Festival '26

Evelyn Araluen is a Goorie and Koori poet, educator and editor. She is the author of Dropbear and The Rot (UQP).

Winner of the 2022 International Booker Prize, and of the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation, for her novel, Tomb of Sand (Ret Samadhi in the Hindi original).

Trent Dalton is a two-time Walkley Award–winning journalist and the international bestselling author of Boy Swallows Universe, All Our Shimmering Skies, Love Stories, Lola in the Mirror and Gravity Let Me Go.

Siang Lu is the Miles Franklin-winning author of Ghost Cities and ABIA-winning author of The Whitewash.

Melissa Lucashenko is an acclaimed Goorie writer of Bundjalung and European heritage, widely published as an award-winning novelist, essayist and short story writer.

Zoe Terakes is a writer and an actor living and working on Gadigal Country. Their first book, Eros, a collection of Greek Myths retold through a Queer lens, is published by Hachette Australia who will also publish Zoe’s forthcoming novel. They are a vocal advocate for trans rights within the industry and on a global scale.

Steve Toltz was born in Sydney, Australia in 1972. His first novel, A Fraction of the Whole, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Guardian First Book Award. His second novel, Quicksand, won the 2017 Russell Prize for Humour.