Erin Adams is the founder of Smell Art, an organisation dedicated to innovative scent design for immersive events, olfactory art, and community education. She explores the conscious and subconscious power of smell, enhancing experiences and fostering connection. Recent works include Oceanic Refractions (Venice Biennale Curator’s Pavilion, 2025) and Recollection (fortyfivedownstairs, 2024). Beyond her role as […]

Aastha Agrawal (she/they) is an Indian poet, illustrator, and multidisciplinary creative based in Naarm. Her work has appeared in publications including Frankie, Refinery29, and Urban List, among others. Aastha was featured on UK billboards as part of the 2022 POCC Artist in Residence program for her poem Dhai Calligraphy, and was a 2024 finalist for […]

Liam Alexander-Quinn is an alleged graphic designer. He loves working with food and beverage people, making silly websites, and unpacking creative ideas over a bottle of wine.

Miles Allinson is the author of the novels Fever of Animals and In Moonland, as well as numerous emails.

Chris Ames is a writer from California. His work has appeared in HEAT, The Big Issue, The Saturday Paper, New Australian Fiction, and elsewhere. He is the recipient of a Hot Desk Fellowship, the Lord Mayor’s Creative Writing Award, and the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript. He lives in Melbourne with his […]

Dana Anderson is a publicist at Affirm Press. Before entering the world of publishing, Dana worked as the arts and events journalist for The Examiner (based in Tasmania).

Manisha Anjali is the author of Naag Mountain (Giramondo, 2024). She is one half of Whelk, an ambient music and poetry collaboration with Genevieve Fry.

Evelyn Araluen is a poet, researcher and co-editor of Overland Literary Journal. Her widely published criticism, fiction and poetry has been awarded the Nakata Brophy Prize for Young Indigenous Writers, the Judith Wright Poetry Prize, a Wheeler Centre Next Chapter Fellowship, and a Neilma Sidney Literary Travel Fund grant. Born and raised on Dharug country, she is a descendant of the Bundjalung Nation. Evelyn’s debut collection Dropbear was shortlisted for the 2021 Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a Poetry Collection and the 2022 Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, and won the 2022 Stella Prize. It was Highly Commended for the 2021 Anne Elder Award.

Katia Ariel (she/her) is an award-winning author, book editor and educator from Melbourne/Naarm. She was born in Odessa, Ukraine. Her memoir, The Swift Dark Tide, shortlisted for the Stella Prize in 2024 and won the 2024 Society of Women Writers NSW Non-fiction Prize. Katia’s work has appeared in journals such as Womankind, Antithesis and Archer. […]

Hana Assafiri’s life is dedicated to disrupting barriers that prevent women from thriving. pioneering a unique, dining culture in Melbourne. rooted in generosity, innovation,shaping a hospitality model that fosters community &connection. A fearless advocate for social justice, women’s rights, Hana initiated groundbreaking conversations through Speed Date a Muslim, creating spaces for dialogue on gender, racism, […]

Shokoofeh Azar is an Iranian-Australian journalist and writer who sought asylum in Australia in 2010 after being imprisoned for her work in Iran. She writes acclaimed fiction in the magical realism genre, drawing on Iranian myth, legend, politics, and true stories. Her debut novel, The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree, was shortlisted for the Booker […]

Jamil Badi is a writer living on unceded Wurundjeri land. Inspired by oral storytelling practices, his work primarily consists of folktales which aim to blend the properties of the spoken word with the written. His fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction has appeared in Meanjin, Overland online, Island online, Cordite, Voiceworks and elsewhere.

Ender Başkan is a Melbourne-based poet, novelist, small-press publisher and bookseller. The the winner of the 2021 Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize, his poems have been published in HEAT, Meanjin, Cordite, Unusual Work and Best of Australian Poems. He has also published a novel, A Portrait of Alice as a Young Man. He is the co-founder of Vre Books press, Agog poetry readings and Study, an experimental space. His forthcoming poetry collection Two Hundred Million Musketeers will be published by Giramondo.

Aaron Billings is comics artist and researcher from Melbourne, Australia. In 2018 he co founded Pink Ember, a queer focused art space, which is where he works out of. He is currently a PhD candidate at RMIT University researching the aesthetic of the cute in contemporary graphic narratives. He runs the seasonal comics reading night […]

Gemma is an AWGIE and AACTA nominated writer and actor. She found success through her multiple web-series – The Housemate (ABC iView) and Me & Her(pes) which clocked over 1 million views in it’s first week online and was later nominated for an AACTA Award. Gemma has also worked across numerous television series including The […]

Cate Blake is the Publishing Director of Affirm Press, a division of Simon & Schuster Australia.

Trish Bolton’s debut novel, Whenever You’re Ready, was published by Allen & Unwin in 2024. Her writing has appeared in The Saturday Paper, The Age, Sunday Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Canberra Times, Overland, New Matilda, The Big Issue and Visible Ink. Trish has been the recipient of an Australian Society of Authors mentorship, […]

Leonie “Luggs” Brialey is a cartoonist, writer, and musician working on Wurundjeri country. Her comics have been published by Glom Press, Island Magazine, The Suburban Review, and on newsprint wrapped around seedlings. Her lockdown newsletter, “Lonely Times,” garnered a small but dedicated following. She has worked with paper, t-shirts, clay, super 8 film, puppets, and played various instruments in various bands.

Charlee Brooks (he/him) is an Australian poet, writer, and content creator living on Wadawurrung land. His work explores queer intimacy, memory, and the quiet politics of the body. He runs Grandpa’s Book Club, a digital community with over one hundred thousand followers curating and celebrating literature from the margins. He is currently working on his […]

Holly Brunnbauer is a multi-award-winning emerging fiction author who writes stories filled with heart, humour and hijinks. Her signature style includes a strong commercial voice, quirky cast and putting the ‘com’ in rom-com. Holly first caught the writing bug via blogging and later transitioned into copywriting. She’s now a sought-after virtual assistant for published and […]

Nicola Bryant is a writer, curator and emerging comics artist based in Naarm (Melbourne). Her comics tend to explore the moment solitude slides into isolation and how this can do funny things to perception. She is a member of Gutter Stars, a collective of artists and writers interested in expanded comics practice.

Kelly Bull is a comics creator and illustrator born and based in Melbourne, Australia. She makes original fiction webcomics for young adults and adults across various genres and hopes to soon make her mark in the print industry. She has an ongoing webcomic titled Vainglorious and has had her work published in two separate comic […]

Jax Bulstrode is a queer disabled writer and poet. They have been published in Voiceworks, Cordite, Fashion Journal Magazine, and Australian Poetry Anthology. Their debut poetry collection ‘cul de sac rabbits’ was published with revolutionaries press in 2024.

Sarah Burke is a descendant of Antekerrepenh and Alyawarre women. They are currently a Phd candidate with the Indigenous Education Research Centre at JCU. Sarah’s writing focuses on bringing to life stories influenced by the bush. Such as gothic landscapes, tall tales,ghost stories and yarns about moral ambiguity. She writes short stories, poetry and is currently working on a screenplay.

Samantha Byres is a writer from Whanganui, Aotearoa. She attended the International Institute of Modern Letters in Wellington and her work appears in: Turbine, JAAM, Sport, and Out Here: An Anthology of Takatāpui and LGBTQIA+ writers from Aotearoa. She lives in Naarm/Melbourne.

Bernard Caleo draws and performs. He edited and published the romance comics anthology Tango from 1997 to 2009, made the feature documentary Graphic Novels! Melbourne! with Daniel Hayward in 2012, and with Erica Wagner and Liz MacFarlane he runs Twelve Panels Press – they published Safdar Ahmed’s graphic novel Still Alive: Notes From Australia’s Immigration […]

Eliza Calil is a writer, editor and bookseller living and working on Wurundjeri land. She is currently studying a Master of Writing and Publishing at RMIT University and is co-editor of the literary magazine Nesting published by Bowen Street Press. In 2023 she was editorial intern at Meanjin and assistant producer of the play Social […]

Kate Cameron is an artist, theatre-maker, and writer. A graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, Kate collaborates with scientists, poets, and performers to create engaging, immersive theatre works that marry social issues with science, curiosity, and play. She is an advocate for public art and improving the accessibility of creative spaces.

Sian Campbell (she/they) is a freelance writer and a PhD candidate at RMIT’s Non/Fiction Lab in Naarm. In 2015 and 2016, she was a Co-Director at the National Young Writers’ Festival. Her work has appeared in Kill Your Darlings, Spook, Junkee, Going Down Swinging, Seizure, Crikey, Voiceworks, and Express Media, among other places. In 2015 […]

Clare Carlin is a writer across forms. She runs Pieced Work, an ongoing literature project.

Dax Carnay-Hanrahan is a Filipino trans theatre-maker, writer, and performer who cut their teeth in Manila’s theatre scene before bringing their chaos and charm to Naarm/Melbourne in 2020. Their writing fuses satire, identity, and emotional grit—earning them spots in the 2023 Malthouse Emerging Writers Group and the 2024 PACT x Performance Space Queer Development Program. […]

Anne M Carson is an Australian independent researcher, creative writing teacher, poet, and essayist living by the bay on unceded Bunurong Country. Her poetry has been published internationally, and widely in Australia over many years, receiving numerous awards including being shortlisted in the Women Authors New South Wales Poetry Prize (2024) and commended in the Ada Cambridge Poetry award (2024). Her latest book is The Detective’s Chair: prose poems about fictional detectives (Liquid Amber Press 2023). Her PhD (2023, RMIT) received an Outstanding Dissertation Prize (American Educational Research Association, Visual and Performing Arts SIG, 2024).

Tina Cartwright (she/her) is a writer and former Spanish teacher living on Wurundjeri and Boon Wurrung lands in Melbourne’s west. She’s been a teacher in Mexico, Spain and New Zealand. Her manuscripts were longlisted for the Michael Gifkins Prize for an Unpublished Novel 2023 and 2024. She was a 2024 KSP Fellow and was shortlisted […]

Camilo Cayazaya is an Indigenous American man (along with West European and African ancestry) from Chile who arrived in Australia as a refugee when he was 1 year old. Since then, he has worked as a journalist, dietitian, public health strategist, martial arts coach, and marketing consultant over an eclectic career with the sole mission […]

Sher Ting is a Singaporean-Chinese writer. She is a 2021 Writeability Fellow with Writers Victoria, a member of Kenyon Review’s Winter Workshop 2023 and a Tin House’24 Winter Workshop participant. She has work published in Prairie Schooner, Pleiades, Gulf Coast, AGNI, Colorado Review, Salt Hill, OSU The Journal, and elsewhere. Her full-length poetry collection, Burn After Dawn, is published by Landmark Books. Her first chapbook, Bodies of Separation, is published with Cathexis Northwest Press and second chapbook, The Long-Lasting Grief of Foxes, is published with Mouthfeel Press. She tweets at @sherttt and writes at sherting.com

Kanika is an avid reader, occasional writer, and all around curious person. She started the literary zine known as More than Melanin which publishes writings by POC and Bla(c)k women and LGBTQIA+ people from these communities. The zine is currently on its third issue.

Shu-Ling Chua is a Melbourne-based essayist, poet and zine-maker. Her essay collection, Echoes, jointly won the Small Press Network Book of the Year Award. Shu-Ling’s work has appeared in Peril Magazine, Meanjin, Rabbit, 4A Papers and elsewhere. She is interested in unexpected beauty, small joys and quiet epiphanies.

Madeleine Cleary’s debut novel, The Butterfly Women (2025, Affirm Press), was chosen as Dymocks Fiction Book of the Month and was inspired by her family history. Her writing has been shortlisted for The Australian Fiction Prize and featured in The Australian Weekend Magazine. Madeleine is the co-host of The Book Deal Podcast, a popular podcast […]

Greer Clemens is a writer, library technician and musician from Melbourne.

Emilie Collyer lives on unceded Wurundjeri land where she writes across forms. Her poetry collection Do you have anything less domestic? (Vagabond Press 2022) won the Five Islands Poetry Prize and in 2024 she was runner-up in the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize and shortlisted in the Newcastle Poetry Prize. Emilie is currently under commission with […]

Ivy Crago is a Theatre-Maker, Writer, and Producer based in Melbourne/Naarm. A 2022 graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts in Theatre, their work is playful and imaginative, often inspired by the absurdity within the mundane. Ivy has presented work at Melbourne Fringe Hub, Darebin’s FUSE Festival, Melbourne International Comedy Festival and more. As […]

A proud Mutthi Mutthi / Yorta Yorta / Tongan man, Crooked TP brings a powerful presence to the stage, blending old-school hip hop vibes with deep cultural roots. His music is more than just sound — it’s storytelling in motion, taking you on a journey through lived experiences, raw truths, and generational pride. With a […]

Lori Curran is a bodyworker specialising in massage therapy, yoga, movement and mindfulness. She is also a student of counselling and psychotherapy. Her work is grounded in an interdisciplinary approach, she facilitates body awareness, tension release, and nervous system regulation, fostering resilience and emotional balance. Lori’s practice is centred on the interconnectedness of mind and […]

AJ D’Costa is a poet, artist & professional counsellor of Goan-Indian heritage. Playing at the intersection of creativity & contemplative practice, her work has appeared across various mediums, with features & performances in the Australian Poetry Journal, on 3CR Radical Radio, the Stellar South Asian Women Awards & Radio Laria Poetry. AJ holds deep appreciation […]

MD is a writer, poet, and co-founder of Vanishing Pictures. She read English and Modern Languages at Oxford, then took a Masters in Strategic Studies and Defence from the ANU. She has worked on film scripts, animations, installations, documentaries, podcasts, and performs spoken word poetry. Miranda speaks 4 languages and has published both fiction and […]

Eartha Davis is a woman of Ngāpuhi and Celtic heritage living on Wurundjeri land. She is the winner of the AAWP/Express Media Sudden Writing Prize and a 2025 Varuna Residency Fellow for her poetry collection màthair beinn. Her work is published in Wildness, the Australian Poetry Anthology, Cordite, Rabbit, Awa Wahine, and takahē, among others. […]

Neha De Alwis is a Sri Lankan-Australian writing on unceded Wurudjeri Country. Their work has been published in Kill Your Darlings, Nowhere Girl Collective, Myriad Magazine, Ricepaper Magazine, and Cordite. They hate writing and like drawing bunny rabbits.

Liza Dezfouli is a queer speaker, writer and performer based in Melbourne. She started writing when she was a sole parent of two young children. Since then she’s written short stories, plays, articles, and a novel. She’s acted in film and theatre, and performed cabaret, stand up comedy, spoken word and poetry. She was awarded the Darebin Mayor’s Creative Writing Prize for 2024 and has recently won the Hunter Writers’ Centre’s 2025 Winter Member Competition. Her one-woman comedy show, Binosaur, will be presented in the Midsumma 2026 festival.

romesh dissanayake is a Sri Lankan and Koryo Saram writer, poet and chef from Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, currently living on unceded Wurundjeri Country. His work explores ideas of identity, decolonisation and place. romesh’s poetry, fiction and essays have appeared in various print and online publications. His first novel, When I open the shop, was the […]

Michael Dulaney is a journalist and writer whose work focuses on humanity’s links with the rest of non-human nature in the climate crisis. His science and nature writing has been published by The Monthly, Literary Hub, The Big Issue, and the BBC, among others. In 2024 he was a Climate Futures Artist fellow with the […]

Louisa Duval writes award-winning small town romcoms; stories with heat and heart with a sprinkle of sass like the Golden Girls, and the small-town comedy of Schitt’s Creek folded in, and a dollop of an Aussie accent. When not writing, Louisa is a career counsellor helping teens decide what to do next. Louisa is also […]

Joseph Earp is a novelist, painter, and poet. His novel Painting Portraits of Everyone I’ve Ever Dated is out now through Pantera Press. His work has appeared in The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, Vice, and more. He has twice been shortlisted for the Peter Carey Short Story Prize.

Max Easton is a writer from Sydney. He is the creator of Barely Human, a zine and podcast series exploring underground music’s ties to counterculture and subculture. He is the author of two novels published by Giramondo: The Magpie Wing (longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award), and its follow-up Paradise Estate, released in 2023. […]

Isabella Eichler-Onus is a proud Gunditjmara writer living in Naarm. She is currently studying a Bachelor of Creative Writing at the University of Melbourne. She has published poetry with Red Room Poetry and Voiceworks, and has been involved in events with the Melbourne Writers Festival, YIRRAMBOI, and the Wheeler Centre. Her work explores themes of identity, cultural connection and the intricate relationship between land and body. You can find her @bellieeichler on Instagram.

Mito Elias is a Cape Verdean artist and storyteller known for his exploration of language in various forms. A key figure in the Creole diaspora, he blends poetry, sound, and visual arts. Emerging in the 1980s as a voice for Cape Verde’s Utopia generation, he later studied at Ar.Co in Lisbon and engaged with the […]

Melody Ellis is a Naarm-based nonfiction writer with a background in the visual arts. Her work is preoccupied with the politics of value and taste, power, interpretation, and writing the self. She is currently a Senior Lecturer in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University.

Emily Bitto is a Melbourne-based writer of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Her debut novel, The Strays, won the 2015 Stella prize. Her second novel, Wild Abandon, won the Margaret and Colin Roderick Award and was shortlisted for the ALS Gold Medal. Emily has been teaching for over a decade and is currently a tutor at […]

Julia English is a researcher and creative practitioner, whose work spans written, audio, digital, and textile media. She has a PhD in fashion and textiles from RMIT University, where her research explored how local actors collaborate to remake textile waste, sharing her interviews via her podcast Seam Change, and publishing her findings within her thesis […]

Gabrielle Fallen is a trans Naarm-based theatre maker, writer, and performer. Most recently, her original play  Mature Skin was presented by Melbourne Theatre Company in Cybec Electric.  While studying at the VCA, her credits while training include  Happy To Be Here (dir. Dr Sarah Austin), The Infinity Hotel (dir. Nazaree Dickerson), Peach Blossom Fan (dir. Joe Paradise Lui), […]

Sean Fallon is a novelist based in Melbourne. He has published two novels: the queer rom-com Bobby vs. the Duke and its sequel, The People vs. The King. He currently writes for Film Inquiry, a movie and TV criticism website, and Hard Times and The Hard Drive, comedy news sites that satirise music, pop culture, […]

Ella Ferris is a Taribelang actor and writer from far north Queensland, now living and working in Naarm. In 2024 she was the inaugural recipient of the Meanjin inPlace Autumn residency where she wrote a memoir piece called ‘Crocodile,’ while also trying her hand (and mouth, and belly) at food writing. She recently closed a […]

Maija Flood is a writer and musician from Dja Dja Wurrung country now living and working on Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung lands. Maija was most recently a participant in the National Gallery of Australia’s Digital Young Writer’s Residency where participants engaged in a series of masterclasses and developed articles for publication. Her practice is informed through a […]

Laura (she/her) works as an editor at Melbourne-based publishing house Affirm Press. She has a Master of Creative Writing, Editing and Publishing from the University of Melbourne. Laura is passionate about great stories of all kinds, and specialises in structural editing, which she approaches like a team sport. She also oversees managing and assessing unsolicited […]

An emerging Japanese-to-English translator currently completing her PhD in Translation Studies, where her research explores the polysemic concept of voice in translation. She completed her Master’s degree in T&I in 2023 and was a recipient of the AUSIT Student Award. As part of her Master’s, she undertook a practice-based research project on translating Japanese onomatopoeia. […]

Genevieve Fry is a multi-instrumentalist and composer based in Naarm. Interested in exploratory music drawing inspiration from the natural world, their soundscapes encourage an inward journey touching on deep time, memory and sense of place. In both solo and collaborative contexts across the experimental, contemporary, and improvisation scenes, Genevieve layers textures of harp, recorder, synthesizer and voice. Genevieve is the co-founder of Eastmint artist run studios, label and performance space which focuses on presenting and supporting music that promotes deep listening from a diverse range of artists across all genres.

Mel Fulton is a writer, editor, broadcaster and educator. She is the Deputy Editor and Books Editor of The Big Issue Australia, and the host of Literati Glitterati on Triple R.

River Gammon is an artist and writer living in Naarm on unceded Wurundjeri land. He is interested in building alternative forms of cyberspace, and has a particular focus on how queerness is expressed online. When he’s away from the computer, he enjoys birdwatching and urban sketching around his local neighbourhood.

Suzy Garcia is editor of Kill Your Darlings magazine.

Zaheda Ghani and her family arrived in Australia from Afghanistan as refugees in the 1980s. At nine years old Zaheda, also known as Zoe, handwrote her first novel using a HB pencil, in a scented diary with a lock and key. The heart of what she wrote back then developed over many years to become […]

Mabel Gibson is a twenty five year old yamitji writer. Mabel grew up in boorloo (Perth), kinjarling (Albany), and jambinu (Geraldton) – three vastly different locations, whose landscapes and climates all play an important role in Mabel’s story. Crybaby is Mabel’s debut book, a collection of micro memoirs, that follows her through all the seasons […]

Katerina Gibson is a writer and bookseller living in Naarm. Her debut collection Women I Know won the 2023 Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, the Steele Rudd Award, and was shortlisted for the Glenda Adams Prize for New Writing. Her stories have appeared in HEAT, Granta, Overland, The Griffith Review, the Lifted Brow, Meanjin, and […]

Irma Gold is an award-winning author, editor and podcaster. She is the author of two critically acclaimed novels, THE BREAKING and SHIFT, a short fiction collection, TWO STEPS FORWARD, and five children’s books, with another two forthcoming. Good Reading magazine has described her as ‘an immense literary talent’. Irma works full-time as a freelance book […]

Tara Grace is a nonfiction writer and poet from Melbourne. Her work has been published in Australian Poetry, un Projects, Voiceworks, and presented at the Emerging Writers’ Festival. She was part of the 2024 Writers Program with KINGS and un Projects, writing and publishing critical and experimental literature in collaboration with visual artists. She holds […]

George Green is an African American children’s book author and creative based in Melbourne. As the co-founder of Little Global People, he creates stories, educational games, and resources that centre children of colour and celebrate identity, culture, and imagination. A migrant to Australia with a background in youth justice and community work, George has published […]

Darcy Green has been writing and reading queer stories since their LiveJournal days. Their debut novel, After the Siren, is a romantic comedy about two AFL players who don’t dislike one another after all. Darcy lived in Adelaide, Sydney, Canberra and Oxford before settling in Melbourne with their wife and two very spoiled rabbits. When they are not working or writing, Darcy can be found playing ice hockey, gaming, or planning elaborate sewing projects.

Alice Griffin is Editor-in-Chief and Managing Director of Junkee Media. From setting the vision to storytelling, in two years Alice has led the youth media company into its innovative new era which has seen publications Junkee and Punkee collectively grow its communities to reach 30 million monthly. Alice is passionate about platforming emerging perspectives and, in doing so, making young people feel seen. As the host of Punkee’s vodcast, little things, Alice asks creatives about the accessible, affordable, sometimes unorthodox acts of self care they do to set themselves up for a day that feels happy vs productive.

Eloise Grills is a writer and artist living on Wadawurrung country. Her illustrated memoir, big beautiful female theory, was shortlisted for the 2023 Stella Prize. Her work has been published widely, in places like the New Yorker, Meanjin, Kill Your Darlings, and others. She is currently writing her first novel.

Sara Haddad is an editor and writer who lives and work on Gadigal land. She has worked in publishing in Australia and overseas for over 35 years. The Sunbird is her first work of fiction.

Sophie Hamley has worked as a bookseller, editor, writer, content producer and web producer. She was a literary agent at Cameron’s Management from 2006 until 2014 and is a past President of the Australian Literary Agents’ Association. She is now a non-fiction publisher at Hachette Australia, publishing in a range of genres including biography, true crime, history, memoir, politics and science.

Hand Clap, is the moniker of Maya Borjesson, an Architect and visual/sound Artist. Using synthesizers, spoken word, and field recordings, their compositions explore themes of connection, memory, nostalgia and grief. This year Hand Clap embarked on a tour of Japan, supported Penelope Trappes in Sydney, and presented a body of visual and sound work at […]

Sophie He writes and learns on unceded Wurundjeri land. She co-edits Farrago, the University of Melbourne’s student magazine. Sophie enjoys listing, enumerating and writing about herself in the third person.

Miranda Healy is a poet and folk songwriter from Naarm, residing in Melbourne’s Inner West. Through observational and deeply introspective voices, she writes to explore thoughts on family, nature, humanity and internal conflicts. Miranda loves archaic language and playing with her rescue cat Hector. Her work can be found in the recently published ‘Spirals’ edition […]

Jenny Hedley is a neurodivergent writer, digital artist, critic and Writeability mentor whose work has appeared in Archer, Cordite, Crawlspace, Diagram, Griffith Review, Overland, Rabbit, The Suburban Review, TEXT, Westerly and the anthology Admissions: Voices Within Mental Health. She lives on unceded Boon Wurrung land with her son. She can be found at jennyhedley.github.io.

Grace represents some of the most critically and commercially acclaimed writers in Australia across all genres. Her clients include writers such as Nakkiah Lui, Sofie Laguna, Emily Maguire, Chris Hammer, Bri Lee, Madeleine Gray and Hayley Scrivenor. She believes passionately in finding great new voices from across Australia’s cultural melting pot and helping establish and […]

Tom Holloway is a multi-award-winning Australian playwright. His work has been staged extensively in Australia, including at Melbourne Theatre Company, Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir Theatre and more. He’s also been produced internationally including the UK, Germany, France, and the USA, and at some of the most famous theatre festivals in the world.
His love of theatre has always come from a strong desire to make experiences where audiences feel enveloped in a brand-new world, transported to somewhere unexpected, and get to fall in love with characters that break and fill their hearts.

Luke Horton is a writer, critic and creative writing lecturer from Naarm. His debut novel, The Fogging, was highly commended for the 2019 Victorian Premier’s Award for an Unpublished Manuscript and published by Scribe in 2020. His latest novel, Time Together, was published by Scribe in March 2025.

Martin Huang is an intercultural practitioner whose interest spans multiple forms of media, including non/fiction writing, documentary filmmaking and alternative comics. He is currently pursuing a PhD at RMIT seeking to challenge preconception that ideological differences are the primary causes of growing tensions between China and the West and reframe the relationship in the context […]

Gideon Hutapea is a storyteller from Indonesia. He has worked on book design, illustration, children’s story books, comic books, and illustrations for a spectrum of clients. His cartoon is published in the Kompas Sunday edition. While still active, making short comics, he teaches communication design at Universitas Multimedia Nusantara. Now, he lives in Australia with […]

Ronia Ibrahim is a writer, artist and designer residing in Melbourne. Her work is interested in exploring modes of storytelling across poetry, non fiction and performance. She has had her work featured across Australia and New Zealand, including Overland, Cordite, Australian Poetry Journal, Starling, Bankstown Art Centre, Pantograph Punch and the Te Papa Chinese Languages […]

Renee Imbesi (she/her) is living, learning and writing in Naarm (Melbourne) with her young family. She writes creative non-fiction including blogs, book reviews, life writing, feature interviews and other pieces about creativity, books and reading, parenthood, relationships and wellbeing. She launched her writing collection as a website called Make Family Magic in October 2024. She […]

Ayesha Inoon is a Sri Lankan-Australian writer whose work is shaped by her rich cultural heritage and lived experience. Her writing explores themes of identity, belonging, and the resilience of women across cultures. Her debut novel, Untethered—winner of the 2022 ASA/HQ Commercial Fiction Prize and highly commended in both the 2024 ACT Book of the […]

Sreedhevi Iyer is the author of ‘The Tiniest House of Time’ and ‘Jungle Without Water’. She is a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee in the US, has been shortlisted for the SPN Book of the Year Award 2021 in Australia, and the Penang Monthly Book Award and The Star-Popular Readers’ Choice Award in Malaysia. Her work […]

Thirangie Jayatilake is a Sri Lankan writer and editor based in Naarm. She writes poetry, fiction and feature articles. Written in a narrative prose poetry style, her poetry addresses social politics, nostalgia, place and memory. Her fiction typically includes young female protagonists grappling with the themes of gender, race, ethnicity, identity and growing up. Thirangie […]

Damoon comes from a Kurdish/Persian heritage, with a passion in traditional music and he is deeply embedded in political struggles for justice across the Middle East, including regime-change in Iran and rights for Kurdish people.

Ximena Jimenez is a Peruvian creative based in Australia. Their work explores themes like multiculturalism, identity, and radical joy through art as a form of political resistance. Jimenez blends personal storytelling with documentary photography, textile techniques, graphic design, and poetry. Their practice challenges dominant narratives around migration, while honouring collective care and the transformative power […]

Blue Jordan is a Melbourne-based emerging writer who has published with Voiceworks and Farrago, and has worked with Cipta Theatre Company, a Melbourne University student theatre group, to stage one of her original playscripts. Her passions lie in magical realism, using otherworldly elements to explore ideas about our world from unique perspectives. She is currently in her second year of university, studying English and Theatre studies in hopes of turning her passion for creative writing into something along the lines of a career.

Zachary Kai is a queer writer and generalist who crafts space fantasy fiction about resilient souls among stars in between making zines and collecting skills. Australian-born, he writes with American spelling and British punctuation: a linguistic wanderer. The internet is his livelihood and lifeline, and he documents his existence at zacharykai.net.

Joel Keith is a writer, editor and musician living on unceded Wurundjeri land. Their work has appeared in Overland, Island, Cordite and the Suburban Review, and is forthcoming from the Sydney Review of Books. She placed third in the Judith Wright Poetry Prize 2024. She is the editor of Voiceworks.

Tara Kenny is a freelance arts and culture writer and critic based in Naarm/Melbourne. She’s the television critic for The Monthly and has also written for The Guardian, Interview, i-D, Dazed, V, Daily Dot, Dirt, Liminal, The Saturday Paper, The Age/The Sydney Morning Herald, Frankie, The Paris End, Overland and numerous others. High brow analysis […]

Georgia Ketels is a playwright and artist living on Boonwurrung country in Naarm (Melbourne). She writes intimate science fiction stories with a focus on feminine themes and humanity. George’s first play Recollection was shortlisted for the AWG’s Shane & Cathryn Brennan Playwriting Prize, and produced at fortyfivedownstairs in 2024 to critical acclaim, receiving three Green […]

Nabilah Khan is a Bangladeshi-born Australian writer based in Sydney. Her short stories, essays and author interviews are regularly published in print and online in The Daily Star. In 2024, she was longlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. She is currently undertaking a Master of Creative Writing at the University of Sydney. Nabilah works […]

Mel King is a Geelong Based writer who writes science fiction and horror. She won the 2025 Speculate Prize for Emerging Writers.

Cormac Kirby is a poet and urban planner who is interested in multi-disciplinary poetry and spatial poetry. He works in textual, concrete and audio-visual forms and is interested in how where we live influences our understanding of the universe. He has been published by Rabbit Poetry and No More Poetry and has also been shown […]

Tzeyi Koay ( Zee-Kway) is a Chinese-Malaysian lawyer turned fantasy writer based in Melbourne. She studied Psychology and Politics at the University of Melbourne before earning her Juris Doctor. Her debut novel is inspired by Chinese vampire lore and features a bisexual love triangle. A CURSE CARVED IN INK will be published in January 2027 […]

Lucy Wilks is a Melbourne based writer who enjoys playing with metrical constraints and traditional forms. Leone Gabrielle writes in company of crickets and thirsty plants, from Seymour, a snaking town on Taungurung country. Etymologically, ‘collaboration’ stems from the Latin assimilated form of com (‘with’) plus laborare (‘to work’). In contemporary Spanish, Portuguese, and French, […]

Kate Larsen (she/her) is a Naarm/Melbourne-based reader, writer, arts and cultural consultant with more than 25 years’ experience in the non-profit, government and cultural sectors in Australia, Asia and the United Kingdom. Her work has been published or commissioned by The Relationship is the Project, Meanjin, Overland, Kill Your Darlings, Westerly and anthologies, magazines and […]

Miriam Latif is a herbalist and mentor who is less concerned with plants and the body, and more curious about the personal and cultural stories that define our understanding and experience of health in the first place. She holds conflicting truths – wellness is broken, and it has much to offer us, if we can […]

Jamie Marina Lau is a writer, musician and the author of ‘Pink Mountain on Locust Island’ and ‘Gunk Baby’. Her website is: jm-lau.com

Jes Layton invented writing, the aeroplane, and the internet. He was also the first person to reach the North Pole. Jes is a dynamic force in the arts and literary sectors, with over a decade of experience driving cultural leadership and community-led practice as an author, illustrator, and co-CEO and Executive Director of the Emerging […]

Jacinta Le Plastrier is a Melbourne/Naarm-based writer, poet, essayist, editor and publisher. Her writing, journalism, criticism and poetry have appeared in multiple anthologies, along with The Guardian, The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, Australian Book Review, ABC 24 Hours, The Wheeler Centre (Hot Desk Fellowship), sick leave journal, Cordite and Meanjin, among others. She is the […]

Pete Lead (he/him) is a speculative fiction author, narrator, and slush reader. He was a finalist in the Mike Resnick Memorial Award for best new author, and has been published in The Dread Machine and Unnerving Books Magazine. Half-Chinese, half-Anglo Australian, his stories explore language and difference, often with a dose of humour and wordplay. […]

Charlie Lee is a performance designer, artist, and writer from Aotearoa working across dance, textiles, costume making and film. Led by queer/trans* ecological methodologies and aesthetics of collapse, they make work which sits in in-between zones, precarious balances, and feelings of anticipation. Charlie was part of the Emerging Writers Program at Seventh Gallery in 2024 […]

AJ Lee writes to untangle the knots between memory, feeling, and the present moment. His work often circles around themes of resilience, displacement, and the quiet weight of experience, sometimes raw, sometimes layered in metaphor. Writing, for AJ, is both excavation and construction: a way of honouring what came before while imagining what could be. Drawing on personal memory and collective narrative, his writing seeks to give voice to the unseen and the silenced. He approachs poetry as both an act of witnessing and of transformation, weaving language into spaces where healing and meaning can emerge.

Patrick Lenton is an author and journalist living in Naarm. His debut novel, a queer rom-com called In Spite of You comes out in August 2025 with Pantera Press. He is also the author of the short story collections Sexy Tales of Paleontology, Uncle Hercules and Other Lies, and A Man Made Entirely of Bats. […]

Sam Lieblich is a writer, psychiatrist, and artist based between Narrm and Yolŋu country. His clinical practice is oriented by Lacanianism, Marxism, and a commitment to the singularity and the radical freedom of each human subject. Recently his art and writing tries to re-situate human desire in or against the algorithm. His work has been […]

Leila Lois is a dancer and writer of Kurdish/Celtic origin, raised in Aotearoa. She has poetry, short stories and essays published both in Australia and internationally. In her spare time, she loves to go vintage shopping and make costumes for dance.

Tim Loveday is a poet, writer and baby academic. His work explores class, masculinity, online radicalisation and climate collapse. He won the 2022 & 2024 Dorothy Porter Poetry Awards, the 2025 Calanthe Prize and the 2023 Venie Holmgren Environmental Poetry Award, came runner-up in the 2024 Cloncurry Poetry Prize and was a finalist in the […]

Comedian, Writer, Actor and Producer. Proud Ngarrindjeri woman from Lower Murray River and Coorong Lakes in South Australia. Living in Naarm for the last 11 years, began work as a storyteller 10 years ago and a recent graduate from VCA with a Masters of Theatre Writing.

Blood of a Pomegranate is the folk/industrial/noise musical project of Astghik Anahit Lusaberyan. Sourceressly blending ancient melodies of genocided ancestors with apocalyptic foreshadowings of industrial nightmarescapes. Chthonosonic necromancy in dead and dying languages. Horn of the last days. Anarchy will win.

Vidya Madabushi is an Indian writer living in Sydney. She has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Sydney, and her first novel, Bystanders, was published in India in 2015. Bystanders was shortlisted for the Tibor Jones South Asia Prize, and a previous version was longlisted for the Australian Vogel Award. In 2018, […]

Brigid Maher has translated several works of literary fiction from Italian into English, including historical fiction by Bianca Pitzorno, coming-of-age novels by Nicola Lagioia and Massimo Donati, and a gangster’s memoir of life (and Shakespeare) in a Neapolitan prison. She is Associate Professor of Italian Studies at La Trobe University, where she teaches Italian language, […]

NADIA MAHJOURI is the author of Half Truth – her debut novel published by Penguin Random House in Feb 2025, which was inspired by her own experience travelling to Morocco to find her father. She is a counsellor, and group facilitator specialising in maternal mental health. Her professional background is in health policy, governance and […]

M. Aan Mansyur is a writer who is also the director of the Makassar International Writers Festival. Some of his books include Melihat Api Bekerja (2015), Tidak Ada New York Hari Ini (2016), Waktu yang Tepat untuk Melupakan Waktu (2021), and Bahasa Pohon-Pohon Tumbang (2025). His poetry book, Mengapa Luka Tidak Memaafkan Pisau (2020), received the Khatulistiwa Literary Award 2021 and the Kemendikbudristek Literary Award 2021.

Dorcas Maphakela is a South African-born Mopedi woman and multidisciplinary creative. She combines writing, visual arts, and holistic well-being advocacy. A Fine Arts graduate from the University of Johannesburg and holds a Masters Degree (Writing) from Swinburne University of Technology. Dorcas is also a TV presenter and founder of OZ AFRICAN TV. Her work was […]

Patrick Marlborough is an underemployed writer/comedian/musician/drongo living with their parents in Walyalup, Western Australia. They have been published in Vice, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, Slate, Gawker, Meanjin, Crikey, Kotaku, The Lifted Brow, KYD, Cordite, GDS, and various other forgotten blogs, magazines, and anthologies. The manuscript for their first novel, A Horse Held […]

Suri Matondkar is a writer and doctoral student interested in language and identity. She was a 2024 Hot Desk Fellow at the Wheeler Centre and was awarded the 2025 Eric Dark Flagship fellowship by Varuna, The National Writers’ House. Her work has been shortlisted for the Island Nonfiction Prize and the Catalyse Nonfiction Prize and […]

A powerful voice in poetry, Tariro has featured at Slamalamadingdong, Melbourne Spoken Word & Poetry Festival, Mother Tongue, African Music and Cultural Festival and more. Her work is published in Growing Up African in Australia (Black Inc.) and Going Down Swinging. She was nominated for an ARIA Award with the Australian Art Orchestra (Best Jazz Album, 2021), and won an  APRA AMCOS Award for Closed Beginnings. In 2024 Tariro co-directed The Hate Race at Malthouse Theatre returned to acting in La Belle Epoque and St Kilda Tales. Tariro is also a voice over artist.

Chloe Mayne is a poet and scholar working in the realms of decoloniality, motherhood and ecology. Her poems have been published in places such as Overland, Australian Poetry and Best of Australian Poems. She was a finalist in the 2024 Judith Wright Poetry Prize and is a current recipient of the Marten Bequest for Poetry. […]

Temwani Mazaba is an African-Australian writer, content creator, and founder of the Literary Lounge, a Melbourne-based social club fostering bold conversations through literature, creativity, and community. With a background in criminology, psychology, and marketing, she explores identity, belonging, relationships, and contemporary society in her work. Through writing, content creation, and immersive events, she curates spaces […]

Caitlin McGregor is a writer, illustrator, editor and researcher. Their work has been published in a range of places, including in Meanjin, Overland, Kill Your Darlings, Sydney Review of Books, and the recent nonfiction anthology Someone Like Me (UQP 2025). Caitlin is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne, where they teach creative writing. They live on unceded Dja Dja Wurrung Country.

Michaela McGuire is a literary agent with a4 Literary. She is a former artistic director of Melbourne Writers Festival, Sydney Writers’ Festival and Emerging Writers’ Festival, and the author of three books of non-fiction.

Founded in 2023, Meridian Australis has swiftly established itself as one of Melbourne’s leading creative collectives, championing the city’s burgeoning speculative fiction scene. With a mission to nurture the next generation of speculative storytellers, Meridian Australis fosters a vibrant community for writers and creators to connect, collaborate, and achieve their shared goals.

Marilyn Miller is an author-publisher working on a debut emotional science-fiction novel about a man who wakes in Chicago in 2050 as a robot. It explores themes of identity, humanity’s navigation of technology and climate change, how childhood experiences don’t have to define us, and how memories are faulty. Through her company Leviathan Publishing, Marilyn […]

Jazz Money is a Wiradjuri poet and artist producing works that encompass installation, digital, performance, film and print. Their writing and art has been presented, performed and published nationally and internationally. Jazz’s debut poetry collection, the best-selling how to make a basket (UQP, 2021) won the 2020 David Unaipon Award, and their second collection mark the dawn (UQP, 2024) was awarded the 2024 UQP Quentin Bryce Award. Trained as a filmmaker, Jazz’s first feature film WINHANGANHA (2023) interrogates legacies of archives on First Nations people and was commissioned by the Australian National Film and Sound Archive.

Antonio Montaine is a rhythm poet, stylistically influenced by jazz and hip hop culture his writing focuses on social and political issues. Antonio an Australian born child of immigrant parents and was raised in the western suburbs of Melbourne, Naarm. Antonio draws from these experiences for inspiration in his writing.

Kayla Moon’s Xflos started as a slow burn practice from their 19 year old sharehouse in Fitzroy. Growing from a deep and curious obsession for botanical sculpture, their business has reflected her own personal growth and artistic expression over the years. When she found flowers, Kayla’s world changed. As an artist, words have forever been […]

Maki Morita is a writer and performance-maker of Japanese descent on unceded Wurundjeri country. Her play Trash Pop Butterflies, Dance Dance Paradise debuted at Theatre Works in 2023. Her prose and poetry has appeared in Cordite, Island Magazine, The Suburban Review, Mascara Literary Review, Portside Review, and more. Maki graduated with a Master of Theatre […]

Isobel Morphy-Walsh, a proud Nirim Baluk woman from the Taun Wurrung (Taungurung) people is at her core a weaver and storyteller. She uses many diff erent mediums and formats to weave story into both performance and visual art. Morphy-Walsh first production Gunga-na Dhum Nganjinu | The stories we hold tightly presented in 2023 at Yiramboi Festival she and her co-writers received a Green Room Award Nomination. Her first solo play Gunawarra was first debuted in November 2024 as part of Blak In The Room co-presented by Ilbijeri Theatre Company and Melbourne Theatre Company. She currently works as a dramaturge and independent artist.

Kayla Morton is a writer based in Melbourne (Naarm). It was in 2021—after a childhood filled with reading and yearning to create stories that felt true to herself—that Kayla decided to act on her dream of becoming an author. THOSE WHO BURN THE BRIGHTEST (May, 2025) is her first published novel. Her second forthcoming novel, […]

Zarzokimi Moss is Naarm/ Melbourne based writer, producer and artist with an experimental approach to film, performance, and writing. They completed a First Class Bachelor of Art (Honours) in Creative Writing in 2022. Their fiction, essayistic, and poetic works revolve around questions of how desire, dreams, and social fabrics shape our realities. They have been […]

Will Moss is a young transgender male writer, aspiring in screenwriting and short fiction in particular.

August Moulang (they/them) is a writer and arts worker living on unceded Wurundjeri Country. Their work can be found in Rabbit Poetry Journal, Cordite, and elsewhere.

Emma Mugglestone lives in Melbourne with her family in a house that never stays clean and is always noisy but she wouldn’t have it any other way. When she’s not writing romances filled with charming settings and swoony characters who will steal your heart, she’s chasing sunrises on early morning runs, reading like it’s an […]

Aylin Mulayim is a poet and writer interested in writing back to language. Her recent work has been published in Cordite Poetry Review and Voiceworks. She lives in Naarm/Melbourne, where she currently studies Literature and Creative Writing.

S.D Munawara is an emerging writer and a student of literature living in Melbourne. She was most recently shortlisted for the Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize, and is currently writing a short story collection.

Dylan Murphy is a Melbourne based writer, comedian, filmmaker, and award-winning director of clowns. A 2024 RAW Comedy National Finalist and Best Newcomer nominee at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, his solo work blends deadpan storytelling with surreal emotional spirals. As a director, he has collaborated with performers including Scout Boxall, Hannah Camilleri, and Dougie […]

Dr. Bruce Mutard is a comics maker, publisher and researcher. His graphic novels include The Sacrifice, The Silence, A Mind of Love and The Bunker. His latest graphic novel Bully Me, was published as Souffre Douleur in France. He completed his PhD at Edith Cowan University with his thesis The Erotics of Comics and makes […]

Dani Netherclift lives on unceded Taungurung Country in the High Country of Victoria. She holds a doctorate in creative writing. Her first book, Vessel: The Shape of Absent Bodies, a long-form lyric essay about witnessing the drowning deaths of her father and brother as a teenager, and processing the idea of an absent body over […]

Rachel Newbound is a student and writer living in Melbourne, Australia. She has previously been published in Baby Teeth Journal and Voiceworks.

Nadia Niaz is the author of The Djinn Hunters (2023, Rabbit Press), which was Highly Commended in the 2023 Anne Elder Award, and the founding editor of the Australian Multilingual Writing Project. Most recently, her poetry was featured in Reading the City of Literature: A celebration of a year of Melbourne writing and publishing (2023). […]

Bridie Noonan is a writer, actor, and dramaturg, living and working on unceded Wurundjeri country. She is interested in writing about illness, and intimacy.

Benedicte O’Leary-Rutherford (she/they) is an artist, writer, and PhD student at RMIT. Their preferred mediums are angsty comics and self portraits.

Faisal Oddang, a fiction and poetry writer, and a lecturer in Indonesian Literature Department at Hasanuddin University. His books include the novels Puya ke Puya and Tiba Sebelum Berangkat, the short story collection Sawerigading Datang dari Laut, and the poetry book Manurung. He participated in the 2019 London Book Fair and the 2018 Iowa International Writing Program. He received the 2023 Southeast Asian Literary Council (MASTERA) Young Writer Award, was named Best Short Story Writer by Kompas in 2014 and 2018, and served as a curator for Makassar International Writers Festival (2022–2023) and Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in 2024.

Originally from England, Sue Parritt worked in university libraries until taking early retirement in 2008 to write novels. Since then, Sue has had eleven novels published. Prior to retirement, short stories, poetry and articles were published in Australian, US and UK magazines. Passionate about social justice, Sue’s goal is to continue creating intrepid characters prepared […]

Alex Partington is an emerging poet born and living on Wurundjeri land. She is interested in queer+femme rage, madness, loss and lust, poetry as desire, unprecious poetry and earnestness. She loves the work of Chen Chen, Maggie Nelson, June Jordan, Tommy Pico and Danez Smith. Alex earns a living in justice research and advocacy and […]

Audrey Jo Pfister is an editor, writer, and arts worker currently based in Naarm/Melbourne but originally from Dharawal land/Wollongong. Audrey is the General Manager at un Projects, and previously the Kudos Gallery Coordinator, Runway Journal board member, and Framework Editor-in-Chief. Audrey has written for Memo, Running Dog, Overland, SOFT CENTRE, Soft Stir, FBI radio and […]

Vuong Pham’s poetry explores themes of displacement and cultural identity. One of his poems, ‘Mother’ is studied as a prescribed text in the NSW HSC English syllabus (2019—2025). His honours include the Local Word Poetry Prize (2025); ACU Poetry Prize (2024); Shinhaiku Contest (2024); Newcastle Poetry Prize (2023); Free Expression Haiku Competition (2013); and Jean […]

Deborah Pike’s debut novel, The Players, was released in 2024. Born in Zimbabwe, she moved to Hong Kong as a child and grew up in Perth. Deborah has a PhD from Sydney University and now teaches literature at UNDA, Sydney. She is a winner of an Australian Government Award for University Teaching. Deborah lived and […]

Natasha Rai is a writer and somatic counsellor, supporting adults heal from the impacts of complex trauma. Her debut novel, AN ONSLAUGHT OF LIGHT, published by Pantera Press, was longlisted for the 2017 Richell Prize, 2018 KYD Unpublished Manuscript award, and highly commended for the 2022 Ultimo Press/Westwords Prize. Natasha’s nonfiction appears in anthologies on […]

Ian Ramirez (They/Them) is a Filipino bakla/non-binary dramaturg, theatre and performance-maker, educator, and researcher. They has produced works both in the Philippines and Australia. Their most recent works include Chasing Dick (Qtopia Sydney, 2025 & Melbourne Fringe, 2024), and Regine: The Fairy Gay Mother (Virgin Lab Fest, Cultural Centre of the Philippines, 2023). Their online […]

Em Readman is a queer young person writing on the lands of the Whadjuk Noongar people. They have written for Overland, Missing Perspectives, Zee Feed, Refinery 29, Fremantle Press, The Suburban Review and others.

Coral Reeve is a proud Gunditjimara woman who has been writing for over 10 years and has been published in a few books. Often, she will be minding her own business and words will start flowing into her head (often while driving), which means that her son is an excellent speller now. Coral is also […]

Jade Reilly is a writer and criminologist who lives in Australia with her English husband and two children. Legitimising a fascination with crime from an inappropriately young age, she spent much of her career as a criminologist advocating for social justice reform. For most of the last decade, she undertook specialist reviews of homicides, filicides […]

Tayla Richardson is a poet, multidisciplinary artist and disability advocate based in Naarm. She creates to connect and untangle perceptions of ambiguous loss, hope and impermanence, drawing on her experience living with a rare neuromuscular condition. Tayla was a recent Australian Poetry Slam state finalist, won a University of Sydney art prize and was highly […]

Raeden Richardson is the author of the debut novel, The Degenerates, which was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. His writing has been supported by Creative Australia, the American Australian Association Arts Fund, and the Ian Potter Cultural Trust. His work has appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald, Kill Your Darlings, The Age, Meanjin, Griffith […]

Ariel Slamet Ries is a Naarm-based, Ignatz-award winning cartoonist and author of the comics Witchy, Cry Wolf Girl, and Strange Bedfellows. After studying animation in Denmark for 4 years, they lost their degree in the post and unceremoniously bumbled into making comics for a living. They’re interested in using a fantastical lens to examine the […]

Tess Ritchie is a poet from Aotearoa New Zealand living in Naarm/Melbourne. She has work in Cordite, Australian Poetry Journal, Rabbit Poetry, Landfall, Turbine | Kapohau and Sweet Mammalian. In 2024 she completed an MA in Creative Writing at the International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML) and was awarded the Biggs Family Prize in Poetry.

Samuel Robert is an emerging writer, exploring cultural criticism, personal essays, and behaviourism, all with a dash of humour.

Andrew Nathan Roberts is a speculative fiction writer, journalist, and communications producer. His love of storytelling grew from visiting relatives in Malaysia and the UK while growing up. Absorbing family history from his cultural heritage unlocked an obsession with asking questions about identity and belonging. He was awarded a Google Journalism Fellowship in 2017 and […]

Mira Robertson is a novelist, short story writer and screenwriter. She is the author of two novels: Grace & Marigold (Spinifex Press, 2024) and The Unexpected Education of Emily Dean (Black Inc, 2018). Her short stories have won prizes and been shortlisted for awards. She is published in various literary magazines including Meanjin, The Furphy […]

Seth Robinson is an award-winning writer, producer, and academic based in Naarm/Melbourne. He is the author of Welcome to Bellevue (2020) the first full-length novel in Grattan Street Press’s original fiction collection. His work has featured in Kill Your Darlings, The Saturday Paper, Aurealis Magazine, Meniscus, and TEXT, among others. You can find out more […]

Kyle Robinson is a young, neurodiverse male from Melbourne, Victoria who is currently studying education. In his free time, he writes and writes, going from small stories about the zombie apocalypse to (what he hopes to publish) is a dystopian fantasy novel based around the last remaining city in the world, filled with nightmarish creatures, […]

Elizabeth Robinson-Griffith is a project Editor with Affirm Press. She reads widely, has an abiding love of crime fiction and enjoys helping writers on their path to publication.

Like all great art-pop auteurs, ROMÆO links her brand of pop with a larger concept – with every off kilter hook comes a deeper meaning. Idiosyncratic lyrics and experimental production have launched ROMÆO to the forefront of the Australian art-pop scene.

ROMÆO’s performances blur the line between gig and performance art, incorporating elements of drag, dance, and theatrics. She has supported artists such as June Jones and Huck Hastings and worked behind the scenes with a diverse roster of collaborators, including Sandy Hsu, Adam Noviello, Dirty Versachi, and Will Edgar.

Sanya Rushdi is the middle of three daughters of Ali Ahmed Rushdi and Sultana Rushdi. She completed most of her primary schooling in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and part of her primary schooling in Australia. She completed her secondary and tertiary education mostly in Melbourne, Australia, where she has been living since 1989. Part of her higher […]

Madeleine Ryan is an Australian writer, director & author. Her articles & essays have appeared in The New York Times, Vogue, SBS, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Daily Telegraph & VICE. A Room Called Earth was her first novel. Her second novel, The Knowing, is out now. Her third novel, love, honour & obey, is […]

Ariane Ryan is a publicist at Affirm Press. She has previously worked at Text Publishing and UQP.

Sahul Sakti is an improvisation ensemble who draws on the members’ post-classical, Brazilian, Asia-Pacific, jazz, and experimental music influences to create a sound that is rooted in friendship, imagination, and a deep exploration of acoustic possibilities. This project is inspired by the great global fusion ensembles such as Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, Shakti, Dr. […]

Marina Sano (she/her) is a Japanese and australian critic, publishing freelancer, and bookseller. She co-founded Amplify Bookstore and is an advocate for more diverse and representative publishing. She holds a Bachelor’s in English Literature and a Master’s in Publishing and Communications, and has been published in Kill Your Darlings, the Australian Multilingual Writing Project, and […]

Meg Sattler is a writer, non-profit CEO and activist. Her writing has been published in media, journals and compilations and she is working on her first novel. Her advocacy work with people impacted by crisis has seen people’s stories shared in media, included in multilateral and government policy processes, and shown in international exhibitions. Meg […]

Taj Scicluna is an artist, botanical educator, bioregional Herbalist, and Awe Seeker. Her business is a platform for creativity, a place to weave the romantic wonder of the botanical into something tangible to share with the world. She aims to co-collaborate in repairing the rupture created in our experience of nature as separate, believing that healing is done in this process of being in relationship with the botanical rather than treating it as a resource. Healing is within the process, not the product.

Tanya Scott is a writer, doctor and medical educator. With years of experience working in mental health care, she has learned more from her patients than from any textbook – not just about physical and mental health, but about humanity, resilience and the absurdity of life. She is based on Wadawurrung Country, on the Victorian […]

Ronnie Scott is the author of the essay Salad Days and the novels The Adversary, Shirley and Letter to a Fortunate Ex, all published by Penguin. He researches comics at foliocomics.com and teaches Creative Writing at RMIT.

Dominik Shields is a self-proclaimed creative crybaby – equal parts actor, author, and self-published poet with a soft spot for messy feelings and beautiful sentences. She writes about love, loss, and that weird nostalgic ache called “home,” usually while nursing a black coffee and overthinking everything. Based in Melbourne’s Northern Suburbs, she is governed by […]

Maha Sidaoui is a Lebanese-Australian writer who mines her cultural confusion, sexuality and poor life choices for stories, because why waste a good identity crisis? Her screenplay One Arabian Girl picked up a few awards before she decided to turn it into a manuscript, which now haunts her like an unused twelve month gym membership. […]

Beejay Silcox is a book critic. Her work appears in high-profile publications across three continents and is renowned for its resolute (some might say, foolhardy) honesty. In addition to her literary commentary, Beejay works as a professional reader. She’s an interviewer, prize judge, festival programmer, editor and educator. And she has stories to tell. Beejay eloped to Las Vegas, escaped from quicksand and once had to be rescued – unironically – from a picnic at Hanging Rock.

Robert Skinner was born and raised in South Australia. His first book, I’d Rather Not, won the inaugural John Clarke Prize for Humour Writing, after the judges misunderstood his finely wrought work of tragedy. He currently lives in Melbourne where he works in a bookshop and plays football at the lowest level.

Melanie Skyers is a creative with interests across writing, photography, music, painting, and film who lives and works on Wurundjeri country. She began as a lyricist, her highlights including penning a top-twenty single, winning an independent music award, and writing for film and television. Beyond this, Melanie has delved into fiction and poetry via Faber […]

Susan-Elin Solimani is a Naarm/Melbourne-based visual designer, comics artist, and creative writer whose work delves deeply into themes of identity and belonging. Originally from Sweden with Persian roots, her art and storytelling explore complex questions of self and community, weaving her research interests into her creative practice. She sees her work as a form of […]

Coco Stallman is a writer, painter, and arts facilitator living on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung people. She is a winner of the Ultimo Prize for Poetry (2021), runner-up for the KYD Creative Nonfiction essay prize (2023) and placed second in the AAWP Express Media Sudden Writing Prize (2023). Currently, she is a […]

Sinéad Stubbins is a writer, editor and cultural critic in Naarm. Her work has appeared in print, online and on TV. Her first novel Stinkbug was released by Affirm Press in May 2025.

Mohamed Sudi is a Somali refugee, poet, and calligrapher based in Melbourne. A finalist in the 2024 Australian Poetry Slam and member of the Calligraphy Society Victoria, he fuses spoken word with Arabic storytelling calligraphy to create powerful, visual poetry performances. Rooted in Somali oral traditions, his work explores migration, resilience, and identity > from […]

Andrew Sutherland is a Queer Poz (PLHIV) writer and performance-maker currently based on the unceded lands of the Kulin nation. He has worked as performer, director, dramaturg, playwright, devised theatre-maker and mentor across the creation of dozens of new works in the independent sector in Western Australia and Singapore. He is a current PhD candidate […]

Matilda Sutherland is an artist based in Melbourne, Australia. Matilda’s creative studio and blog, Girl On Road, serves as a vessel for projects in HCI and code poetics. In 2021 Matilda began performing original punk rock and country music under her birth name. Through all disciplines Matilda brings poetry, whether it be creating evocative digital […]

Liên Ta is a writer, community organiser, and multidisciplinary artist hailing from Naarm. She majored in Creative Writing at the University of Melbourne and has written for Screen Australia and made art for Brimbank City Council. Her works focus on experiences within her migrant family, community building, Buddhism, and the bizarre.

Cher Tan is an essayist and critic. Her essays, criticism and other written work have been published widely. She is an editor at Liminal and the reviews editor at Meanjin. Her critically-acclaimed debut essay collection, Peripathetic: Notes on (Un)belonging, is out with NewSouth Publishing. She lives and works on unceded Wurundjeri land.

Su-May Tan was born and raised in Malaysia but is currently living on Wurundjeri land in Melbourne. Her debut short story collection Lake Malibu and Other Stories was shortlisted for the Queensland Literary Awards 2022. Her debut novel, Katie goes to KL was published by Penguin SEA and released in Australia in March 2024. Su-May […]

Rasha Tayeh is an artist, researcher, herbalist, nutritionist, and founder of Beit e’Shai Teahouse. Her practice is land-based, focusing on telling stories about people’s relationships in community & ecology.

Playwright, Actress, Advocate Kikki Temple (she/her) is a Māori playwright, actress, and takatāpui artist based in Naarm (Melbourne). A native of Aotearoa, Kikki has become a prominent voice in the independent theatre scene. Her world premiere of STUCK at the Midsumma Festival 2024 received critical acclaim, leading to plans for a national tour. Known for […]

Textile Message is a collaborative project about clothes and other textile objects. Artists have contributed prose, poetry, essays, and imagery about textile pieces that have thrilled, haunted, and protected them. Textile Message is part of Pieced Work, an ongoing literature project concerned with language, writing, stories, makers, and inventive collaborations.

Andrea Thompson is a writer, music journalist, artist manager and promoter. Born in the north of England in the Swinging Sixties, Andrea has worked through a range of jobs including trades assistant in the north-west of Western Australia, factory worker, teacher and public servant, but her one constant is writing. Geraldine began as a memoir, […]

Alistair Trapnell has worked in marketing at Affirm Press for three years, having worked on numerous campaigns including the ABIA award-winning campaign for The Bookbinder of Jericho by Pip Williams. Prior to his time at Affirm, Alistair completed the Master of Creative Writing, Publishing and Editing at The University of Melbourne. As a singer, songwriter, […]

Aviva Tuffield is a publisher at the University of Queensland Press. She has worked in publishing for over 20 years including as a publisher at Black Inc. and Affirm Press, and associate publisher at Scribe Publications, where she was responsible for launching their Australian fiction list. Her authors at UQP include Tony Birch, Ellen van Neerven, Siang Lu, Mirandi Riwoe and Evelyn Araluen. She was also a co-founder and inaugural executive director of the Stella Prize.

Bayley Turner is a Melbourne-based writer and performer. She has been praised for her as a playwright for ‘Thirty-Six’ co-written with Jo Clifford, and ‘Burlesque by Force’. She recently self-published a collection of poetry, ‘Ulysses’ and is due to self-publish her second collection ‘16,000km or so’ in mid 2025. Bayley has had her writing featured […]

Bree Turner (she/her) is a queer/feminist researcher and writer from Australia, currently based in Paris. Her research and creative practice explore gender, sexuality, digital cultures, and performativity. Her poetry and essays have appeared in Polyester, SIDE-NOTE, Veraison Magazine, Archer Magazine, So-Fi Zine, Jacaranda Journal, and Partial Magazine, among others. She has held research and teaching […]

Laetitia Um’s work explores the emotional landscapes of heartbreak, longing, and transformation, capturing the nuances of the human condition. Influenced by her mixed Salvadoran and Timorese heritage, she is inspired by the vibrant storytelling of Asian and Latin American cinema. Her practice merges digital tools with traditional techniques creating a tension between the ephemeral and the tangible. Her work invites contemplation, offering a visual language for personal and collective emotional experiences in an increasingly polarised world.

Jenny Valentish is known for her deep dives into the human psyche. Her latest book, The Introvert’s Guide to Leaving the House is a more introspective successor to Everything Harder Than Everyone Else, which explored the fine line between hedonism and endurance, and her mea culpa memoir Woman of Substances, nominated for a Walkley. She […]

Lucy Van writes poetry and criticism. Her poetry collection, The Open (Cordite 2021), was listed for the Stella prize and Mary Gilmore award, and highly commended by the Anne Elder award. Her essay, ‘Agent of the Year’ (Liminal Review of Books) won the the non-fiction prize in the Woollahra Digital Literary Awards (2024). With Anne […]

Veraison is an online zine about food and culture in Naarm/Melbourne– sent straight to your phone once a month. We specialise in unhinged recommendations, niche guides to cities, and critical yet playful longform op-eds, spreading the news about good people doing good things through the words of our good friends who have good ideas.

Tom’s debut novel, Our New Gods, was published by the University of Queensland Press. As a screenwriter, Tom has worked with production companies based in Los Angeles, London and Australia. His original feature film script, Birth, is currently in pre-production in LA with an eye to shoot in the Canary Islands. Tom released a collection of short stories as an episodic zine, and is a graduate of Central Film School, London, and the Faber Academy.

Emilie Walsh is a French Australian artist, printmaker, educator and comic author living and working on Wurundjeri land. They are an active member of the comics scene in Australia. As a queer and CaLD artist, they offer a unique perspective in Australian comics today.

Carl Walsh is a poet with ADHD who lives and writes on Wurundjeri Country. Carl’s poetry has appeared in journals such as StylusLit, Westerly, Rabbit, Tokyo Poetry Journal, The Madrigal and Meanjin (amongst others). His work has also been published in anthologies including 100 Poets (Flying Islands); Oystercatcher One (Five Islands Press); Poetry for the […]

Uncle Larry Walsh is a Taunwurrung Elder, cultural leader and storyteller. A pure storyteller, his focus on the oral tradition, is an important expression and make up of First Peoples culture. He wishes to express that First Peoples communities live as much in the modern world as intimately as they are connected to their past. His focus specifically on storytelling, ensures the cultural continuity of his peoples oral history traditions. He wishes to display that Aboriginal people live as much in the modern world as intimately as they are connected to their past.

Lili Ward is a writer and artist practicing and living in Naarm (Melbourne), she is also the creator of a poetry organisation called Roundtable Readings that holds events and publishes zines that showcase the work of other local emerging writers @roundtablereadings

Miriam Webster’s fiction and essays have been published in HEAT, Island, Overland, The Suburban Review, Aniko Magazine, swim meet lit mag and other lovely places. She lives in Naarm, where she is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne. Her debut collection of short stories, The Slip, is forthcoming with Aniko Press in August […]

Harvey is a trans author, artist, and childrens’ literacy advocate living and working on unceded Wurundjeri land in Naarm. She is the Kids’ Book Specialist at Readings Doncaster. Harvey interviews artists with the hope of building stronger connections between communities of people who make beautiful things. She is a lifetime DM, an avid home cook, […]

Imogen Lenore Williams is a writer and all round busy bee living in Melbourne, on land of the Boonwurrung and Wurundjeri people. Imogen is completing her final undergraduate year at Swinburne University, studying Creative Writing, Marketing and History, while working as Social Media Marketer for Glen Eira Cheltenham Art Group and as an English Tutor. […]

Victoria Winata is an Indonesian, Naarm-based writer, artist, and theatremaker who has lived across Central Java, Bali, and Melbourne.
In her creative practice, Victoria interrogates questions surrounding multiculturalism, identity, migration, and trauma. Writing in both Indonesian and English, Victoria is passionate about the rich exchange of knowledge, stories, and experiences that can be drawn from cross-cultural collaborations. Her theatrical works have been staged at Guild Theatre, La Mama, and the Motley Bauhaus. Meanwhile, her writing has been published in Cordite, Voiceworks, Farrago Magazine, Screen Queens, and the Suburban Review.

Lucy Wylie is a writer and daggy queer making art on Gadigal land. Riverstone Literary Journal is their publishing project. They facilitate writing workshops and host open mic community poetry events and spend a lot of time in the bush.

Jahan Xanlü is a Swiss-Iranian-Central Asian writer and artist, currently based in Naarm. Building on his work in linguistics, she uses a linguistic lens to explore ancient tradition and mythologies and merge them with modern contexts to dream of futures that engage with the degrading ecological realities of the present. Jahan typically mixes Central Asian […]

Reimena Yee is a strange and fancy graphic novelist, illustrator and designer originally from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and currently based in Melbourne, Australia. Her awards-decorated graphic novels include Seance Tea Party, My Aunt is a Monster and The Carpet Merchant of Konstantiniyya. She is also the researcher behind the Comics Devices Library, a resource that […]

Mek Yimam is a writer, editor and artist. She has developed and facilitated comic workshops for diverse audiences of established and emerging writers, artists, library patrons, and people seeking shared creative experiences. Mek is one half of the artivist collaboration Me, with Meg Sattler.

Zafty is an 18-year-old Nigerian-born rapper from WA who is based in Melbourne, known for a style reminiscent of J. Cole and Redveil. In 2023, he released 11 singles and was spotlighted by Triple J, earning the “Most Underrated Flow” in their Unearthed High Yearbook. He’s since received strong Triple J support, including playlist features and a rotation add for his track “M.I.A.” In 2024, he was named a finalist in Unearthed High from over 1,100 entries and won a slot at Wildlands Festival’s WA leg after winning the Triple J Unearthed competition.

Xiaole Zhan (詹小乐) is a Chinese-Aotearoa writer and composer based in Naarm. Their work features in Auckland University Press’s New Poets 11. They are the 2024 Kat Muscat Fellow, and the winner of the 2023 Kill Your Darlings Non-Fiction Prize. They are also the recipient of a 2025 Creative New Zealand Fellowship, a 2025 Red Room Poetry Varuna Fellowship and the 2024 Kat Muscat Fellowship. Their name in Chinese means ‘Little Happy’, but can also be read as ‘Little Music’.

Watch this space for more artists to come!