Sydney Writers' Festival

MICHELLE CAHILL (LOCAL)
Michelle Cahill writes poetry and fiction. Her first collection The Accidental Cage was short-listed in the Judith Wright Poetry Prize and commended in The Sydney Morning Herald’s Best Poetry Books. She is the editor of Poetry Without Borders. Michelle has presented papers on migrant writing at University of Queensland and at Flinders University. She is the founding co-editor of Mascara Poetry which aims to promote diversity in Australian poetry.

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

DEBORAH CAMERON (LOCAL)
Deborah Cameron’s career spans more than 25 years. One of Australia's leading journalists, she has worked in New York, Jakarta, Tokyo, and as of January this year, 702 ABC Sydney. Deborah is presenter of the Mornings program and looks forward to the year ahead and the many opportunities to connect with the stories and issues that drive the Sydney day.

appearing at...
322: The Battle for Bennelong

FRANK CAMORRA (INTERSTATE)
Frank Camorra was born in Barcelona and spent his first five years in Andalucia, before his parents migrated to Australia.

In 2000, Frank travelled throughout Spain and was inspired by both the modern and traditional aspects of Spanish cuisine. At his acclaimed and exceptionally popular Melbourne restaurant, MoVida, Frank was determined to share his discoveries and bring the tastes of his homeland to his adopted country.

MoVida captures Frank's recipes, both traditional and innovative, along with anecdotes about particular ingredients and cooking methods, personal stories and cultural and historical observations.

appearing at...
115: MoVida: Dinner at Danks Street Depot

EDMUND CAMPION (LOCAL)
Edmund Campion is a Catholic priest, writer, editor, literary judge and academic. A former Chair of the Literature Board of the Australia Council, he has been judge of most of the major Australian literary awards. His books include Rockchoppers, A Place in the City and Lines of My Life.

appearing at...
24: A Lie About My Father: John Burnside in Conversation
29: An Exacting Heart: The Hephzibah Menuhin Story

KEN CANNING (LOCAL)
Ken Canning, also known as Burraga Gutya, is Academic and Cultural Activities Officer at Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, University of Technology Sydney. He is the author of Ngali Ngalga (let's talk): poetry.

appearing at...
111: Celebrating the Voice 8 – Wollongong

JOSE WENDELL P. CAPILI (LOCAL)
Jose Wendell P. Capili earned his degrees from the University of Santo Tomas, University of the Philippines, University of Tokyo, the University of Cambridge and the Australian National University, where he completed his PhD at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies.

He is an Associate Professor at the University of the Philippines College of Arts and Letters where he is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Head of the Graduate Studies Office. He has received Palanca, Cultural Center of the Philippines and University of the Philippines prizes for literature as well as scholarships, grants and fellowships from the British, Japanese, Korean, Philippine, Malaysian and Australian governments.

Capili has four books A Madness of Birds, Bloom and Memory, Mabuhay to Beauty (as editor) and From the Editors: Migrant Communities and Emerging Australian Literature (as editor).

In 2005, he was a visiting scholar at the National University of Singapore, University of Sydney, University of Western Australia, University of Melbourne and the University of Queensland.

appearing at...
246: Writing for Performance with Pascal Daantos Berry
314: Salu-Salo: in Conversation with Filipino-Australian Writers

FIONA CAPP (INTERSTATE)
Fiona Capp was born in Melbourne in 1963. She trained as a journalist, has a PhD in English and has worked as a freelance writer and university tutor in English, journalism and novel writing at the University of Melbourne, La Trobe University and RMIT.

Her first book, Writers Defiled was shortlisted for the FAW Australian Unity Literature Award in 1993. Night Surfing, her first novel, was shortlisted for the 1997 Nita B. Kibble Awards and the Toulon Bookfair Awards.

Her second novel, Last of the Sane Days, was shortlisted for The Age Fiction Book of the Year and was nominated in Australia for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Musk and Byrne is her most recent novel.

Capp lives in Melbourne, with her partner and son.

appearing at...
135: Unlikely Love Stories
179: Families Through Generations
255: Artistic Passion

LUKE CARMAN (LOCAL)
Luke Carman has spent most of his life living atop a small mountain somewhere between Cabramatta and Liverpool. From here he has hurled forth fiction for several independent publications, most recently a contribution to Barbara Campbell’s 1001 Nights. Luke spends most of his time at the University of Western Sydney, as a member of the Writing and Society Research Group. There, under the supervision of Dr Anna Gibbs and Dr Maria Angel, his shameful obsessions with shame, place and identity are treated with the utmost dignity.

appearing at...
285: Westside at the Wharf

BOB CARR (LOCAL)
Bob Carr was Premier of New South Wales from 1995 to 2005. He grew up in Maroubra, attended the University of New South Wales, and worked as a journalist for the ABC and The Bulletin before being elected to the New South Wales seat of Maroubra in 1983.

Known for his oratory, for his environmentalism, and for his commitment to schooling and literacy, he launched the Premier’s Reading Challenge in 2001 and currently sits on the board of Dymocks. He is the author of Thoughtlines: Reflections of a Public Man, What Australia Means to Me and My Reading Life.

appearing at...
121: Simon Sebag Montefiore in Conversation with Bob Carr
187: Bob Carr’s Reading Life
214: Bob Carr in Conversation with Maxine McKew
257: The Lost Art of Oratory

TIM CARROLL (LOCAL)
Tim Carroll is the Director of Bankstown Youth Development Service. Over 17 years Tim has initiated over 70 arts and cultural projects with the people in the Bankstown area.

appearing at...
315: From Oral History to Contemporary Performance

MIKE CHAMPION (LOCAL)
Mike Champion is a singer/songwriter/crowd pleaser. He has rocked shows from Motown greats to ladies’ nights, through acoustic sets to interstate flights; an urban legend on the rise.

appearing at...
263: Hip Hop Projections 3

FELIX CHEONG (INTERNATIONAL)
Felix Cheong was the recipient of the National Arts Council’s Young Artist of the Year for Literature Award in 2000. He has published three books of poetry. He has also published a non-fiction book, Different, which includes interviews with more than 50 successful Singaporeans such as pop singer Kit Chan and entrepreneur Charles Wong.

His first work of teen fiction, The Call from Crying House is now being used as an English literature text in secondary schools. The sequel, Woman in the Last Carriage, was published in 2007. Felix’s creative work has been published extensively in newspapers, poetry journals and foreign journals.

A graduate of the National University of Singapore, Felix completed his Master of Philosophy in creative writing at the University of Queensland in 2002. He is currently an adjunct lecturer at LASALLE College of the Arts, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and Temasek Polytechnic. In addition, he’s a film critic with Today and a regular columnist with business weekly The Edge Singapore.

appearing at...
99: Poetry International
269: Spotlight on Asia

NIKKI CHRISTER (LOCAL)
Nikki Christer is Deputy Publishing Director at Random House Australia.

appearing at...
341: From Pen to Reader

WILL CHRISTIE (LOCAL)
Will Christie is an associate professor in the Department of English at the University of Sydney. His Samuel Taylor Coleridge: a Literary Life won the 2008 NSW Premier’s Prize for Literary Scholarship.

appearing at...
45: Readings from the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards

PHILIPPE CLAUDEL (INTERNATIONAL)
Philippe Claudel was born in 1962. After teaching French for a few years in a secondary school, he began working in specialised centres for children with motor disabilities. During this time he also taught cultural anthropology and literature at the University of Nancy II. His experience of teaching in a prison inspired the novel Le bruit des trousseaux.

His following novel Les Âmes grises was voted best book of the year 2003 by Lire magazine, awarded the Renaudot prize in 2003 and the Elle Readers’ Literary prize in 2004. It has been translated into 23 languages, and published in English as Grey Souls. In 2004, Philippe Claudel was asked by the French publisher Stock to edit a new collection consisting of four novels a year based around the theme of wine.

In September, an adaptation of Grey Souls will be released in French cinemas, co-starring Jacques Villeret, Marina Hands and Denis Podalydès.

Philippe Claudel’s participation is supported by the Embassy of France.

appearing at...
102: Grit
243: The Darker Side of Life
266: Missing Children

PAUL CLEARY (LOCAL)
Paul Cleary has worked as a journalist covering economic, social and tax policy for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Financial Review while based in Canberra Press Gallery for 10 years. He lived in Hanoi for two years, where he helped to establish the country’s first English language daily, while working as a correspondent and studying Vietnamese. After being awarded a Chevening Fellowship by the UK Foreign Office, he was appointed by the World Bank as an advisor to the Prime Minister of East Timor on the Timor Sea oil and gas negotiations.

Shakedown is a disturbing, behind-the-scenes account of the rapacious negotiations between the Australian government and the East Timorese during the carve-up of billion-dollar oil and gas under sea reserves. An openly biased, “insider’s” account that documents meticulously an unseemly chapter in Australian history.

appearing at...
309: Investigative Journalism

PETER COCHRANE (LOCAL)
Peter Cochrane is a freelance writer living in Sydney. His most recent book is Colonial Ambition: Foundations of Australian Democracy, winner of the 2007 Age Book of the Year and co-winner of the Inaugural Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History. His other books include Australians at War, Simpson and the Donkey and The Making of a Legend.

appearing at...
340: Stories from the Dustbin
273: Colonial Ambition: A Walking Tour of Old Sydney’s Political Sites

BERNARD COHEN (LOCAL)
Bernard Cohen is director of The Writing Workshop and has taught creative writing for 20 years. Author of five books, Bernard has won the Australian/Vogel Award, an Arts Council of England Writer's Award and is a three-time Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist.
www.writingworkshop.com.au

appearing at...
197: CBCA Writing Masterclass with Bernard Cohen

CATHERINE COLE (LOCAL)
Catherine Cole is Professor of Creative Writing and Chair of the RMIT University Creative Writing program.

She has published three novels, two non fiction books, poetry, short stories and essays. Her research explores creativity and the teaching of creative writing, particularly the ways in which memory and place have fashioned literary movements. She has extensive experience as a teacher of writing in a number of Australian universities. She has been a Writing and Research fellow at the University of East Anglia, UK, a resident of the Keesing Studio, Paris and an Asialink resident in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Her latest book is The Poet Who Forgot.
www.catherinecole.com.au

appearing at...
5: Workshop: Creativity, Memory and Place with Catherine Cole
335: Workshop: Creativity, Memory and Place with Catherine Cole
106: Remembering A.D. Hope and Patrick White
220: The Poet Who Forgot

FELICITY COLLINS (INTERSTATE)
Felicity Collins co-ordinates the Cinema Studies Program at La Trobe University and is the author of Australian Cinema After Mabo with Therese Davis.

appearing at...
47: Call Me Mum – Katoomba
113: Call Me Mum

MATTHEW CONDON (INTERSTATE)
Matthew Condon was born in Brisbane in 1962 and has lived in the UK, Germany and France.

His first book, The Motorcycle Cafe, was widely reviewed and praised, and was shortlisted for the 1989 NSW State Literary Award for Fiction. Usher and The Ancient Guild of Tycoons were both shortlisted for the NBC Banjo Award for Fiction (1992 and 1995).

A Night At The Pink Poodle and The Lulu Magnet won back-to-back Steele Rudd Awards for Short Fiction. The Trout Opera is his latest book.

appearing at...
46: Writers as Readers
96: Matthew Condon in Conversation with Mary Kostakidis
167: For Young and Old

AMY CORDEROY (LOCAL)
Amy Corderoy is a journalist and commentator who has been published in The Sydney Morning Herald, New Matilda and Interface. She is a radio broadcaster on FBi 94.5fm and has freelanced for 2ser and Triple J’s current affairs show Hack.
She presents a weekly radio show, Sunday School, which features a regular book review, comedy segments, and new music. She was also the editor of the FBi magazine.

Amy recently graduated from the University of Sydney where she edited the student newspaper Honi Soit and completed an Honours degree in political philosophy.

appearing at...
301: Creative Dissent

D M CORNISH (INTERSTATE)
D.M. Cornish’s early experiences with C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien convinced him that other worlds existed. By the time he was ready to publish his own story, he had filled 23 journals with pictures, definitions, ideas and histories of his world, the Half-Continent. It was not until 2003 that a chance encounter with a children’s publisher gave him an opportunity to develop these ideas further and bring Monster Blood Tattoo to life. Monster Blood Tattoo Book 1: Foundling was a 2007 CBCA Honour Book (Older Readers). Book 2: Lamplighter will be released in May 2008.
www.monsterbloodtattoo.com

appearing at...
20: Secondary School Days – Parramatta
31: Right Down to the Plumbing: Speculative Fiction and World-building
35: Secondary School Days – Sydney

SHADY COSGROVE (LOCAL)
Shady Cosgrove is a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Wollongong. Her manuscript She Played Elvis was shortlisted for the Australian/Vogel Prize last year and her work has appeared in Southerly, Overland, Antipodes and Best Australian Stories 2006.

appearing at...
49: An Evening with Debra Adelaide

MATT COSTELLO (INTERNATIONAL)
Matt Costello’s work includes innovative and critically acclaimed novels, games and television.

His novel Beneath Still Waters was recently filmed. His new suspense novel, Nowhere, was published in 2007. He also wrote Island of the Skull, an original prequel to Peter Jackson’s film, King Kong. Matt’s children’s books include the series The Kids of Einstein Elementary, and Magic Everywhere, as well as books on puzzles and games.

Matt has written for television for PBS, The Disney Channel, The Sci-Fi Channel, and the BBC among others. For the Disney Channel, Matt Costello co-created ZoogDisney, the groundbreaking on-air/online weekend programming bloc. He has scripted episodes of the hit children’s series, Cyberchase (PBS), and episodes of the innovative Priz Jeunesse award-wining Disney/BBC series Microsoap. Costello co-created The Sci-Fi Channel’s first original program, FTL News, which ran for over six years.

He has also scripted dozens of bestselling games including the critically acclaimed The 7th Guest, Doom 3, Just Cause, and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.

Matt regularly speaks around the world on story and interactivity.

Matt Costello’s participation in Sydney Writers’ Festival is supported by the Australia Council for the Arts.
www.mattcostello.com.

appearing at...
95: Writing for Young Adults
219: Cutting Edge: Matt Costello in Conversation

LLOYD COX (LOCAL)
Lloyd Cox is an academic at Macquarie University’s Department of Politics and International Relations.

appearing at...
218: Loretta Napoleoni in Conversation

PENNY CRASWELL (LOCAL)
Penny Craswell began a professional writing diploma after completing her BA but gave up when she realised that, rather than writing articles for her lecturer, she could go out and write stories for an editor.

While working full time, she researched and pitched stories to editors on the weekends. Thanks to a number of arts articles in The Sydney Morning Herald, Artlink, Art and Australia, Lino, and more, in 2005, Penny won an emerging writers grant from the Australia Council for the Arts as an arts writer. She completed an internship at interior design magazine Frame in Amsterdam. Penny is now assistant editor of Indesign magazine.

appearing at...
4: Workshop: Freelance Writing for Magazines with Penny Craswell
339: Workshop: Freelance Writing for Magazines with Penny Craswell

PETER CRAVEN (INTERSTATE)
Peter Craven is one of Australia's best known literary and culture critics. He writes for The Age, The Australian, The Australian Financial Review, The Australian Literary Review and The Monthly, on subjects ranging from Shakespeare and Homer to Shane Maloney and Desperate Housewives.

Peter Craven’s participation in Sydney Writers’ Festival is supported by Overland magazine.

appearing at...
170: The Overland Debate: The Future of Australian Fiction
228: The Poetics of Ecology
321: A Tribute to Andrea Stretton

KATE CRAWFORD (LOCAL)
Kate Crawford is a commentator, journalist and academic. She has worked extensively as a journalist in the US and Australia (including The Sydney Morning Herald and New York-based The 451), was the presenter of ABC TV series SET and is a regular cultural commentator for ABC radio.

She works in the Journalism and Media Research Centre at the University of NSW. She's also an internationally recognised electronic musician and composer, and is known for her work in groups such as B(if)tek and Clone. Her latest book, Adult Themes, won the individual category of the Manning Clark House National Cultural Awards in 2006.
www.katecrawford.net

appearing at...
50: Is There Hope in Sydney?
327: Imagined Futures

CHRISTINE CREMEN (LOCAL)
Christine Cremen is a critic who reads and reviews crime fiction when not writing about and watching film and TV. She is currently working on a book about Australian women’s crime fiction.

appearing at...
171: Thrilling Tales
208: Mo Hayder in Conversation
235: Murder Most Innovative
266: Missing Children
324: Lee Tulloch in Conversation

SIMON CRITCHLEY (INTERNATIONAL)
Simon Critchley is Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York. He is the author of many books, most recently Infinitely Demanding. His latest book, The Book of Dead Philosophers, is currently being translated into six languages.

Simon Critchley’s participation in Sydney Writers’ Festival is supported by Melbourne University Publishing.

appearing at...
57: What’s the Big Idea?
104: Dead Philosophers
169: The Great Beyond

SOPHIE CUNNINGHAM (LOCAL)
Sophie Cunningham worked in publishing for 15 years as an editor of fiction and non-fiction and as a publisher at McPhee Gribble/Penguin 1992-1994 and Allen & Unwin 1994-2003.

She was a television columnist for The Age for three years from 2002. Her first novel was Geography and her second, Bird, comes out in June. She is working on a third, This Devastating Fever, which is 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.

appearing at...
129: Australian Classics
231: Motherlove

MEREDITH CURNOW (LOCAL)
Meredith Curnow left the Sydney Writers’ Festival in 2002, after 5 years at the helm, to join Random House Australia where she is now the Vintage and Knopf publisher.

appearing at...
102: Grit