Kirli Saunders

Kirli Saunders (OAM), is a proud Gunai Woman with Dharawal, Biripi, Yuin & Gundungurra ties. She is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist and consultant. Kirli was the NSW Aboriginal Woman of the Year (2020). In 2022, she was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for her contribution to the arts, particularly literature.

Her celebrated books include The Incredible Freedom Machines (Scholastic, 2018), Kindred (Magabala, 2019), Bindi (Magabala, 2020), Our Dreaming (Scholastic, 2022), Returning (Magabala, 2023) and The Land Recalls You (Scholastic, 2024). Among other awards, her books have been widely recognised in the Prime Minister’s & Premier’s literary awards in NSW, QLD, VIC & WA.

Kirli's writing features in magazines and journals, including Vogue, Overland, Kill Your Darlings and as public art with AESOP and The Royal Botanic Gardens, Victoria. Her debut play, directed by Shari Sebbens, Going Home was supported by Playwriting Australia (2022) and is under a second development."

Kim Scott

Kim Scott is the multi-award winning novelist and author of Benang, That Deadman Dance and Taboo. Proud to be one among those who call themselves Noongar, Kim is founder of the Wirlomin Noongar Language and Stories Project, and is Professor of Writing in the School of Media, Culture and Creative Arts at Curtin University. Kim has won the Miles Franklin Award twice. First in 1999, for Benang and again in 2011, for That Deadman Dance, which won a host of awards including the 2011 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book in South East Asia and the Pacific.

Nardi Simpson

Nardi Simpson is a Yuwaalaraay writer, musician, composer and educator from North West NSW freshwater plains. A founding member of Indigenous folk duo Stiff Gins, Nardi has been performing nationally and internationally for over twenty years. Her award-winning debut novel, Song of the Crocodile, was a 2018 winner of a black&write! writing fellowship.  

While working on her second novel, Nardi continues to perform with Stiff Gins, works with student ensembles and directs cross cultural choir Barayagal at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. She is also currently undertaking a PhD with the ANU School of Music. 

Julie Janson

Julie is a Burruberongal woman of the Darug Aboriginal nation, living on the South Coast of NSW. She is a novelist, playwright, and poet. Her newest novel is Compassion (2024). Previous novels include Madukka the River Serpent (2022) - long listed for the Miles Franklin Literary award 2023, and Benevolence (2020) - shortlisted for the Barbara Jefferis Award 2022, nominated for the NIB Literary Award 2020, and the Voss Literary Award 2020. Julie is co-recipient of the Oodgeroo Noonuccal Poetry Prize 2016, and the Judith Wright Poetry Prize 2019. Julie's poems have been published in the Overland Magazine. 

Her career as a playwright began with productions at Belvoir St Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre and Sydney Opera House Studio. Her plays, Black Mary and Gunjies, are produced in Australia, USA and Indonesia.