The Writer Aquatic

Michael Farrell is a poet from Bombala, NSW, now living in Melbourne. Previous book publications include: The Victoria Principle (stories), Googlecholia (poems), A Lyrebird (U.S. selected poems), Writing Australian Unsettlement (literary history), and Ashbery Mode (as editor). Michael edits The Chalamet Review, and is also poetry editor of Westerly. Artwork can viewed @limechax on instagram. Videos @flashcove1695 on youtube.

Lian Low (they/she) is a Naarm based Peranakan-Chinese-Malaysian multidisciplinary writer with work across spoken word, poetry, arts journalism, creative non-fiction and speculative fiction. They are interested in interrogating colonial mindsets, racism and queerphobia in relationships with swimming, water safety and waterways. Having learned to swim as an adult they’re a passionate advocate for lifelong learning in swimming and physical activity. Their short memoir on learning to swim, ‘Adult Swimmer’ can be found in Kill Your Darlings. Their research in drowning prevention can be found in the Health Promotion Journal of Australia. Previously, they edited Peril. Find them at: lianlow.weebly.com

Gareth Morgan is the author of When A Punk Becomes A Spunk and Dear Eileen and co-director of Sick Leave.

Megan is a writer, dancer and arts worker living on Wurundjeri land. They studied Dance at the VCA and Writing and Editing at RMIT, and previously worked as operations manager at the Emerging Writers’ Festival. Their choreographic practice includes the ongoing collaborative radio project Land Swimming with Oonagh Slater, exploring how writing, fiction and voice are felt in the body. Megan writes fiction exploring how characters come to understand and embody supernatural, shapeshifting, queer and trans identities.

Jacinta Le Plastrier is a poet, writer and channel. Her current poetry book, ‘these memories require’ (Puncher & Wattmann, 2025), was a finalist in the Dame Mary Gilmore Award 2026.

Ella Skilbeck-Porter is the author of These are Different Waters (Vagabond Press 2023), a collection of poetry and visual poetry that was was highly commended in the Anne Elder Award and shortlisted for the Helen Anne Bell Poetry Bequest and the Mary Gilmore Award. Her work has been widely published in journals and anthologies including Best of Australian Poems 2024, Living Systems: Poetry from Asia Pacific, HEAT, Otoliths, Rabbit and Cordite Poetry Review. Her second collection Crescentcrescent is forthcoming with Vagabond. She lives in Naarm on unceded Wurundjeri land.

Gavin is a trade union educator and, occasionally, an aspiring writer who lives in Melbourne on the lands of the Bunurong People. He has had his work published in Overland Literary Journal and New Matilda, and in 2018 he won the Questions Writing Prize for writers under 30.

Oonagh is an artist living and working on Gadigal land. Her practice marries the poetics of the mundane with the expansive imagery of fiction. Rooted in the body, her work explores memory, lineage, landscape, and intimacy. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Dance) from the Victorian College of the Arts and has worked with choreographers including Phoebe Robinson, Sandra Parker, Judith Walton, Alice Heyward, and Oisín Ó Manacháin. Most recently, she was a contributing artist for Temporary Position’s Streaming Surrounds at Cement Fondu (2023). Her choreographic writing practice includes the ongoing collaborative project Land Swimming with Megan Payne.

Jessica Zhan Mei Yu is a writer of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. She is a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Melbourne. Her debut novel, But the Girl was shortlisted for The Age Book of the Year Award, Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Fiction and the Readings New Australian Fiction Prize. Her essay collection, All the Stain is Tender, is set to follow.