Sydney Writers' Festival

ANDREW BACEVICH (INTERNATIONAL)
Andrew J. Bacevich is Professor of history and international relations at Boston University. A graduate of the US Military Academy, he received his PhD in American diplomatic history from Princeton. Before joining the faculty of Boston University in 1998, he taught at West Point and at Johns Hopkins.

Dr Bacevich is the author of several books, including The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War and American Empire: The Realities and Consequences of U.S. Diplomacy. He is the editor of The Long War: A New History of U.S. National Security Policy since World War II and Imperial Tense: Problems and Prospects of American Empire.

His essays and reviews have appeared in a variety of scholarly and general interest publications including The Atlantic Monthly, The Wilson Quarterly, The London Review of Books, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Nation and The New Republic. His op-eds have appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, Boston Globe and Los Angeles Times, among other newspapers. Dr Bacevich is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

appearing at...
103: The Lessons of Vietnam
236: Jon Lee Anderson and Andrew Bacevich in Conversation
306: American Dreaming

NANETTE BACKHOUSE (LOCAL)
Nanette Backhouse has won a number of Australian Publishing Association Book Design Awards, including The Best Young Designer of the Year 2007; designer of the APA Book Design Awards Catalogue and designer of the branding of the 2008 Book Design Awards.

appearing at...
127: Design Outlook: Australian Book Designers and their Visions

SUNIL BADAMI (LOCAL)
Sunil Badami has an Honours degree in communications from UTS and a Masters with distinction in creative and life writing from Goldsmiths College, The University of London. He has written for publications including The Sydney Morning Herald, Good Weekend, The Australian, The Australian Literary Review, The Cultural Studies Review and Meanjin. His short story ‘Collective Silences’ is included in the 2007 Best Australian Short Stories. He is completing his first novel.

appearing at...
150: Blake Morrison in Conversation
215: Debra Adelaide in Conversation
279: Growing Up Asian in Australia

BEN BALL (INTERSTATE)
Ben Ball took up the position of publisher at Penguin Books following ten years in the UK at Simon & Schuster, Bloomsbury and Granta Books.

appearing at...
343: Do I Need An Agent?

LENNY BARTULIN (LOCAL)
Lenny Bartulin is the author of A Deadly Business. He has published poetry in Heat and Meanjin, and is currently working on his second Jack Susko novel.

http://www.scribepublications.com.au/book/adeadlybusiness

appearing at...
235: Murder Most Innovative
283: Sydney’s Underbelly

ARDA BARUT (LOCAL)
Arda Barut is currently studying a Bachelor in Communications and Arts at the University of Canberra. He has been a long standing contributor to Westside, having his first poem and talent recognised at only 13 years of age. In 2004 he co-directed and wrote a short work for Urban Theatre Projects’ Short ‘n’ Sharp 3 and in 2006 worked as the director of photography and co-writer of the documentary Consumed, featured at the Westside 2006 launch. Arda is pursuing a career in public relations and has a passion for writing poetry and short stories in both English and Turkish.

appearing at...
285: Westside at the Wharf

ALISON BASHFORD (LOCAL)
Alison Bashford's writing and research connects medical history, environmental history and world history. Her most recent book is Griffith Taylor: visionary, environmentalist, explorer (co-authored with Carolyn Strange).

Associate Professor of history at the University of Sydney, her previous books include Imperial Hygiene: a critical history of colonialism, nationalism and public health, Purity and Pollution: gender, embodiment and Victorian medicine and Contagion: historical and cultural studies (co-edited with Claire Hooker).

Alison Bashford is currently completing two projects. The first is a history of the world population problem over the twentieth century provisionally titled Life on Earth: geopolitics and the world population problem. Second, she is co-editing with Philippa Levine a world history of eugenics.

She takes up the Harvard Chair of Australian Studies in 2009-10, with the Department of History of Science.

appearing at...
158: The Water’s Edge
313: White Men’s Countries

OZI BATLA (LOCAL)
Ozi Batla is one of Australia's best-known MCs, fronting both The Herd and Astronomy Class. A Triple J and FBi favourite, he penned the Australian anthem ‘77%’ and shared credits on cult tracks such as ‘We can’t hear you’ and ‘Only 19’. Ozi earned his ‘battler’ tag in 2002 by winning a swag of MC battles and titles. He has been the Verbal Mechanics NSW champ and the NSW Stealth Battle champ. He has also been a semi-finalist in Melbourne's Revolver MC Battle and a grand finalist in the National Stealth Battle.

No stranger to controversy, The Herd’s songs ‘77%’, ‘Burn Down the Parliament’ and ‘Starship Troopers’ have been credited with sparking national debates about racism, political representation and Australian values. The Herd have achieved widespread popularity in Australia and have had four of their songs voted into Triple J's prestigious Hottest 100 list.

As well as being a leader in the Australian hip hop scene, off the stage Ozi has conducted hip hop workshops for disadvantaged youths in aboriginal communities and the inner city.
www.elefanttraks.com/chooser.cfm?view=artists&artistId=4

appearing at...
263: Hip Hop Projections 3
301: Creative Dissent

MICHAEL GERARD BAUER (INTERSTATE)
Michael Gerard Bauer is a full-time writer. He lives with his family in the suburb of Brisbane where he was born, grew up, went to school and spent a number of years teaching.

In 2003 Michael won the Writesmall micro-fiction competition for stories of exactly 100 words in the Brisbane Writers Festival. His first novel, The Running Man, was published the following year to glowing reviews and won the CBCA Book of the Year (Older Readers) award.

His second novel, Don’t Call Me Ishmael! won the CBCA Junior Judges Book of the Year (Older Readers) award and was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards in 2007. Michael felt compelled to follow Ishmael and his mates into Year Ten after the success of the first Ishmael book. Ishmael and the Return of the Dugongs is just as funny.
www.scholastic.com.au/common/books/contributor_profile.asp?ContributorID=527

appearing at...
20: Secondary School Days – Parramatta
35: Secondary School Days – Sydney
95: Writing for Young Adults

CAROLINE BAUM (LOCAL)
Caroline Baum was born and educated in London. She joined the editorial staff of British Vogue at the age of 16 before going to York University to study philosophy and politics.

As a researcher for Michael Parkinson at the BBC and for Melvyn Bragg at London Weekend television, she interviewed many prominent figures in the arts including Ingrid Bergman, Trevor Nunn, David Lean, Peter Brook and Jiri Kylian.

Arriving in Australia in 1984, Caroline was appointed arts editor of Melbourne’s Sunday Herald. As features editor at Vogue Australia, she initiated the first guest edited issue by Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin.

Caroline presented ABC TV’s book show Between the Lines and was Executive Producer of ABC Radio National’s Arts Today. She later hosted Foxtel’s bookshow Talking Books.

In 2001 Caroline became the founding editor of Good Reading magazine.

In 2006 she produced and co-wrote her first television documentary, In Search of Bony, for SBS. Her company Two Heads Media currently has several TV projects in development. She is a regular contributor to national newspapers and magazines.

Caroline’s photographic work is held in the Wollongong City Gallery. She has also designed a range of fabrics under her own label, Mollusc.

www.carolinebaum.com.au

appearing at...
212: Michael Pollan in Conversation with Caroline Baum
249: Helen Garner in Conversation with Caroline Baum
318: Kate Jennings in Conversation with Caroline Baum

BOB BEALE (LOCAL)
Bob Beale has been a writer for more than 25 years, specialising in science and the environment. He worked for many years as a journalist at The Sydney Morning Herald where he was the former chief of staff, European correspondent and science and environment editor.

He is now a freelance writer whose work appears regularly in The Bulletin and Reader's Digest, and he is a contributor to a wide range of Australian and international science and medical magazines.

His awards include five times winner or finalist of the Michael Daley Award for science journalism, winner of the Peter Hunt Prize for environmental journalism, and finalist in the Walkley Awards for journalism.

www.bob.beale.org

appearing at...
42: If Trees Could Speak
284: Honouring Nature

MAGGIE BEER (INTERSTATE)
Maggie Beer is one of Australia’s best loved cooks. She writes for the ABC's magazine Delicious and is the author of three successful cookbooks, Maggie's Farm, Maggie's Orchard and Maggie's Table, and co-author of Stephanie Alexander & Maggie Beer's Tuscan Cookbook. She alsp co-presents ABC TV’s popular The Cook & The Chef.

Her latest book, Maggie’s Harvest, is a beautifully designed cookbook that provides us with her most treasured food experiences, enjoyable accounts of meals with family and friends and over 350 of her signature recipes. With mouth-watering pictures and glorious recipes, this cookbook is one for the whole family to enjoy, something which has always been central to Maggie's purpose.

www.maggiebeer.com.au

appearing at...
226: Maggie’s Harvest: Lunch with Maggie Beer

LARISSA BEHRENDT (LOCAL)
Larissa Behrendt is Professor of Law and and Director of Research at the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning at the University of Technology, Sydney. Larissa is a Judicial Member of the Administrative Decisions Tribunal, Equal Opportunity Division and the Alternate Chair of the Serious Offenders Review Board. She has published on property law, indigenous rights, dispute resolution and Aboriginal women's issues. Her book, Achieving Social Justice: Indigenous Rights and Australia's Future was published by The Federation Press in 2003. She won the 2002 David Uniapon Award and a 2005 Commonwealth Writer's Prize for her novel Home.

appearing at...
244: Writing Black

ASSEFE BEKELE (LOCAL)
Assefe Bekele defies the stereotype of an African migrant. Fluent in two Ethiopian languages as well as Greek and English, he arrived in Australia with two Masters degrees, both from Greek universities, one in mining and metallurgy, the other in community, local and regional development. Bekele is currently employed as an Ethnic Community Liaison Officer with the NSW Police.

appearing at...
234: New African-Australian Writing with Assefe Bekele

SARAH BENJAMIN (LOCAL)
Sarah Benjamin lived and studied in Florence in her early twenties then took an MA in Italian renaissance history. She worked at the ABC for 10 years before turning to writing. A Castle in Tuscany is her first book. She lives in Sydney.

appearing at...
229: Writing and Research

TEGAN BENNETT DAYLIGHT (LOCAL)
Tegan Bennett Daylight was born in Sydney in 1969. She is the author of Bombora, which was short-listed for the Australian/Vogel Literary Award and the Kathleen Mitchell Award, and What Falls Away. In 2002 she was named one of the The Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Australian Novelists.

appearing at...
26: Family Fictions and Family Truths

PASCAL DAANTOS BERRY (LOCAL)
Pascal Daantos Berry is a young writer and dramaturg, originally from Cebu, The Philippines. His most recent work, The Folding Wife, was produced in 2007 in association with Urban Theatre Projects and Blacktown Arts Centre.

His other work includes Jerusalem Syndrome, The Great Tale, Found Objects, Triptych, Ancestry of My Eyes, Conversations Through the Wall, Defecating Jesus and Querida. His awards include Belvoir Street Theatre’s Asian Australian Young Playwrights Award 1996 and a London Royal Court Residency in 2000.

His work has been presented for Radio National, Griffin Theatre, Australian Choreographic Centre, Belvoir Street Theatre, Performance Space, ATYP, Multicultural Theatre Alliance, Platform 27 and Canberra Youth Theatre.

appearing at...
246: Writing for Performance with Pascal Daantos Berry

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.

appearing at...
107: Launch: Poetry Without Borders (Picaro Press)
172: So What is Happening in Contemporary Verse?

CRAIG BILLINGHAM (LOCAL)
Craig Billingham’s poetry has been published in Blue Dog, Space: New Writing, and Meanjin. Craig’s first collection of poems, Storytelling, was one of the highly praised final collections of Five Islands Press’ New Poets series, published in 2007.

appearing at...
15: Poetry Outloud

PETER BISHOP (LOCAL)
Peter Bishop is the Creative Director of Varuna – The Writers’ House.

appearing at...
30: Writing Obsessions: New Australian Fiction

SANDY BLACKBURN-WRIGHT (LOCAL)
Sandy Blackburn-Wright grew up in the idyllic setting of her parent’s bookstore, with thousands of books to choose from each night for her bedtime story.

As a teenager, she became involved with a local church youth group, soon taking on a role in the leadership team of the 200-strong group. It was here that she began to learn skills that would be needed on the other side of the world, and it was through her church that she met one of the community leaders in South Africa who was working for social change.

She and her friends then received an invitation to join a youth leadership program run by this organisation. What began as a three month program in 1988 soon turned into a decision to move to South Africa permanently, ill-prepared as she was for the political violence and turmoil of the late 1980s. But that decision allowed her to take part in the most extraordinary transformation in modern history.

Sandy lived in South Africa for 15 years, before returning to Australia where she now lives with her family. Holding Up the Sky is her first book.

appearing at...
60: Holding Up the Sky
80: Private Lives, Public Histories

ERNIE BLACKMORE (LOCAL)
Ernie Blackmore is a lecturer with the Woolyungah Indigenous Centre at the University of Wollongong and a playwright with a special interest in recording both historical and contemporary Indigenous texts. Dr Blackmore was a consulting editor for the literacy publishing project Indij Readers. His first play Buckley’s Hope represented Australia at the 1999 US National Playwrights’ Conference with a full Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cast. His latest play is Waiting for Ships.

appearing at...
111: Celebrating the Voice 8 – Wollongong
331: Celebrating the Voice 8 – Bermagui
332: Celebrating the Voice 8 – Moruya
333: Celebrating the Voice 8 – Nowra

GEORGIA BLAIN (LOCAL)
Georgia Blain has published four novels: Closed for Winter, Candelo, The Blind Eye and Names For Nothingness. Birth Deaths Marriages is her first foray into non-fiction, a memoir that looks with honesty and warmth at the gap between how we think life should be and how it really is.

Georgia was named one of The Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Novelists in 1998, and has been shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Literary Awards. Two of Georgia’s novels have been optioned for feature films, including Closed for Winter, which went into production as Elise in 2007 starring Natalie Imbruglia.

Georgia has been published internationally, with her work appearing in publications such as Granta and The Independent Magazine in the UK.

appearing at...
347: Workshop: Writing Memoir with Georgia Blain
129: Australian Classics
160: Workshop: Writing Memoir with Georgia Blain
281: Australian Lives

CATE BLANCHETT (LOCAL)
Cate Blanchett is currently the Artistic Director and CEO of the Sydney Theatre Company with Andrew Upton. She is an internationally renowned actor, and a graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Art.

Cate has worked extensively in theatre in Australia with the Sydney Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company, South Australian Theatre Company, Malthouse Theatre, Belvoir Street Theatre, Griffin Theatre Company and La Mama Theatre.

Cate’s recent film work includes I’m Not There, Elizabeth The Golden Age, Notes on a Scandal, Babel, Little Fish, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and The Aviator.

She has received numerous awards including a Golden Globe Award and the Venice Film Festival’s Voulpi Cup for I’m Not There, an Academy Award and a SAG Award for her role in The Aviator, a BAFTA and a Golden Globe Award for her performance in Elizabeth and the Centenary Medal for Service to Australian Society through Acting.

Cate is an Ambassador for the Australian Film Institute and the Australian Conservation Foundation, and is a Patron of the Sydney Film Festival and of SolarAid. Cate was appointed to the Australian Museum Trust in 2007.

appearing at...
194: Patrick White Playwrights’ Award 2007

STEFAN MERRILL BLOCK (INTERNATIONAL)
Stefan Merrill Block grew up in Plano, Texas and graduated from Washington University in St Louis in 2004. Block is 25 years old and lives in Brooklyn, New York. The Story of Forgetting is his first novel.

www.stefanmerrillblock.com

appearing at...
156: When Words and Science Meet
193: The Big Reading
217: Memory
278: Stefan Merrill Block in Conversation

MERLINDA BOBIS (LOCAL)
Merlinda Bobis has received various awards, prizes and fellowships for her fiction, poetry and plays.

Her poetry book Summer was a Fast Train Without Terminals was shortlisted for The Age Poetry Book Award. Her plays have been performed in Australia, The Philippines, France, China, Thailand and the Slovak Republic.

Banana Heart Summer was her first novel and was shortlisted for the Australian Literary Society Gold Medal. The Solemn Lantern Maker is her second novel.

As a performer for stage and radio, Merlinda works with artists from various genres and she lectures in creative writing at the University of Wollongong.

www.merlindabobis.com.au

appearing at...
102: Grit
159: Small Stories, Big Politics
314: Salu-Salo: in Conversation with Filipino-Australian Writers

JAMES BOYCE (INTERSTATE)
James Boyce lives in Hobart. A former social worker, he completed a PhD at the Centre for Environmental Studies at UTAS in 2006, where he is now an honorary research associate.

He was a major contributor to the ‘history wars’ and provided the lead essay in Whitewash: On Keith Windschuttle’s Fabrication of Aboriginal History, which was short-listed in the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards.

His latest book, Van Diemen’s Land has been acclaimed for moving beyond the history wars into the complex human story of how convict settlers related to the new land and its indigenous inhabitants.

appearing at...
91: New Insights in Australian History
133: Paradise Lost
157: Van Diemen’s Land

PETER BOYLE (LOCAL)
Peter Boyle’s four collections of poetry have won many honours including the National Book Council Award twice. His most recent book is The Museum of Space.
www.australia.poetryinternationalweb.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/index.php?obj_id=9721

appearing at...
64: The Sydney Readings: Urban Stories I

SALLY BREEN (INTERSTATE)
Dr Sally Breen is Associate Editor of Griffith REVIEW. She lectures in creative writing and contemporary arts at Griffith University.

Her doctoral thesis explored creativity in new cities. Her work has appeared widely in newspapers, journals and collections including The Age, The Australian, The Courier Mail, Griffith REVIEW, Wet Ink, Media International Australia and Best Australian Stories 2007.

appearing at...
92: Cities on the Edge

BERNADETTE BRENNAN (LOCAL)
Bernadette Brennan is a lecturer of Australian literature at the University of Sydney, where she also gained her PhD in 2001. She was awarded the Eva Veronika Vidak Memorial Prize for the best thesis on an Australian topic.

Bernadette’s research interest is in the field of literature and ethics. She has been published widely in Australian Literary Studies, JASAL, Southerly, Antipodes and The Round Table. She has co-edited JASAL and Southerly and is on the editorial board for Studies in Australasian Cinema.

Bernadette is currently working on a critical study of Brian Castro’s writing.

appearing at...
67: Just Words: Australian Authors Writing for Justice

FRANK BRENNAN (LOCAL)
Frank Brennan is a palliative care physician who has contributed to Sweet Sorrow.

appearing at...
62: Dying Words

FRANK BRENNAN SJ, AO (LOCAL)
Frank Brennan SJ, AO, a Jesuit priest and lawyer, was made an Officer of the Order of Australia for his services to Aboriginal Australians. His latest book is Acting on Conscience.

appearing at...
67: Just Words: Australian Authors Writing for Justice

ANNA BROINOWSKI (LOCAL)
Anna Broinowski is an Australian Film Institute award winning director and NIDA acting graduate who has been making films since 1995. Her documentaries and shorts (which include Helen’s War, Sexing the Label and Hell Bento!!) have won numerous awards in Australia and overseas including three AFIs, two Australian Film Critics’ Awards, the Al Jazeera International Film Festival ‘Golden Award’, the San Francisco International Film Festival Golden Gate Special Jury prize and the 2007 Rome Film Festival ‘Cult’ prize. Prior to filmmaking, Anna was a playwright and actress, winning the 1996 NSW Premier’s Literary prize for her play The Gap. Forbidden Lie$, her documentary about literary hoaxer Norma Khouri, won the 2008 Script Writing Prize. Anna is now developing a slate of drama and documentary feature films.

appearing at...
45: Readings from the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards
345: Fact, Fiction or Fake?

DAVID BROOKS (LOCAL)
David Brooks was born in Canberra, though he spent his earliest years in Greece and Yugoslavia. He attended school in Canberra and in Cleveland, Ohio.

His first collection of poetry, The Cold Front was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Prize and won the Anne Elder Award. His first collection of short fiction, The Book of Sei, was heralded by the Nation Review as the most impressive debut in Australian short fiction since Peter Carey’s The Fat Man in History.

His critically acclaimed first novel, The House of Balthus was shortlisted for the National Book Award. His third collection of short fiction, Black Sea, was published in 1997. He has co-edited Southerly since 2000.

Travelling and lecturing in Canada, the USA, England, France and China, he wrote much of the first draft of The Fern Tattoo late at night in hotel rooms and borrowed accommodations.

He lives for a part of each year in a village in Istria. For the rest of his time he is Associate Professor of Australian literature and Director of the Postgraduate Writing Program at the University of Sydney.

In 2008 he will publish a fourth collection of poetry, The Balcony, and The Golden Boat.

appearing at...
79: Secrets and Lies
137: The Sydney Readings: Urban Stories II
177: David Brooks in Conversation
245: From Poetry to Prose

WIBKE BRUHNS (INTERNATIONAL)
Wibke Bruhns was born in 1938 in Halberstadt. She has worked as a journalist in both TV and print and as a TV presenter and news reader. She has worked as a correspondent for Stern magazine in the US and Israel and headed the culture section at one of Germany’s largest radio stations, ORB. She has two grown-up daughters and now lives and works as a freelance writer in Berlin.

Wibke Bruhns’ participation in Sydney Writers’ Festival 2008 is supported by The Goethe-Institut.

appearing at...
80: Private Lives, Public Histories
199: Wibke Bruhns in Conversation
328: Remembering Parents

MEREDITH BURGMANN (LOCAL)
Meredith Burgmann was an early feminist and anti-racism activist, an academic and MP. She was President of the NSW Upper House and has written two books.

appearing at...
12: The Ernies Book
292: Women in Politics

J C BURKE (LOCAL)
J.C. Burke has written a number of acclaimed books for teenagers and young adults, including Nine Letters Long, The Story of Tom Brennan and Faking Sweet, and CBCA Notable Books White Lies and The Red Cardigan.

The Story of Tom Brennan won the 2006 CBCA Book of the Year (Older Readers), and the 2006 Australian Family Therapists Award for Children’s Literature. It has recently been added to the NSW HSC syllabus list. Her latest book is Starfish Sisters.
www.jcburke.com.au

appearing at...
20: Secondary School Days – Parramatta
35: Secondary School Days – Sydney

JOANNE BURNS (LOCAL)
Joanne Burns is a Sydney poet. Her recent book Footnotes of a Hammock was joint winner of the 2005 ACT Arts Judith Wright Poetry Prize for a published collection by an Australian poet.

She is currently the recipient of an Australia Council writing grant. A new collection of her poetry An Illustrated History of Diaries, was published late last year by Giramondo Publishing Company.

appearing at...
137: The Sydney Readings: Urban Stories II

JOHN BURNSIDE (INTERNATIONAL)
John Burnside was born on 19 March 1955 in Dunfermline, Scotland. He studied English and European languages at Cambridge College of Arts and Technology. A former computer software engineer, he has been a freelance writer since 1996.

He is a former Writer in Residence at Dundee University and now teaches at the University of St Andrews.

His first collection of poetry, The Hoop, was published in 1988 and won a Scottish Arts Council Book Award. Other poetry collections include Common Knowledge, Feast Days, winner of the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, and The Asylum Dance, winner of the Whitbread Poetry Award and short listed for both the Forward Poetry Prize (Best Poetry Collection of the Year) and the T.S. Eliot Prize. The Light Trap was also short listed for the T.S. Eliot Prize.

Burnside is also the author of a collection of short stories, Burning Elvis, and several novels, including The Dumb House, The Mercy Boys and The Locust Room, which is set in Cambridge in 1975, and explores the consequences of a series of violent rapes.

His novel, Living Nowhere, is a powerful and violent story of friendship and loss. His poetry collection, The Good Neighbour, was short listed for the 2005 Forward Poetry Prize (Best Collection.)

His latest collection of poetry is Gift Songs and his latest novel is The Devil's Footprints.

appearing at...
15: Poetry Outloud
24: A Lie About My Father: John Burnside in Conversation
77: Sins of the Father
99: Poetry International
228: The Poetics of Ecology
258: John Burnside in Conversation
266: Missing Children

CAROLINE BUTLER-BOWDON (LOCAL)
Caroline Butler-Bowdon began her museum career as Curatorial Services Coordinator at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1995 where she worked on a range of management, administrative and curatorial tasks. She then joined the Museum of Sydney, a property of the Historic Houses Trust of NSW, as Curator in 1998.

Her work centres specifically on heritage sites of Sydney and more generally on architecture, urbanism and Sydney's history. In 1998 she co-curated The Sydney Opera House Story for the Sydney Opera House Trust and in 1999, Art Deco – Discover the style of the city at the Museum of Sydney. In 2001 she co-curated, Federation Sydney – 1880-1910 at the Museum of Sydney and in 2001/2, Leunig Animated.

Caroline has also developed the Debating the City series of conferences at the Museum of Sydney, which has resulted in the recent publication, Debating the City: an anthology, co-edited with Jennifer Barrett.

appearing at...
50: Is There Hope in Sydney?
240: What Makes a House Iconic?

SAM BYFIELD (LOCAL)
Sam Byfield, born in Newcastle in 1981, is the author of From the Middle Kingdom.

He has been published or is forthcoming in magazines including Heat and LiNQ, The National Poetry Review, The Cream City Review, Meridian, and Diner, Nimesis and in many online magazines including The Pedestal Magazine, Foam-e and Divan.

He currently works for a public health/environment NGO in southwest China.

appearing at...
107: Launch: Poetry Without Borders (Picaro Press)