Sydney Writers' Festival

Kader Abdolah studied physics in Tehran and was active in the student resistance. He published two novels about life under the Khomeini regime before fleeing his homeland in 1985. He settled in the Netherlands, quickly mastered the Dutch language and started writing in it. He is the author of two collections of short stories and three novels. In 2008 he published ‘The Messenger’, about the prophet Mohammed, and an alternative translation of the Koran underlining a more moderate and “human” Islam. Supported by the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

• The House of the Mosque
• Neither Old nor Dead: Europe in the 21st Century
• Did I Say That?
• The Big Reading

When Deborah Abela was young, she spent her time imagining she was on great adventures all over the world. When she grew older, she went on them for real. She slept beside alligators in Zaire, sailed down Venetian canals and was thrown in jail in Nigeria before bribing her way out. Later, she wrote novels about a girl who goes on adventures around the world. Deborah is the author of the Max Remy Superspy and Jasper Zammit (Soccer Legend) series. Her latest books are ‘The Remarkable Secret of Aurelie Bonhoffen’ and ‘Grimsdon’.
 deborahabela.com

• Primary School Days - Sydney
• Primary School Days - Parramatta
• Primary School Days - Sydney
• Primary School Days - Penrith
• Primary School Days - Free at Town Hall

Paula Abood is a community cultural development worker, writer and educator. She has worked with immigrant and refugee communities on storytelling projects including ‘Huriyya and her Sisters’, ‘The Afghan Women’s Dobaiti Project’ and ‘The Book of African Australian Stories’. She received a Western Sydney Artists' Fellowship in 2007 for the blogging project ‘Race and the City’.

• Struggle Without Hate

Izzeldin Abuelaish is a Palestinian doctor and infertility expert who was born and raised in the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. He trained in Egypt, London, Israel, Italy, Belgium and the US. Before his three daughters were killed in January 2009 during the Israeli incursion into Gaza, Dr Abuelaish worked as a researcher at the Gerner Institute at Sheba Hospital in Tel Aviv. He now lives with his family in Toronto. ‘I Shall Not Hate’ is his first book. Supported by the Consulate General of Canada and Sydney.

• Let My Daughters Be the Last to Die
• I Shall Not Hate
• Struggle Without Hate
• The Language of Suffering
• The Israel Question

Robert Adamson has written over 20 books of poetry and prose including his highly praised autobiography
‘Inside Out’, ‘Reading The River’ and ‘The Goldfinches of Baghdad’, which won ‘The Age’ Poetry Book of the Year in 2007. His new and selected poems, ‘The Golden Bird’, won the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Poetry in 2009. His latest book of poetry is ‘The Kingfisher's Soul’. He lives with the photographer Juno Gemes on the Hawkesbury River.
 robertadamson.com

• The Lost Poetry of Francis Webb

Louise Adler is the CEO and publisher-in-chief of Melbourne University Publishing. She is the deputy chancellor of Monash University and serves as a member of the Monash South Africa board, the board of the Melbourne International Arts Festival and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. Her contribution to Australia’s literary culture was acknowledged in the 2008 Australia Day Honours list with an AM. She is chair of MLC.

• The Vagabonds

Michael Mohammed Ahmad is completing his honours degree at UWS following his bachelor’s degree. He is chief editor of the BYDS literary program Westside Publications. His writing appeared in the literary journal ‘HEAT’ in 2008 and 2010. In 2008 Mohammed received a grant from the FTO’s Young Filmmakers Fund for production of his script ‘The Pizza’. In 2009 he produced the Sydney Writers’ Festival event, ‘Alleyway Honour’ and the 2010 Sydney Writers’ Festival event ‘Inside the Westside Writers’ Group’. As an actor Mohammed has performed in Urban Theatre Project’s ‘Fast Cars and Tractor Engines’ and ‘Stories of Love and Hate’.

• Launch into Deep Suburbia

Dr Tanveer Ahmed is a psychiatrist and opinion columnist for ‘The Sydney Morning Herald’. A former SBS television journalist, Tanveer covered a broad range of foreign affairs and business stories. He is a regular commentator on social, economic and political matters throughout the media, appearing on a range of television and radio programs. His essay “In the Kingdom of the Mind” appears in ‘Griffith REVIEW 31: Ways of Seeing’.

• The Lure of Certainty

Judith Ainge trained as an architect late in her career. It was during study for her masters degree in heritage conservation that she first encountered the Allen family albums held in the Mitchell Library, photographs taken by her husband’s great-grandfather. She is currently working on her PhD at the University of Sydney, and lives in Sydney with her husband and two children.

• An Edwardian Summer

Patsy Aldana is the publisher at Canadian children’s publisher Groundwood Books, which she founded in 1978. Established in the United States in 1996, Groundwood also publishes a list of Spanish language books under the Libros Tigrillo imprint. Patsy was president of IBBY (International Board on Books for Young People). She is currently president of the IBBY Foundation and Canada's representative to the Inter American Publishers Group. Patsy was named to the Order of Canada in 2010. She is a guest of the VIP program.

• Puppy Dogs’ Tails and All Things Nice?

Daniel Altman is the author of 'Outrageous Fortunes: The Twelve Surprising Trends That Will Reshape the Global Economy', 'Neoeconomy' and 'Connected: 24 Hours in the Global Economy'. Daniel has a PhD from Harvard and is director of thought leadership at Dalberg Global Development Advisors, a strategic consulting firm that works to raise living standards around the world. He has written for 'The Economist', 'The International Herald Tribune' and 'The New York Times'. Formerly an economic advisor in the British government, Daniel teaches at New York University's Stern School
of Business.
 danielaltman.com

• Business Breakfast: Outrageous Fortunes
• The Alternative View
• We (Still) Need to Talk About America

Waleed Aly is a lecturer in politics at Monash University and the author of ‘What's Right? The Future of Conservatism in Australia’ (Quarterly Essay 37) and ‘People Like Us: How Arrogance is Dividing Islam and the West’. He is also the guitarist and main songwriter for Melbourne originals band Robot Child, which is the house band for The Chaser's new show, ‘The Empty Vessel’. In 2009 he played the lead guitar part in the world’s first-ever theatrical production of Pink Floyd’s classic album ‘The Wall’ with Nuworks Theatre in Melbourne.

• The Chaser’s Empty Vessel
• For Those Who’ve Come Across the Sea
• The Dissident Café: Tweeting from the Middle East
• The Chaser’s Empty Vessel

Don Anderson is the author/editor of eight collections of essays and stories. He taught North American literature for many years at the University of Sydney. He is a compulsive reader.

• Reading is Overrated

Auburn Poets and Writers Group has been creating an open and dynamic space for a diversity of writers since 2005. Since 2006 APWG has performed annually at Sydney Writers’ Festival, and in 2008 published ‘Auburn Letters’.

• InSihar - InFusion - InAuburn
• InSihar - InFusion - InAuburn

Sean Aylmer is a specialist in economics and financial services. He worked for the Reserve Bank of Australia before moving across to journalism. Sean has worked at ‘The Sydney Morning Herald’ and the ‘Australian Financial Review’, where he has been an economics correspondent and a foreign correspondent. He has twice been a finalist in the Walkley Awards for Journalism and in 2000 won the Citibank Award for Excellence in Journalism (General Business). He is editor-in-chief of ‘BRW Magazine’.

• Business Breakfast: Outrageous Fortunes