Sydney Writers' Festival

DAVID DALE (LOCAL)
David Dale trained in clinical psychology but decided he would do less harm to the cause of mental health if he went into journalism. He has been a political reporter for The Australian, New York correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald, editor of The Bulletin and breakfast broadcaster with ABC radio. His books include The 100 Things Everyone Needs to Know About Italy, Who We Are – a snapshot of Australia today and Essential Places.

He is the co-author of Soffritto – A Ligurian Memoir with Lucio Galletto.

appearing at...
27: Soffritto: Lunch at Lucio’s

JOSE DALISAY JR (INTERNATIONAL)
Jose Dalisay Jr. has won awards and prizes for his fiction, poetry, drama, nonfiction and screenplays, including 16 Palanca Awards. Soledad’s Sister was shortlisted for the Man Asia Prize.

Jose Dalisay Jr.’s participation in Sydney Writers’ Festival is supported by the Philippine Consulate General.
homepage.mac.com/jdalisay

appearing at...
269: Spotlight on Asia
316: Cultures Intertwined: Junot Díaz and Jose Dalisay

ROWENA DANZIGER (LOCAL)
Rowena Danziger is a Sydney Writers’ Festival board memer. She was headmistress of Ascham School from 1973 to 2003. She has been a Member of the Board of Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL) since 1997 and is a Director of Crown. She is currently Chairman of the Art Gallery Foundation, has been a Director of Opera Australia since 1989 and was Chairman of the Board from 2001 to 2003.

appearing at...
230: Life In His Hands
280: Don Watson’s American Journey

DAVID DAVIDAR (INTERNATIONAL)
David Davidar is President and Publisher of Penguin Books Canada. Additionally, he is a director on the board of Penguin India. Before he was transferred to Toronto in January 2004, he was Group CEO of Pearson India.

Davidar began his publishing career in his mid twenties as one of the founding members of Penguin India. Penguin India is now Asia’s largest English language consumer publishing house, publishing over 200 new books a year. The Penguin India list includes some of the best known Indian authors (and authors who write about India) in the world.

Before he came to Penguin, Davidar was a magazine editor in Bombay, editing one of India’s largest English language magazines.

David Davidar obtained his BSc from Madras University and has a diploma in publishing from Harvard University. He has also attended senior management programmes at INSEAD and the Indian Institute of Management.

His first novel, The House of Blue Mangoes, was published around the world and was translated into 16 languages and sold over 100,000 copies. It featured on the Amazon Hot 100 list and was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and a Booksense ‘76 pick. His second novel, The Solitude of Emperors, was published in 2007 and was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize.

appearing at...
341: From Pen to Reader
84: Tales of Obsession
100: David Davidar in Conversation
269: Spotlight on Asia

ROBYN DAVIDSON (LOCAL)
Robyn Davidson is a multi-award winning Australian author. She was born in 1950, on a cattle property in outback Queensland.

In 1977, she travelled alone with camels across 1700 miles of Australian desert. The story of that journey was first published in National Geographic and later became the book Tracks which was subsequently translated into 16 languages and was a bestseller in 10 counties. Robyn is the only women to win travel literature’s prestigious Thomas Cook Travel Book Award.

Robyn’s other books include Travelling Light, a collection of essays, Ancestors and Desert Places which chronicles the two years she spent travelling through North West India with a caste of pastoral nomads.

She is presently working on a fictionalised memoir and a book and series of documentary films on the fate of traditional forms of nomadism in the modern world. Her essay 'Beyond the refuge of numbers' is published in Griffith REVIEW 20: Cities on the Edge.

appearing at...
146: Women Going Bush
182: The Monthly Third Birthday Celebration

LUKE DAVIES (LOCAL)
Luke Davies is the author of three novels, God of Speed, Isabelle the Navigator and the cult bestseller Candy, which was shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Literary Awards in 1998. Candy has since been published in Britain and the US and translated into German, Spanish, Hebrew and French. A film version, starring Heath Ledger, was released in 2006 and won the AFI for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Davies was awarded the Philip Hodgins Memorial Medal for Poetry in 2004. He has published five books of poetry, including Running With Light which was the winner of the Judith Wright Poetry Prize 2000, and Totem, which won the 2004 Age Book of the Year.

appearing at...
108: Writers as Readers
188: The Art of Adaptation
223: Luke Davies in Conversation
250: Under the Influence

SHAUN DAVIES (LOCAL)
Shaun Davies is a co-founder of non-generic productions.

appearing at...
191: When Is War Justified? The Friday Night Salon

CRISTYN DAVIES (LOCAL)
Cristyn Davies is a writer and editor working in research at the University of Western Sydney. She is the curator and editor of trope.

appearing at...
70: trope: Promoting New Writing in Second Life

GREGORY DAY (INTERSTATE)
Gregory Day is a writer, poet and musician whose debut novel The Patron Saint Of Eels won the prestigious Australian Literature Society Gold Medal in 2006.

Gregory's previous books include Trace (in collaboration with photographer Robert Ashton). His CDs include The Black Tower: Songs from the Poetry of WB Yeats and The Flash Road: Scenes From The Building of the Great Ocean Road. His latest novel Ron McCoy’s Sea of Diamonds is a powerful meditation on belonging, on landscape, and on love.

appearing at...
131: Gregory Day in Conversation
147: The Earth That Sustains Us
272: The Soundtrack of My Life

SAM DE BRITO (LOCAL)
Sam de Brito was born in 1969. He has spent almost 20 years writing for TV, film and newspapers. His Sydney Morning Herald blog, All Men are Liars, expounds on the business of being a bloke, while his first book, No Tattoos Before You're Thirty, offers advice to his unborn children. The Lost Boys is his first novel.

appearing at...
254: Pornstars, Princesses and Lost Boys

MICHELLE DE KRETSER (LOCAL)
Michelle de Kretser was born in Sri Lanka and emigrated to Australia when she was 14. She was educated in Melbourne and Paris. Michelle has worked as a university tutor, an editor and a book reviewer. She is the author of two other novels, The Rose Grower and The Hamilton Case. Her most recent novel, The Lost Dog, won the 2008 Christina Stead Prize for Fiction and the Book of the Year.

appearing at...
45: Readings from the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards
139: Family Matters
211: Readings from the 2008 Commonwealth Prize Shortlist
247: Michelle de Kretser in Conversation with Gail Jones

JIM DEMETRIOU (LOCAL)
Jim Demetriou has over 14 years experience in book publishing. Over that time Jim has worked in various sales and marketing roles and is currently the Marketing Director at HarperCollins – one of Australia’s leading trade publishers. HarperCollins worldwide has been at the forefront of exploring ways in which to take advantage of delivering content in the digital age and Jim oversees the local digital strategy.

appearing at...
344: The Future of Reading

CHRISTY DENA (LOCAL)
Christy Dena has been working as an industry strategist, mentor, designer and PhD researcher in cross-media entertainment. She has provided advice and presentations on multi-platform storytelling, gaming and marketing to Nokia Finland, Australia Council for the Arts, Film Australia, Center for Screen Business, AFTRS, ABC, dLux Media Arts, ACT Filmmakers Network, IGDA Brisbane and the Web Standards Group.

appearing at...
219: Cutting Edge: Matt Costello in Conversation

RON DENHOLM (LOCAL)
Ron Denholm is a lead trainer with the Plain English Foundation, which combines plain English training, editing and evaluation with a public campaign for clearer public language.

Ron studied classical languages and history, including Latin, Greek and Aramaic, and has a Master of Arts from Macquarie University. He has run professional training programs in both the public and private sectors, in organisations as diverse as Sanity Virgin Entertainment and the Office of State Revenue. The writing program he devised for the Australian Federal Police was recognised with a Commissioner’s commendation.

appearing at...
21: Workshop: The Challenge of Plain English with Ron Denholm

TERRY DENTON (INTERSTATE)
Terry Denton illustrates and writes children's books. His work is well known to kids through books such as his Storymaze comic novel series, the Gasp! series, the Just! series and the The Bad Book with Andy Griffiths.

He has also worked with Paul Jennings and Ted Greenwood, Mem Fox, Gillian Rubinstein, Andrew Daddo, Archie Fusillo and many other wonderful Australian authors.

He has won more than 20 children's choice awards throughout Australia and been short-listed many times in the Children's Book Council of Australia awards. His book Felix and Alexander won Picture Book of the Year in 1986.

appearing at...
8: Primary School Days – Parramatta
23: Primary School Days – Sydney
44: Terry Denton at Newcastle Region Library

ANNE DEVESON (LOCAL)
Anne Deveson AO is a writer, broadcaster and documentary film-maker with a long involvement in social justice issues.

appearing at...
78: Growing Old Disgracefully

SADANAND DHUME (INTERNATIONAL)
Sadanand Dhume, a journalist and writer, is a Bernard Schwartz Fellow at the Asia Society in Washington, DC, where he researches and writes about transnational Islam.

Dhume lived in Jakarta from 2000 to 2004. Between 2000 and 2003 he was a full-time correspondent of the Far Eastern Economic Review and The Wall Street Journal. His articles and op-eds on South and Southeast Asia have also been published in Foreign Policy, The Australian and Canada’s The National Post among others.

He has spoken extensively in Asia and America, and has been interviewed by the BBC (TV and radio), CNBC, VOA and ABC radio. He has a Master’s degree in international relations from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, a Master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University, and a Bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Delhi.

His latest book is, My Friend the Fanatic, a book of travel and memoir that traces the rise of radical Islam in Indonesia.
www.dhume.net

appearing at...
81: My Friend the Fanatic
140: Fundamental Facts
166: Following the Big Issues

JUNOT DIAZ (INTERNATIONAL)
Junot Díaz was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He is a graduate of Rutgers University and received his Master of fine arts degree from Cornell University. His collection of short stories, Drown, was described as "a dazzlingly talented first book" by Hermione Lee in the Independent on Sunday.

He teaches creative writing at Massachussetts Institute of Technology. The critically acclaimed The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is his first novel. It recently won the Pulitzer prize for fiction.

www.junotdiaz.com

appearing at...
193: The Big Reading
224: Junot Díaz in Conversation with Ramona Koval
316: Cultures Intertwined: Junot Díaz and Jose Dalisay
330: Closing Address: Junot Díaz

CHERIE DIMALINE (INTERNATIONAL)
Cherie Dimaline is a Native Canadian writer from the Metis community of Ontario. She has held many jobs including magician’s assistant, museum curator and executive director.

Her creative work has been featured in national magazines and sought after for diverse anthologies. Her first book, Red Rooms debuted in 2007 and received positive accolades from both Aboriginal and mainstream audiences, culminating in its receiving the Fiction Book of the Year Award at the Anskohk Literary Festival.

Since its release, Red Rooms continues to find its way onto college and university reading lists and into libraries and schools internationally. Cherie lives in Toronto, Canada with her partner and their three children. She is the editor of Spirit, an indigenous arts and culture magazine and is at work on her second book.

appearing at...
102: Grit
244: Writing Black

BARRY DIVOLA (LOCAL)
Barry Divola is the author of Fanclub, Searching For Kingly Critter, M Is For Metal (with Paul McNeil) and The Secret Life Of Backpackers. Barry has been receiving hate mail from hardline music fans since 1992, when he became the first music critic at Who magazine, a position he still holds. He is also a senior writer for Rolling Stone, a columnist and writer for the(sydney)magazine, and a freelance contributor to The Sydney Morning Herald, Sunday Life and Madison in Australia, and Entertainment Weekly in the US. Barry won the Banjo Paterson Award for short fiction for three years in a row, for his stories “Nipple” (2004), “Cicada Boy” (2005) and “Nixon” (2006). He’s not sure what happened in 2007, but is demanding a recount. His next book (co-written with illustrator Paul McNeil) is out later this year - it’s the sequel to M Is For Metal, and is called Never Mind Your P’s And Q’s: Here’s The Punk Alphabet.

appearing at...
138: The Secret Life of Backpackers
286: Enjoy the Trip

PATRICK DODSON (INTERSTATE)
Patrick Dodson is a Yawuru man born in Broome in Western Australia, raised in Katherine in the Northern Territory and educated at Monivae College in Victoria's western districts. He is one of the country's most respected Aboriginal leaders.

After studying for the Roman Catholic priesthood he was ordained and worked for a number of years with the church in the Northern Territory. He subsequently left the priesthood to work for the Central Land Council in Alice Springs. In 1989 he was appointed as a Royal Commissioner into Deaths in Custody. At the completion of the Royal Commission he returned to work with land issues as the Director of the Kimberley Land Council before being appointed as the Chairperson of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation.

Patrick is married with a son and a daughter and continues to live in Broome where he is involved in issues relating to the maintenance of Yawuru culture and language.

appearing at...
51: Liyarn Ngarn

GERALDINE DOOGUE (LOCAL)
Geraldine Doogue is a renowned journalist, author and broadcaster. She presents Compass on ABC TV, Saturday Extra on ABC Radio National and has won two Penguin Awards and a United Nations Media Peace Prize.

appearing at...
45: Readings from the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards
312: Sunday Afternoon Tea and Readings

SEAN DORNEY (LOCAL)
Sean Dorney is the Pacific Correspondent for Australia Network. One of the ABC's most experienced and respected correspondents, he is an acknowledged authority on Papua New Guinea and is the author of two books on PNG affairs. Sean lived and worked in Papua New Guinea for almost 20 years. Sean's first book, Papua New Guinea - People, Politics and History Since 1975 was published in 1990. His book on the Sandline crisis - The Sandline Affair - was published in 1998. In 2000 Sean completed a two-part television documentary marking the 25th anniversary of PNG independence and spanning his own quarter of a century involvement with the country. Sean won the Walkley Award for Radio News Reporting for his coverage of the tsunami that struck PNG in July 1998.

appearing at...
10: The Authority to Tell a Story

KERRIE DOUGHERTY (LOCAL)
Kerrie Dougherty is the Powerhouse Museum Curator Space Technology and has co-written books including two Star Wars reference books and a Dr. Who guidebook.

appearing at...
304: Talks After Noon: Phoenix Mission to Mars

URSULA DUBOSARSKY (LOCAL)
Ursula Dubosarsky is a multi-award winning novelist and one of Australia's finest writers for children.

She was born in Sydney in 1961. After studying several languages at university, she taught French to primary school children. She then travelled to Israel where she spent one of her most memorable years on a kibbutz.

Since 1989, Ursula has published many award-winning books including The White Guinea-Pig, The First Book of Samuel, High Hopes, Abyssinia and The Red Shoe. Her work is recognised overseas as well as in Australia. The Cambridge Guide to Children's Books in English describes her as "one of the most original voices in Australian writing for young people".

Her latest book is The Word Spy.
www.ursuladubosarsky.com

appearing at...
20: Secondary School Days – Parramatta
35: Secondary School Days – Sydney
274: The Word Spy with Ursula Dubosarsky

VIRGINIA DUIGAN (LOCAL)
Virginia Duigan wrote the screenplay of the 1998 movie The Leading Man, starring Jon Bon Jovi, Thandie Newton and Barry Humphries.

Before becoming a novelist, Duigan worked as a journalist, broadcaster, editor and TV scriptwriter. She was a regular feature writer on The National Times, and contributed documentaries to ABC radio. She was a freelance contributor to The Bulletin, The Age, The Australian, The Financial Review, Cinema Papers, and in London to the The Observer and The Times. She was Literary Editor of The National Times, and a theatre, book, film and restaurant reviewer. She has been a book and ABC TV script editor, and also a feature film script assessor for the Australian Film Commission.

The Biographer is her second novel. Her first novel, Days Like These was published in 2001 and was re-issued in paperback this year.

appearing at...
79: Secrets and Lies
151: The Voyeurism of Biography