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. 

Omar Sakr

Omar Sakr does not have a bio in the genocide. There is no normal in the genocide.

His latest book is Non-Essential Work (UQP, 2023).  

Nicole Smede

Nicole Smede is a poet, musician, multi-disciplinary artist, and Arts educator of Warrimay/Birribay and colonial descent, living and creating on Wodi Wodi Dharawal Country. Her poetry can be found in the Australian Poetry Journal; Mascara Literary Review; Never Heard of Them (2019); Guwayu: for all times (2020); What we Carry, (2021); and 20x20x12: Sensing Place (2021). 

Nicole was the co-recipient of the 2020 Shoalhaven Arts Board Grant and the South Coast Writers Centre Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Writing Mentorship. Her work is held in national collecting institutions. Nicole has conducted workshops for The NSW Department of Education's Arts Unit, The Song Company, Bundanon Trust, Red Room Poetry, Wollongong City Council and local schools in the Shoalhaven.  

Nicole has performed and recorded classical, theatre, rock and contemporary music, in film and on the stages of Parliament House, the City Recital Hall, and the Mona Foma Festival. Her vocals are featured in a number of soundtracks, including Ivan Sen's ‘Goldstone’ and APRA award-winning film score '1919'. In 2022, Nicole was a recipient of the inaugural Space to Create residency at The Australian National University, and in 2023, an APRA AMCOS Women in Music mentee, and a participant in The Ngarra-Burria First Peoples Composer program. 

Suzanne Burdon

Suzanne Burdon was the founder and first Artistic Director of the inaugural Berry Writer’s Festival. She is the author of an award-winning novel, Almost Invincible: A Biographical Novel of Mary Shelley, Author of Frankenstein, and a collection of poetry, Socio-Illogical. Suzanne is a sociologist, research consultant and communication specialist living in Sydney and Gerroa. She has also worked in advertising, marketing and education. She served on the Board of The Australian Society of Authors for four years and on the Committee of the Research Society of NSW for three years.