Sydney Writers' Festival

ANDREA GOLDSMITH (INTERSTATE)
ANDREA GOLDMSITH originally trained as a speech pathologist and was a pioneer in the development of communication aids for people unable to speak. Her first novel, Gracious Living, was published in 1989. This was followed by Modern Interiors, then Facing the Music, Under the Knife and The Prosperous Thief, which was shortlisted for the 2003 Miles Franklin award. Her literary essays have appeared in Heat, Meanjin, Australian Book Review, Best Australian Essays and numerous anthologies. She has taught creative writing throughout Australia, and has mentored several new writers.

also appearing at...
170: Tackling The Big Themes
213: Andrea Goldsmith in Conversation with Drusilla Modjeska

DRUSILLA MODJESKA (LOCAL)
DRUSILLA MODJESKA was born in England but has lived in Australia since 1971. Her books include Exiles at Home, Poppy, The Orchard, Secrets (with Robert Dessaix and Amanda Lohrey), Stravinsky’s Lunch and Timepieces. She has won many awards, including the Banjo, the NSW Premier’s Award for Non-Fiction (three times), the Nita B. Kibble Award (twice) and the Australian Bookseller’s Book of the Year Award.

also appearing at...
169: Robert Dessaix in Conversation with Drusilla Modjeska
213: Andrea Goldsmith in Conversation with Drusilla Modjeska

SOPHIE CUNNINGHAM (INTERSTATE)
Sophie Cunningham has worked in publishing for 20 years as an editor of fiction and non-fiction. Her first novel was Geography and her second, Bird. She is working on a third, This Devastating Fever, about Leonard Woolf’s time as a colonial administrator in Ceylon and the first years of his marriage to Virginia. Sophie is currently the editor of the literary quarterly Meanjin.

also appearing at...
189: Literary Journals
260: The CAL/Meanjin Lecture: Should Intellectual Property be 'Owned'?
333: Morris Gleitzman in Conversation with Sophie Cunningham

JENNIFER HARRISON (LOCAL)
JENNIFER HARRISON’s fourth poetry collection, Folly & Grief, was published in 2006. Her work has been widely anthologised, most recently in 100 Australian Poems You Need to Know and The Penguin Anthology of Australian Poetry. A volume of New and Selected Poetry is forthcoming. Jennifer works as a child psychiatrist.

also appearing at...
119: Launch: Motherlode (Puncher and Wattman)

JUDITH BEVERIDGE (LOCAL)
Judith Beveridge has published three books of poetry all of which have won major prizes: The Domesticity of Giraffes, Accidental Grace, and Wolf Notes. She is the poetry editor of Meanjin. In 2005 she was awarded the Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal for excellence in literature.

She currently teaches poetry at post-graduate level at the University of Sydney and at postgraduate and undergraduate level at the University of Newcastle. She has edited UQP’s The Best Australian Poetry 2006 as well as co-edited anthologies from the Newcastle Poetry Prize, Sunweight and The Honey Fills the Cone.
 http://australia.poetryinternationalweb.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/index.php?obj_id=676

JENNIFER BYRNE (LOCAL)
JENNIFER BYRNE began as a cadet journalist with The Age in 1972. At 23, she was posted to San Francisco as The Age’s West Coast correspondent. In 1981 Jennifer joined Nine’s Sunday program before moving across to 60 Minutes. In 1993 she became the morning presenter of ABC’s Radio 2BL and in 1995 was appointed publishing director of Reed Books. In 1999 Jennifer joined Foreign Correspondent, working as host and reporter for five years. Jennifer joined the Bulletin in 2003 as a senior writer, working on the weekly Lunch With... column, for which she won two national magazine awards. She continued to host the ABC’s My Favourite Book program before becoming the host of the ABC’s First Tuesday Book Club.

also appearing at...
142: First Tuesday Book Club

LINDA JAIVIN (LOCAL)
LINDA JAIVIN is a novelist, essayist, playwright, specialist writer on China and translator. Her first novel was the comic-erotic bestseller Eat Me. The Infernal Optimist was shortlisted for the 2007 ASL Gold Medal. Her non-fiction includes the acclaimed China memoir The Monkey and the Dragon and the collection of essays Confessions of an S&M Virgin. Her latest book, the historical novel A Most Immoral Woman, is set in 1904 and is based on an incident in the life of George 'Chinese’ Morrison. The novel brings together Linda’s interests in China, history, journalism and the character of the female libertine.

also appearing at...
111: The Female Libido
160: Historical Fiction
263: Bad Boys and Bad Girls of China

MICHAEL BRENNAN (LOCAL)
MICHAEL BRENNAN’s first collection, The Imageless World, was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Award for Poetry and won the Mary Gilmore Award. Brennan’s second collection, Unanimous Night, was released in 2008. He is an associate professor in the Faculty of Policy Studies, Chuo University, Tokyo, the Australian editor of www.poetryinternational.org and director of Vagabond Press. His work has been translated into French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese and Italian.

also appearing at...
3: Poets Paint Words II Exhibition
259: Poets Paint Words II - Poets Read III

ROBERT ADAMSON (LOCAL)
ROBERT ADAMSON has published over 20 books of verse and prose, from early writing as a poet maudit to more recent work exploring the landscape of the Hawkesbury River.
 robertadamson.com

also appearing at...
141: Late Nights at Number One
151: The Sydney Poetry Reading II

MTC CRONIN (INTERSTATE)
MTC CRONIN has published 14 collections of poetry including several in translation, the latest being The Flower, The Thing. Her work has won and been shortlisted for many major literary awards both in Australia and overseas. She has studied arts, law, literature and creative writing. She worked for a decade in law before she began teaching writing in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions. She currently lives on an organic farm with her partner and three young daughters.

also appearing at...
131: The Poet’s Life Works with MTC Cronin
276: Late Nights at Number One