Larissa is an Euahleyai/Gamillaroi academic, lawyer, award-winning author and filmmaker.  She is a Distinguished Professor and Laureate Fellow at the University of Technology Sydney, where she established the research arm of the Jumbunna Institute, a leading Indigenous-led research centre. She is also Chair of the Council of the National Library of Australia.

Rachel is descended from the Nimunburr and Yawuru people of the Kimberley. She is an unwavering advocate for Australian storytelling, especially First Nations voices. 

Rachel is the publisher at Magabala Books, has served on various boards and been the recipient of various accolades. She has played a key role in shaping the literary landscape. Through her quiet leadership, Rachel continues to amplify Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices in Australian literature. 

Professor Sarah Holland-Batt is a poet, editor and critic whose books have received a number of literary awards, including the Stella Prize for her most recent book, The Jaguar, and the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Poetry for her second volume, The Hazards.  She is also the author of a book of essays on contemporary Australian poetry, Fishing for Lightning, collecting her poetry columns written for The Australian.  She presently serves as Chair of Australian Book Review and is a Member of the National Library of Australia Council. 

Tim Jarvis is the owner of Fullers Bookshop, Hobart, where he has been a bookseller since 2015, and which he took over in 2021. In 2018 he was the Australian Booksellers Association/Penguin Random House Young Bookseller of the Year, and under his leadership Fullers won Bookshop of the Year at the Australian Book Industry Awards in 2024.

Tim has been a member of the board of BookPeople (formerly the Australian Booksellers Association) since 2019, and served as its president from 2023-2025. He has also been a member of the Tasmanian Library Advisory Board since 2023.

Before becoming a career bookseller, Tim completed a PhD in philosophy at the University of Tasmania, on the hermeneutical philosophy of Hans-Georg Gadamer.

Tommy’s theatre credits include Packer & Sons, Mark Colvin’s Kidney, and Gwen in Purgatory (Belvoir St Theatre), Troy’s House (SUDS, ATYP), Strangers in Between (Griffin Theatre Company, Trafalgar Studios West End), Blood Wedding (Royal and Derngate Northampton Theatre, UK), On the Beach and Saturn’s Return (Sydney Theatre Company). 

He created and was the Head Writer and Script Producer for the ABC original television series Significant Others (Fremantle, nominated for the 2023 Logie for Outstanding Drama). Tommy has also written episodes of The Twelve, Fighting Season, The Devil’s Playground and Offspring. Tommy wrote and was Associate Producer on the feature film Holding The Man (Goalpost Pictures) directed by Neil Armfield. 

He won the AWGIE Award for Best Writing in a Feature Film and Critics Circle Award for Best Screenplay. Tommy’s long association with Tim Conigrave’s memoir Holding The Man began with his 2006 stage adaptation for Griffin Theatre Company which travelled to the West End. Another of his plays, Strangers In Between, has also had several UK outings including a West End transfer. 

Tommy was the recipient of Sydney Theatre Company’s Patrick White Playwrights Fellowship (2016), The Writers’ Guild and Screen Australia Creators Program in Hollywood (2023), and Australia Council National Award for Theatre (2020). His other notable awards include winner of the 2022 AWGIE Award for Audio Fiction for his radio play Call You Back and winner of the N.S.W. Premier’s Literary Awards for Best Play for both Holding The Man and Strangers In Between and the W.A. Premier’s Prize for Gwen in Purgatory. 

He is the writer of the upcoming feature film Burning Rainbow Farm for director Justin Kurzel and Anonymous Content USA. 

With a broad knowledge of the book industry, Julie has extensive experience gained over a career dedicated to the business of books and publishing, including both the creative and commercial imperatives required for building and sustaining a successful publishing model. 

In 1997, with the founders, she established and led the publishing division for the business globally, including the Hardie Grant publishing businesses in UK and North America.  This expanded over the years to create six distinct publishing units creating a diverse portfolio of publishing imprints with over 250 new titles published each year. Her remit included all business responsibility in addition to publishing itself including sales and marketing, distribution and corporate governance. 

Julie was a Company Director of Hardie Grant from 2022 – 2024.

She completed this role in December 2024.

She is now in an Advisory role for Hardie Grant Publishing  across acquisitions  and other opportunities.

Claire is Executive Director of the Australian Writers’ Guild and Group CEO of the Guild’s group of companies, including the Australian Writers’ Guild Authorship Collecting Society (AWGACS). AWGACS is the collecting society for royalties for Australian and New Zealand screen authors, which distributes millions in royalties every year to writers. She represents the Guild and AWGACS nationally and internationally. 

Prior to working at the Guild, she led communications, media and campaign teams in unions and NGOs. Claire has worked as a freelance journalist, has owned two microbusinesses and has represented the legal and disability communities as a Board member. Claire holds a Masters degree in Labour Law and Relations from the University of Sydney, an Arts degree with first-class Honours and several other qualifications. She has begun her Masters of Copyright Law at Melbourne University. 

Christos Tsiolkas is the author of eight novels – Loaded, The Jesus Man, Dead Europe, The Slap, Barracuda, Damascus, 7 ½, The In-Between - and the short story collection, Merciless Gods. 

Many of his works have been adapted for the stage and for the screen and have been published in multiple languages. He has written a monograph on Fred Schepisi’s The Devil’s Playground, for the Australian Screen Classics series, and a monograph On Patrick White, for the Writers in Writers series. He has collaborated with Patricia Cornelius, Andrew Bovell, Melissa Reeves and Irine Vela on the plays Who’s Afraid of the Working Class?, Fever, and Anthem, and was co-writer with Spiro Economopoulos on the play, Non Parlo di Salo. His other plays include Viewing Blue Poles, Dead Caucasians, and Carburettor, and the adaptation of Loaded, co-written with Dan Giovannoni. 

In 2022 the Adelaide Festival staged Watershed: The Death of Dr Duncan, an oratorio written by Christos and Alana Valentine, with music composed by Joseph Twist. It was restaged at the Sydney Opera House in 2024 and Alana and Christos won an AWGIE for their libretto. Christos’s film script credits include the feature films Blessed and Little Tornadoes, and the documentary series, The Pool. 

He is a volunteer co-host (along with Clem Bastow and Casey Bennetto) of the music show, Superfluity, on community radio station, 3RRR. Christos is also an essayist and currently a film critic for The Saturday Paper. He is an ambassador for theatre group, Outer Urban Projects, in Melbourne, and a patron of Writers Victoria. In 2025, he was appointed to the council of Writers Australia for Creative Australia. 

Photo: Zoe Ali

Sally Rippin is a best-selling and beloved author for children, and the eighth Australian Children's Laureate. Her most popular series include Billie B Brown, Hey Jack! and School of Monsters, and she has over 10 million books in print worldwide. Sally also recently published Wild Things: How We Learn to Read and What Can Happen If We Don’t as a resource for adults wanting to better support neurodivergent and dyslexic children in the home and classroom.   

As the Children’s Laureate, Sally is the national ambassador for reading and Australian children’s literature. Every Laureate has a mission for their two-year term and for Sally, it is: All kids can be readers. Through this mission, she works towards creating public awareness around learning difficulties as well as the most effective practice in teaching children to read. Sally's work spotlights the reading challenges faced by millions of Australian children – including but not limited to discussions around neurodiversity, disability, mental health, access to books and language barriers.   

Currently, as well as working on new books and her Laureate duties, Sally is working with an Australian production house to adapt her work for screen.