Sydney Writers' Festival

Kate Fagan’s books of poetry include ‘The Long Moment’, ‘Thought’s Kilometre’ and ‘return to a new physics’. She is a former editor of the US-based journal of innovative poetry ‘How2’, and is from one of Australia’s pre-eminent folk music families, The Fagans. Her album ‘Diamond Wheel’ won the National Film and Sound Archive Award for Best Folk Album.

• Poetry Unbound

Delia Falconer grew up in Sydney. Her first novel, ‘The Service of Clouds’, was nominated for several major Australian literary prizes including the Miles Franklin Award. Her second novel, ‘The Lost Thoughts of Soldiers’, was also nominated for major awards including the Commonwealth Prize. Her first nonfiction title, ‘Sydney’, has recently been published to widespread critical acclaim.

• The Fascinator
• A Tribute to Ruth Park

Sonia Faleiro is an award-winning Indian journalist and author of ‘Beautiful Thing: Portrait of a Bombay Bar Dancer’. She is the author of a novel, ‘Girl’, and is a contributing editor at ‘Vogue India’. She was born in India, studied in the United Kingdom and currently lives in San Francisco. Supported by the Australia-India Council.

• The Chaser’s Empty Vessel
• Half the Sky
• Beautiful Thing
• Sonia Faleiro

Suzanne Falkiner grew up in the Australian bush and lives in Sydney. She divides her time between writing, reviewing, editing and occasional travel journalism. Her books include ‘Ethel: A Love Story’, ‘Lizard Island: The Journey of Mary Watson’ (with painter Alan Oldfield) and ‘Joan in India’. Her latest book is ‘The Imago: E.L. Grant Watson in Australia’.

• The Artist’s Life

Farid Farid is a final-year doctoral candidate at the Centre for Cultural Research, UWS. He has been published in various international and national journals including ‘Le Monde Diplomatique’, ‘The Sydney Morning Herald’, ‘The Australian’, ‘The Age’, ‘The Australian Literary Review’, ‘Al Masry Al Youm’, ‘Social Semiotics’, ‘borderlands’, ‘Real Time Arts’, ‘Art Link’ and ‘The Drum’. He is also a spoken-word artist who has performed at previous Sydney Writers’ Festival events.

• The Dissident Café: Tweeting from the Middle East

Malcolm Farr has been covering federal politics in Canberra for nearly 20 years. He is national political editor for news.com.au and writes online for ‘The Punch’. Until late last year he was political editor for ‘The Daily Telegraph’. He has also worked for ‘The Australian’, ‘The Brisbane Sun’ and ‘The Gold Coast Bulletin’. Malcolm was president of the Press Gallery Committee and has been chairman of the judging panel for the Walkley Book Award since its inception six years ago.

• Bringing Politicians to Book

John Faulkner has lived most of his life in Sydney. He joined the ALP as a teenager and has held various positions within the party including national president in 2007 and 2008. John entered the Australian Senate in 1989 and served as leader of the opposition in the Senate from 1996–2004. He has held several ministerial and shadow ministerial portfolios during his parliamentary career and served as minister for defence prior to the 2010 federal election.

• From Barcaldine to Oblivion?
• They’re Back! Alan Ramsey and John Faulkner

Johanna Featherstone is the founder and artistic director of The Red Room Company. Her most recent chapbook is ‘Felt’ and her poetry has featured in journals such as ‘Quadrant’, ‘Best Australian Poems’, ‘Papertiger’ and ‘Mascara’. Johanna is a research associate with the University of Western Sydney and an honorary associate of the University of Sydney's School of Letters Arts and Media. In 2008 she received a fellowship from the St James Ethics Centre.

• The Lost Poetry of Francis Webb
• Clubs and Societies
• Late Nights at Number One
• Pimp My Rhyme

Tim Ferguson is a comedian, producer, director and screenwriter. He toured with Doug Anthony Allstars for a decade and appeared on Australian and British TV shows including ‘The Big Gig’ and ‘Friday Night Live’. He wrote for sitcoms including ‘Daas Kapital’, ‘Shock Jock’, the online drama series ‘Forget The Rules’ and the feature film ‘The Edinburgh Years’. Tim’s hosting/writing credits include ‘Don’t Forget Your Toothbrush’, ‘Unreal TV’ and ‘Big Brother Insider’. Tim wrote ‘The Cheeky Monkey – Writing Narrative Comedy’.
 cheekymonkeycomedy.com

• The Cheeky Monkey: Narrative Comedy Masterclass with Tim Ferguson

James Fergusson is a freelance journalist and foreign correspondent who has written for many publications including ‘The Independent’, ‘The Times’, ‘The Daily Telegraph’, ‘The Daily Mail’ and ‘The Economist’. His book, ‘The Vitamin Murders: Who Killed Healthy Eating in Britain?’, was shortlisted for the André Simon Award for gastronomic literature. His latest book, ‘Taliban’, is the definitive history of the religious movement which became the world's most feared fighting force. He is married with two daughters and a son and lives in Edinburgh.

• Taliban
• Do the Taliban Deserve a Second Chance?
• How 9/11 Changed the World
• The Dissident Café: Tweeting from Pakistan

Professor Carole Ferrier has taught at the University of Queensland in the school of English, media studies and art history since 1973. She has published extensively in the area of Australasian women's fiction and her current research interests include correspondence between Vance and Nettie Palmer, and a collaborative book on New Zealand women's fiction. Carole is the editor of ‘As Good as a Yarn With You: Letters Between Franklin, Prichard, Devanny, Barnard, Eldershaw and Dark’.

• Celebrating Varuna: Disturbing the Status Quo
• Disturbing the Status Quo

Richard Fidler is a broadcaster who has had several lives as a musician, writer and performer. He currently presents the popular ABC radio program ‘Conversations with Richard Fidler’ on 702 ABC Sydney and on ABC radio around Australia. In another life Richard was a member of comedy group Doug Anthony Allstars, which played to audiences all over the world. Since then Richard has presented a wide range of TV shows, from ‘Race Around the World’ to ‘Aftershock’. Richard is also the president of Brisbane’s Institute of Modern Art.

• Conversations with Richard Fidler: Curt Stager’s Deep Future
• Conversations with Richard Fidler: Daniel Swift’s Bomber County
• Thank God It’s Friday with Richard Glover

Phillipa Fioretti was born in Sydney and studied humanities, visual arts and museum studies. She went on to work and exhibit as a printmaker, as well as teaching part-time at tertiary level. She currently writes fiction full-time and was selected for participation in the 2008 Hachette Australia/Queensland Writers’ Centre Manuscript Development Program. Her first novel was ‘The Book of Love’. The sequel is ‘The Fragment of Dreams’.

• When Preparation Meets Opportunity: Creating Writers’ Luck
• When Preparation Meets Opportunity: Creating Writers’ Luck

Gerhard Fischer is associate professor of German studies at the University of NSW and fellow of The Australian Academy of the Humanities. He is a literary scholar and historian with research interests in 20th-century European literature, drama and theatre, World War I, and 19th-century Australian migration history and multiculturalism. Gerhard is co-author of the recently released book ‘The Enemy at Home’.

• The Enemy at Home

Toby Fitch published a chapbook of poems called ‘Everyday Static’ in 2010 through Vagabond Press. He is currently undertaking a doctorate at the University of Sydney and his first full-length book of poems, ‘Raw Shock’, is soon to be published by Puncher & Wattman. He was born in London and raised in Sydney.
 tobyfitch.blogspot.com

• Late Nights at Number One

Shamini Flint was a corporate lawyer before resigning to be a stay-at-home mum, writer, part-time lecturer and environmental activist. She is the author of the Inspector Singh Investigates series of crime novels. Shamini also writes children’s books with cultural and environmental themes including ‘The Seeds of Time’, an environmental fantasy, and ‘Ten’, a tale of growing up and football. Her latest children’s book is ‘Diary of a Soccer Star’.

• Criminal Agency
• Once Were Lawyers
• It’s a Small World After All: Writing for Children with Shamini Flint
• Singapore Sling
• Cities of the Dead
• The Chaser’s Empty Vessel
• Cross-Cultural Storytelling
• The New School

Hazel Flynn’s career encompasses book publishing, broadcast radio, writing and editing in print and online. As nonfiction publisher at Random House Australia and commissioning editor at Murdoch Books she originated a wide range of critically acclaimed and bestselling titles. She also co-wrote ‘Hazel’s Journey’ about Hazel Hawke’s Alzheimer’s disease.
 hazelflynn.com

• How to Get Published with Hazel Flynn
• How to Get Published with Hazel Flynn

Lionel Fogarty is a Murri man and a leading spokesman for Indigenous rights in Australia. His poetry career has spanned more than 30 years and includes 11 books of poetry. Lionel is well known for his forthright honesty and passion for Aboriginal justice in issues including deaths in custody and land rights. He has endeavoured to “conquer the English language” and his unique voice has travelled across the world. He remains committed to the resurgence of Aboriginal languages.

• Antipodes: Poetic Responses
• Desert Flowers

John Forge is a philosopher who now works in the field of the ethics of science and technology, having once specialised in philosophy of science. He has worked in departments of history and philosophy of science at the universities of NSW, Wollongong, Griffith and, most recently, Sydney. John thinks he can show that weapons design is morally wrong and is writing a book to try to prove that proposition. He has a wife, daughter, step-daughter and two cats.

• The Responsible Scientist

Aminatta Forna is the author of ‘The Devil that Danced on the Water’ and the award-winning ‘Ancestor Stones’, selected by ‘The Washington Post’ as one of the most important books of 2006. Her third book, ‘The Memory of Love’, is the winner of the 2011 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book (Africa). Aminatta writes for magazines, newspapers, radio and television, and has presented television documentaries on Africa’s history and art. Supported by the Commonwealth Foundation.
 aminattaforna.com

• Memory of Love: Aminatta Forna
• Aminatta Forna
• East of Africa, West of Sydney
• Eyes on the Prize
• Family Politics
• Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Presentation

Emma Forrest is a British journalist, novelist and screenwriter. Forrest had her first article published in the ‘Evening Standard’ at 15. By 16, she had a column in ‘The Sunday Times’ and at 21 published her first novel, ‘Namedropper’. She is also the author of ‘Thin Skin’ and ‘Cherries in the Snow’, and editor of the nonfiction anthology, ‘Damage Control’. She lives in Los Angeles, where she is a screenwriter, and has just published her memoir, ‘Your Voice in My Head’.
 emmaforrest.com

• Emma Forrest
• Your Voice in My Head
• The Chaser’s Empty Vessel
• 9/11: I Was There
• Extremely Frank and Incredibly Close

Andrew Fowler is an award-winning investigative journalist and a contributing reporter for the ABC’s ‘Foreign Correspondent’ and ‘Four Corners’ programs. He has been chief of staff and acting foreign editor of ‘The Australian’ newspaper and a reporter with SBS ‘Dateline’ and Channel 7, as well as heading up the ABC’s investigative unit. He first interviewed Julian Assange for the ABC in May 2010.

• WikiLeaks and the Challenge for Journalism
• Who’s Afraid of WikiLeaks?

Lindsay Foyle began his career as a copyboy for ‘The Daily Telegraph’ in 1959, before travelling to England where he worked on ‘The Mirror’ and ‘Housemaker’ magazine. He returned to Australia in 1967 and over the years worked for ‘The Sunday Mail’, ‘Woman’s Day’, ‘Australian Business Monthly’, ‘The Australian’ and ‘The Bulletin’, where he was deputy editor. Lindsay was involved in establishing The Stanleys (national awards for cartooning) and since 2008 has been working freelance. He is on the Media Alliance Federal Council.

• The Pen is Mightier...

Michael Fraser AM is a professor of law and director of the Communications Law Centre, UTS. He was CEO of the Copyright Agency Limited for 21 years, and a founding director of Australian, foreign and international copyright management companies and organisations. He is president of Sydney PEN.

• Sydney PEN Free Voices

Andrew Frost is an art critic, writer and broadcaster. His articles have been published in a variety of Australian and international magazines and websites and he is a regular contributor to ‘The Sydney Morning Herald’. In 2007 Andrew wrote and presented two three-part series of ‘The Art Life’ on ABC1. He is the author of ‘The Boys’ (Currency Press) and is a PhD candidate at the College of Fine Arts, University of NSW.

• FastBREAK