Join award-winning authors Emily O’Grady, Kristina Olsson and Mirandi Riwoe for the first session of the day as they have an invigorating discussion about the stages of an author’s career. 

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Join authors Kris Kneen and Laura Jean McKay as they unravel the mysterious art of poetry and short stories. This panel will be moderated by Raelee Lancaster.

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Join award-winning authors Debra Dank and Anita Heiss as they explore the vital topic of reclaiming and revitalising First Nations languages. This session will be moderated by Cheryl Leavy. 

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1pm – 2pm | Exploring hope and trust in fiction

Award-winning author Amanda Lohrey sits down with poet and editor Michelle Cahill to talk about hope and trust in literature.

Michelle Cahill (she/they)

Michelle is a poet and novelist of Indian heritage. She is the 2023 Hedberg Writer-in-Residence. Her short story collection Letter to Pessoa was awarded the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for New Writing. Her novel Daisy & Woolf was longlisted in the ALS Gold Medal and the Voss Literary Prize. She has been shortlisted in the ABR Elizabeth Jolley Prize, the Peter Porter Poetry Prize and received the KWS Hilary Mantel International Short Story Prize. Cahill is the artistic director of Mascara. 

Amanda Lohrey (she/her)

Amanda lives in Tasmania and writes fiction. In November 2012 she received the 2012 Patrick White Award for literature. Her 2020 novel The Labyrinth won the 2021 Miles Franklin Award, the Voss Award for fiction, the Prime Minister’s Award for fiction and the Tasmanian Literary Award for fiction. Her most recent publication is a novel, The Conversion (2023). In 2022, Melbourne University Press published a critical study of her work, Lohrey, by Dr Julieanne Lamond of the Australian National University.

Hear the 2017 Stella Prize winner, Heather Rose, reflect on her stunning novel The Museum of Modern Love and her latest book Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here. 

Heather Rose (she/her)

Heather is the author of nine novels and a memoir. Heather’s books have been shortlisted, longlisted or won awards for literary fiction, crime fiction, fantasy/sci fi and children’s literature. Her seventh novel, The Museum of Modern Love, won the 2017 Stella Prize, the Christina Stead Prize and the Margaret Scott Prize. It has been widely translated. Heather’s most recent novel Bruny won the ABIA 2020 General Fiction Book of the Year and is currently in production as a six-part tv series. The Museum of Modern Love is being adapted for film. The play of The Museum of Modern Love, written by Tom Holloway, debuted at the 2022 Sydney Festival. Heather’s latest book is the memoir Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here. Heather’s next novel will be published in late 2024.

Danielle Wood (she/her)

Danielle is the author of the Vogel Prize-winning novel The Alphabet of Light and Dark, Rosie Little’s Cautionary Tales for Girls, Housewife Superstar: the very best of Marjorie Bligh and Mothers Grimm. As ‘Minnie Darke’, she’s written the novels Star-crossed, The Lost Love Song, and With Love from Wish & Co, and the novellas Wild Apples and The Yellow Wood. With Heather Rose, she is ‘Angelica Banks’, author of the Tuesday McGillycuddy books for children. She is also the co-editor of two anthologies of Tasmanian writing, Deep South: Stories from Tasmania and Island Story: Tasmania in Object and Text. She lives in Hobart and teaches writing at the University of Tasmania.