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Karuna Bajracharya from Braidwood has been active in Australia’s burgeoning music industry for the past 10 years. Unearthed by Triple J and Fly TV, his former band the Bumblebeez toured with the likes of Radiohead, NERD and the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s. They gained national recognition touring festivals such as Splendour in the Grass, Homebake and Livid. International acclaim followed soon after, spurring on tours through England and the US. In 2005 Karuna started my own record label Secret Music Records (www.secretmusic.com.au). The 3rd album release for the label is scheduled for mid 2008. Karuna’s latest band The Sonar Radars has been composing and performing for silent films, playing shows at the ACMI in federation square, at the Adelaide film festival and most recently at the Woodford folk festival. Margaret Bell and her husband have been operating Intrigue - The Romance Bookstore for more than three years. The bookstore is dedicated to the sale of romance fiction covering historical, crime and suspense, contemporary and humour, erotic and paranormal to name the main sub-genres. Add to this some urban fantasy, usually the titles that include a hint of romance. The store has a warm and welcoming atmosphere that encourages customers to relax and browse. It’s furnished with period look bookcases, tables and chaises and the very pink décor is designed with women and romance in mind, with chandeliers, flowers, relaxing music, lots of pretty lamps and ornaments and complimentary chocolates to enjoy while exploring the shelves. There’s also a ‘children’s corner’ of books to occupy the little ones while Mum browses. Maureen Bettle was a full time teacher of literature for forty years and is now a member of the ACT Cultural Council and one of the judges of the Marian Eldridge Competition. Peter Bishop is the Director of Varuna – The Writers’ House, which offers residential and non-residential pathways to publication for writers. Varuna is Michael Dark's gift to Australian literature, in memory of his parents, the novelist Eleanor Dark and Dr. Eric Dark. www.varuna.com.au/index.html  Michelle Cahill writes poetry and fiction. Her poetry collection The Accidental Cage was shortlisted in the 2007 Judith Wright Poetry Award. This year she has been awarded with a Professional Development Grant from the CAL to attend the New Delhi Poetry Workshop. She is the editor of a transnational collection Poetry Without Borders (Picaro) and co-editor of Mascara Poetry. Her work has appeared in Meanjin, Jacket, Callaloo and forthcoming in Heat. Craig Cormick is an award winning short story writer and novelist.  Lilian Darcy has written over 75 books for Harlequin, Silhouette and Mills & Boon in a career spanning more than 25 years (she started at age 10!). Under another name she has also written for Australian theatre and television. A frequent visitor to the Waldenbooks series romance bestseller lists and three time finalist in the Romance Writers of America’s prestigious Rita award, Lilian last year celebrated the release of her first mainstream women's fiction novel, Cafe du Jour which The Melbourne Age newspaper called “warm and witty… an excellent read.” She has presented workshops at the national conferences of Romance Writers of Australia and Romance Writers of America, and has taught romance writing at the University of Sydney’s highly regarded Centre for Continuing Education.  Dr Jeremy Fisher has extensive experience in the Australian publishing industry as writer, editor and publisher. He worked as an editor and publishing manager for nearly 30 years before moving into rights management and advocacy roles. He was President of the Society of Editors (NSW) in 1996 and a member of the Board of the Australian Publishers' Association from 1998-2000. In 1984 Fisher was awarded the inaugural Gold Medal of the Australian Society of Indexers (AusSI) for his indexing of The Australian Encyclopaedia, 4th edition. As a writer, he was first published in 1974 and has written many works in a wide range of genres since then. Fisher's writing encompasses fiction, poetry, prose, reviews and critical articles. His novel for young adults, Perfect Timing, has been his most commercially successful work to date. In 2004, Fisher was appointed Executive Director of the Australian Society of Authors.  Alexis Fleming is one of those strange people who live inside their mind. No, she doesn’t hear little voices... Well, she does, just not the type you're thinking of. Alexis’ world is peopled with interesting characters and exciting possibilities that come to life in each and every book she writes. Her first love has always been romance, whether on this world or the next. Hot, sizzling relationships with a dash of comedy and a few trials and tribulations thrown in to test her characters. When she's not tied to her computer creating sizzling stories to tempt her readers, she helps run a busy motel on the edge of a national marine park in Australia. What better place to get inspiration for the tales she turns out? A glorious sunset over the ocean, dolphins playing almost in her front yard, suntanned bodies lazing on the sand... How could she not get caught up in the eroticism of that? Alexis loves to hear from her readers. You can contact her through her website at http://www.alexisfleming.net or check out what she's up to next on her blog at http://www.alexisfleming.net/blog.  Alan Gould’s The Past Completes Me – Selected Poems 1973-2003 won the 2006 Grace Leven Award. Presently he is writing his ninth novel and twenty third book.  Marion Halligan is an award winning local author, essayist and reviewer.  Phillip Jones provides advice on a range of communication- related areas to the public and private sector. He specialises in short-term projects providing advice and managing projects including stakeholder consultation, web design, strategic reviews and training for interpersonal business and communication skills. His clients have included a wide range of government departments and agencies as well as small business. Phillip is the founder of Canberra's most dynamic professional networking organisation, Schmooze. He also delivers workshops on professional networking skills and business mentoring. He currently serves on the Capital Arts Patrons Organisation (CAPO) and the Canberra Arts Marketing boards.  Tony Kevin, who lives in Canberra, retired from the Australian public service in 1998 after a thirty-year career in the Foreign Affairs and Prime Minister's departments, including seven years as Australia's ambassador to Poland and Cambodia. He has written extensively on Australian foreign, national security, and refugee policies in Australia's national print media and on public websites. He is author of the award-winning book A Certain Maritime Incident: the sinking of SIEV X (Scribe 2004, reprinted 2008) and Walking the Camino: a modern pilgrimage to Santiago (Scribe, 2006). He is approaching completion of his third book, Portraits in Diplomacy. Penelope Layland is a Canberra journalist and public servant, having been an Associate Editor at The Canberra Times, in which she has published over a hundred articles, and is currently Senior Advisor to the Chief Minister. Her 2005 poetry collection, Suburban Anatomy, was shortlisted for the 2006 New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards' Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry and The Unlikely Orchard, was commended by the judges of the Association for the Study of Australian Literature's Mary Gilmore Award for a First Book of Poetry. Her poems cover pregnancy, cooking, pets, sleep-walking, friendship, death and small town life. Lesley McFadzean has worked in the publishing industry in Hong Kong and Australia for 25 years as an editor and publisher. Most recently, she was Manager of the Literature Board of the Australia Council for a period of three years, International Rights Manager for an educational publisher for four years and a Literary Agent, representing more than 120 established and emerging Australian authors. Since April 2006, she has worked on a freelance basis as a writer, publishing project manager and editorial mentor.  David Malouf is the author of short story collections Dream Stuff, and Every Move You Make and of acclaimed novels including The Great World (winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ and Miles Franklin Prizes) and Remembering Babylon (shortlisted for the Booker Prize and winner of the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award). He also writes poetry, drama and libretti for operas. Born and brought up in Brisbane, he lives in Sydney.  Pippa Masson is a literary agent at Curtis Brown (Aust) Pty Ltd, Australia’s largest and oldest literary agency. She has been there for close to 8 years and represents a wide variety of adult fiction and non-fiction, children’s books and illustrated titles.  Miles Merrill combines poetry with theatre, experimental audio, hip-hop beats, stand-up and political confrontation, flinging words in a rapid-fire onslaught of versified emotion. Born in Chicago, now living in Sydney Australia, Miles is the son of a Black Panther father and a mother whose family tree dates back to British-American Colonialism. His mother’s ancestors enslaved his father’s. The tension of embattled generations twists its way through the work of this one-man word-hurling army. Recently he opened for Saul Williams, jammed with Shane Koyczan, wrote and assistant-directed a show in the Sydney Arts Festival, performed solo at the Sydney Opera House and is Co-organiser of the Australia-wide State Libraries’ sponsored Australian National Poetry Slam. Internationally Merrill has performed in such places as Krakow’s Audio Art Festival and as a guest in Indonesia at the Ubud International Writer’s Fest. Locally he tours everywhere: schools, festivals, theatres, libraries, galleries etc. He believes performing his writing to appreciative audiences in internationally respected venues is better than publishing. Merrill is as much a facilitator and organiser of poetry-based events and workshops as he is an outstanding writer and performer. One of his upcoming initiatives is a three-day spoken-word festival “Night Words” at the Sydney Opera House. His work is available on the CD What Night Knows, on his DVD Miles Merrill - The Reel and on his upcoming release Dirty Curly with Aussie hip-hop producer Morganics. Check his website at: www.wordtravels.info/ Gia Metherell is Literary Editor of The Canberra Times. Cathy Nicoll is a freelance writer and editor. With a background in science, environmental management and primary teaching, Cathy has tended to work on environmental and training publications for print and the Internet. She has spent more than a decade editing or rewriting government publications to make them interesting enough for people to want to read them.  Garth Nix was born in Melbourne, grew up in Canberra and lives in Sydney. A full-time writer since 2001, he has worked as a part-time soldier in the Australian Army Reserve, a bookseller, book sales representative, publicist, editor, marketing consultant and literary agent. More than five million copies of his books have been sold around the world and his work has been translated into 37 languages. Garth’s books include the award-winning fantasy novels Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen and the young adult science fiction novel Shade’s Children. His fantasy novels for children include The Ragwitch; the six books of The Seventh Tower sequence, and The keys to the kingdom series that begins with the Children’s Book Council of Australia Honour Book Mister Monday. Garth’s books have appeared on the bestseller lists of The New York Times, Publishers Weekly (US), The Bookseller (UK), The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Sunday Times (UK). His new book is called Superior Saturday.  Camilla Noli lives on the Central Coast of NSW with her husband and children. She is a graduate of the Varuna Writing Program in Sydney’s Blue Mountains and Still Waters is her first novel. For more details see: www.camillanoli.com  Geoff Page is an Australian poet who has published eighteen collections of poetry as well as two novels, four verse novels and several other works including anthologies, translations and a biography of the jazz musician, Bernie McGann. He retired at the end of 2001 from being in charge of the English Department at Narrabundah College in the ACT, a position he had held since 1974. He has won several awards, including the ACT Poetry Award, the Grace Leven Prize, the Christopher Brennan Award, the Queensland Premier’s Prize for Poetry and the 2001 Patrick White Literary Award. Selections from his work have been translated into Chinese, German, Serbian, Slovenian and Greek. He has also read his work and talked on Australian poetry in Switzerland, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Britain, Italy, Spain, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, Singapore, China, Korea, the United States and New Zealand.  Valerie Parv BA, AIPC (Dip) is a writer, trainer and counsellor who conducts seminars on creativity and the writing craft throughout Australia. Published since age 14, she has written over 60 romance novels and 20 nonfiction books including The Art of Romance Writing, and The Idea Factory. Her books have been translated into over 20 languages, selling more than 25 million copies. For more information visit www.valerieparv.com Jeff Popple is a crime fiction fanatic and reviewer. Matthew Richardson has worked in publishing since 1985, and since 1997 has been Halstead Press's publisher. He is an author of non-fiction books published by Penguin, Hardie Grant, MUP and overseas firms. He lives in the Blue Mountains, but was born and educated in Canberra, where he recently established a new office of Halstead Press.  Michael Robotham began his career an investigative journalist in Australia and Britain. He later became a ghostwriter, collaborating with the likes of Lulu, Rolf Harris, Geri Halliwell and Ricky Tomlinson, in penning more than a dozen bestselling autobiographies. Michael’s first novel, The Suspect, was in international bestseller with more than a million in sales. His second novel, Lost, won the Ned Kelly Award for Australia’s best crime novel in 2005 and his third novel, The Night Ferry, was short-listed for the UK Steel Dagger and 2007 Ned Kelly awards. Michael currently lives in Sydney with his wife and three daughters.  Kristina Schulz is the Children’s Publisher at the University of Queensland Press (UQP), one of Australia’s most respected independent publishing houses. UQP publishes a range of literary books, from literary fiction and non-fiction, to poetry, Indigenous writing and children’s books. Kristina has worked in publishing in Sydney, New York and London since 1999, before joining UQP earlier this year. Prior to UQP she worked at ABC Books in Sydney and at Foundry Literary + Media in New York.  Dr Mark Tredinnick, an award-wining poet and essayist, is the author of a number of books including the bestselling writing guide, The Little Red Writing Book; he has consulted to the public sector in communication skills for fifteen years after a career in publishing and law. He teaches at the University of Sydney. Later this year, Cambridge University Press will publish Mark’s book, Writing Well: the Essential Guide, throughout the world; in October, UNSW Press releases his grammar primer, The Little Green Grammar Book.  Rhonda Whitton is a freelance writer and journalist specialising in feature and travel writing. Rhonda is an experienced writing teacher, corporate trainer and conducts writing workshops. She has co-authored seven books for writers. | |||||||||||
Festival Advisory Committee: Valerie Parv, Alan Gould, Trevor Stafford, Julian Fleetwood, Rachel Longhurst. ACT Writers Centre Staff: Anne-Maree Britton (Director), Hal Judge (Communications), Kimberley Gaal (Office Manager). This event is funded by a Festivals ACT grant. The ACT Writers Centre is supported by the ACT Government through its Cultural Council and the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. Valued supporters: Olims Hotel Canberra, The Canberra Times, Z4 Wines, National Library of Australia, Mount Majura Vineyard, Paperchain Bookstore, Canberra Youth Theatre, QL2. | |||||||||||
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