Sydney Writers' Festival 2010

MICHAEL MOHAMMED AHMAD (LOCAL)
MICHAEL MOHAMMED AHMAD is the editor of the BYDS literary publication Westside, and was also a recipient of the FTO’s 2008 Young Filmmakers Fund for his script The Pizza. He has read and performed in the 2007 and 2008 Sydney Writers’ Festivals and has been published in the literary journal Heat. Mohammed wrote, directed and starred in his first solo performance The Veil in 2004 as part of UTP’s Short n’ Sharp 3. Since then he has performed with the company throughout the acclaimed tour of Fast Cars and Tractor Engines. In 2008 he starred in UTP’s production Stories of Love and Hate. He has also made a guest appearance on the hit TV series East West 101.

IVOR INDYK (LOCAL)
IVOR INDYK is founding editor and publisher of HEAT magazine and Giramondo Publishing, and Whitlam professor in Writing and Society at the University of Western Sydney. A critic, essayist and reviewer, he has written a monograph on David Malouf, and essays on many aspects of Australian literature, art and architecture.

also appearing at...
325: Love and Honour and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice

ROSLYN OADES (LOCAL)
ROSLYN OADES is a graduate of the College of Fine Arts, UNSW, with a double degree in photomedia and theatre studies. She is an experienced director, performer, voice artist, puppeteer and visual artist. As a director she has created two new performance works with Urban Theatre Projects: Stories of Love & Hate and Fast Cars & Tractor Engines. As a performer and collaborator she has worked with Not Yet It’s Difficult, Blackhole Theatre, the Non-Fiction Theatre Company in London and Platform 27. Roslyn’s voice-over work includes roles on the animated series Zigby, Sea Princesses, Dogstar, Bambaloo and lead voice for the Logie-award winning Tracey McBean. Her TV acting credits include roles on All Saints, Last Man Standing, Blue Heelers, Stingers, MDA, Wildside, Pizza, Water Rats, Murder Call, Police Rescue, G.P. and a two-year stint on Home & Away.

LUKE CARMAN (LOCAL)
LUKE CARMAN has spent the last three years in semi-isolation trying to write the Great Australian Anything. With the guidance of Dr Anna Gibbs, Dr Maria Angel and Professor Ivor Indyk of UWS he has, at the very least, begun to see where and why it all keeps coming apart. With the added insight of people who actually know what they’re doing, he hopes to continue beating his head against a literary wall that only he can see.

FIONA WRIGHT (LOCAL)
FIONA WRIGHT is a poet whose work has been published in journals and anthologies in Australia, Asia and the USA. Her work was included in Best Australian Poems 2008 and the Toilet Doors Project, and she was runner-up in the 2008 John Marsden National Young Writers Award. In 2007 she was awarded an Island of Residencies placement at the Tasmania Writers’ Centre, developing a sequence of poems about Australians in Sri Lanka. Fiona works as an editor at Giramondo Publishing and as a project assistant for The Red Room Company.

ANDY KO (LOCAL)
ANDY KO is a theatre-maker and producer. He has worked as a stage technician, performer and project facilitator. For the past three years he has produced and facilitated performing arts projects with Fairfield High School, Fairfield Intensive English Centre and Powerhouse Youth Theatre. His work is focused on building capacities in the arts for young people and emerging artists in the Fairfield area. Andy’s writing has appeared in two editions of the literary publication Westside.

PETER POLITES (LOCAL)
PETER POLITES was born Panayioti Polites. He has gone to art school, worked for a senator and in a porno book shop, directed two short films and one long play, and has worked on numerous community cultural development projects. His work has been published in three editions of Westside. He credits Bankstown Youth Development Service for his artistic growth. Peter is currently writing a novel while completing an Arts degree at the University of Western Sydney.