I Am An Animal: A Wildlife Fundraiser

Sophie Cunningham is a non-fiction writer and novelist with a passion for trees, walking and broader environmental issues. Sophie’s most recent books are This Devastating Fever (Ultimo Press) and Flipper and Finnegan ...

Emily Bitto is a Melbourne-based writer of fiction, poetry and non-fiction. She has a Masters in Literary Studies and a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Melbourne. Her debut novel, The Strays, was the winner of the 2015 Stella Prize.

Emily's fiction, poetry and non-fiction has appeared in various publications, including Meanjin, The Age, The Monthly, The Saturday Paper, The Big Issue and The Sydney Morning Herald. In 2018, she was awarded a six-month Australia Council International Residency in Rome to work on her second novel and debut poetry collection. She has been teaching creative writing for over a decade and is currently a tutor at the Faber Writing Academy. She is also the co-owner of Carlton wine bar Heartattack and Vine.

Helen Garner writes novels, stories, screenplays and works of non-fiction. In 2006 she received the inaugural Melbourne Prize for Literature, and in 2016 she won the prestigious Windham–Campbell Literature Prize for non-fiction ...

Chloe Hooper’s The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island (2008) won the Victorian, New South Wales, West Australian and Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards, as well as the John Button Prize for Political Writing, and a Ned Kelly Award for crime writing. Her latest book is The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire (2018). She is also the author of two novels, A Child’s Book of True Crime and The Engagement.

Shaun Tan grew up in Perth and works as an artist, writer and film-maker in Melbourne, best known for illustrated books that deal with social, political and historical subjects through dream-like imagery. The Rabbits, The Red Tree, Tales from Outer Suburbia and the graphic novel The Arrival have been widely translated throughout the world and enjoyed by readers of all ages.

Shaun has also worked as a theatre designer, a concept artist for Pixar and won an Academy Award for the short animated film The Lost Thing. In 2011 he received the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in Sweden, in recognition of his services to literature for young people. His recent titles include Cicada, Rules of Summer and The Singing Bones. Tales from the Inner City will be published in September 2018.

Chris Flynn is the author of The Glass Kingdom and A Tiger in Eden, which was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize. His fiction and non-fiction have appeared in the Age, the Australian, Griffith Review, Meanjin, Australian Book Review, the Saturday Paper, Smith Journal, the Big Issue, Monster Children and many other publications. He has conducted interviews for the Paris Review and is a regular presenter at literary festivals across Australia. Chris lives on Phillip Island, next to a penguin sanctuary. 

Carrie Tiffany was born in West Yorkshire and grew up in Western Australia. She spent her early twenties working as a park ranger in Central Australia. Her first novel, Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living (2005), was shortlisted for the Orange Prize, the Miles Franklin Literary Award, the Guardian First Book Award and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and won the Dobbie Award and the WA Premier’s Award for Fiction. 

Mateship with Birds (2011) was also shortlisted for many awards and won the inaugural Stella Prize and the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction in the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. She lives and works in Melbourne.

Mandy Ord is a Melbourne based illustrator and cartoonist with a long history of self-publishing as well as having a number of published books including Brickdog & Other Stories with Pluto Press, NY and Rooftops with Finlay Lloyd, Galapagos with Glom Press and Sensitive Creatures with Allen & Unwin. In 2012 Sensitive Creatures received a White Ravens award at the Bologna Book Fair. In 2020 her new book When One Person Dies The Whole World Is Over published by Brow Books was on the longlist for The Stella Prize. Mandy’s illustrated children’s book Chalk Boy, published by Allen & Unwin and written by Margaret Wild was shortlisted in 2019 by the Children’s Book Council of Australia.