her first novel Songs for the Dead and the Living and first poetry collection The Flirtation of Girls were both released in 2023. 

Appearing in: Session 4, Opening Night Gala 

Boonwurrung Country, Melbourne, Australia 

Michelle See-Tho is a freelance writer. Her work has appeared in Kill Your Darlings, Meanjin, The Big Issue Fiction Edition, and more. Her debut novel, Jade and Emerald, won the 2023 Penguin Literary Prize and is out now. 

Appearing in: Session 12 

Naarm, Melbourne, Australia 

Sami Shah is a multi-award-winning comedian, writer, and broadcaster. His autobiography I, Migrant was nominated for major literary awards, and his urban fantasy novel Boy of Fire and Earth and non-fiction work Islamic Republic of Australia received critical acclaim. He’s written multiple documentaries, and serves as Ambassador-at-Large for PEN Melbourne. 

Appearing in: Opening Night Gala, Closing Night Debate, Book Club 

Wangal Country, Sydney, Australia 

Jessie Tu is a book critic at The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, and a journalist for Women’s Agenda. Her debut novel, A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing, won the ABIA for 2020 Literary Fiction Book of the Year. The Honeyeater is her second novel. 

Appearing in: Session 10, Session 13 

Turrbal Country, Brisbane, Australia 

Sita Walker is a Literature teacher in Brisbane. Her debut memoir, The God of No Good (2023), won both the Queensland and New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards People’s Choice. Sita has also written for Red Magazine (UK), The Guardian, and The Griffith Review. 

Appearing in: Session 8 

Wurundjeri Country, Melbourne, Australia 

Beverley Wang is the ABC’s National Culture correspondent. She hosts the pop culture show Stop Everything! and Life Matters on Fridays on ABC RN, and is a regular contributor to ABC News Breakfast. Beverley is Taiwanese Canadian, based in Melbourne. 

Appearing in: Session 7, Stop Everything! Live 

Wurundjeri Country, Melbourne, Australia 

Gabrielle Wang is an award-winning children’s author of more than twenty books. She is third-generation Chinese Australian. Gabrielle’s books are a blend of Eastern and Western culture with a touch of fantasy. Gabrielle was the Australian Children’s Laureate for 2022 and 2023. 

Appearing in: Session 9 

Cammeraygal Country, Sydney, Australia 

Jennifer Wong is a writer, comedian, presenter of Chopsticks or Fork? (ABC), and columnist for The Guardian. Her humorous essays and reporting about food, culture, and mental health have been published by ABC Everyday, ABC News, Monocle, SBS Food, and SBS News. 

Appearing in: Session 15, Workshop: Crafting Comedy, Closing Night Debate 

Wurundjeri Country, Melbourne, Australia 

Grace Yee is a poet and writer. She is the author of Chinese Fish, winner of the Victorian Prize for Literature, and the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry, Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. 

Appearing in: Session 14 

Kaurna Country, Adelaide, Australia 

Jessica Zeng is an Adelaide-based illustrator and zine-maker working under the name Ban-She. Their work explores feminist and political ideas in an accessible and light-hearted way. Ban-She has been a regular fixture at Adelaide small press markets selling zines (including Home Comforts, Buttered Toast and Cats Cats Cats), prints, and other artistic creations. 

Appearing in: Workshop: DIY Publishing