Sydney Writers' Festival

VRASIDAS KARALIS (LOCAL)
Vrasidas Karalis is an Associate Professor in Modern Greek Studies with the University of Sydney. He has published extensively in the area of Greek, European, comparative and translation studies. He is the president of the Modern Greek Studies Association and of the Sydney Society of Literature and Aesthetics and the editor of their annual journals. He has translated two novels by Patrick White into Greek (Voss and The Vivisector) and he is writing a monograph on his work.

His books include monographs on Nikos Kazantzakis, medieval historiography, modern artistic movements and contemporary literature. He is currently editing a volume on Martin Heidegger.

Recollections of Mr Lascaris will be launched at SWF.

appearing at...
106: Remembering A.D. Hope and Patrick White
325: Launch: Recollections of Mr Manoly Lascaris

GAYLE KENNEDY (LOCAL)
Gayle Kennedy was born in Ivanhoe NSW. She is a member of the Wongaiibon Clan of the Ngiyaampaa-speaking Nation of South West NSW. Her stories have been published in newspapers and magazines and broadcast on radio. She was also the Indigenous issues writer and researcher for Streetwize Comics from 1995 to 1998.

She has spoken in Australia and internationally on the issue of disability and culture and her presence is highly demanded at literary events and workshops. She has lived and worked in Sydney since 1973.

appearing at...
86: Gayle Kennedy at Liverpool Library
244: Writing Black
311: Gayle Kennedy in Conversation

ROY ‘DOOTCH’ KENNEDY (LOCAL)
Roy ‘Dootch’ Kennedy is well known for his work promoting understanding and respect for Aboriginal cultural heritage in the Illawarra.

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

JACQUELINE KENT (LOCAL)
Jacqueline Kent was born in Sydney and grew up there and in Adelaide. Originally trained as a journalist and radio broadcaster, she has worked as a book editor and reviewer and has a doctorate of creative arts from the University of Technology Sydney.

She is the author of two general social histories and six books of fiction for young adults. Her biography A Certain Style: Beatrice Davis, A Literary Life won the 2002 National Biography Award and the Nita B. Kibble Award. She lives in Sydney.

Her latest book, An Exacting Heart is the extraordinary story of a complex and contradictory woman. In telling Hephzibah Menuhin’s story, Jacqueline examines the consequences of possessing great talent, as well as the costs and rewards of gambling for high emotional stakes.

appearing at...
29: An Exacting Heart: The Hephzibah Menuhin Story
151: The Voyeurism of Biography
242: Writing Lives
307: Set to Music

PETER KIRKPATRICK (LOCAL)
Peter Kirkpatrick teaches at the University of Sydney. He is the author of The Sea Coast of Bohemia: Literary Life in Sydney’s Roaring Twenties and has edited the autobiography of the 'twenties Queen', Dulcie Deamer. He has written two books of poetry, the most recent of which is Westering.

appearing at...
232: The Sydney Readings: City Without End

ANDY KISSANE (LOCAL)
Andy Kissane has lived in Sydney for 20 years and written extensively about Marrickville and the inner west. He has published two books of poetry, Facing the Moon and Every Night They Dance. A new collection, Bread, will be published in 2008. He teaches creative writing at the University of New South Wales.

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

IAN KLAUS (INTERNATIONAL)
Ian Klaus was born in 1978 in California and was educated in Andover and Oxford, where he studied under Niall Ferguson as a Rhodes Scholar. He lives in New York and Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In early 2005, he lectured in American history and English at Salahaddin University in Arbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region of Iraq. He has written from Afghanistan and Iraq, and continues to return to the Kurdistan region. Elvis is Titanic is his first book.

Ian Klaus’ participation in Sydney Writers’ Festival is supported by UWA Press.

appearing at...
222: In Search of a Story
306: American Dreaming
329: Ian Klaus in Conversation

RYAN KNIGHTON (INTERNATIONAL)
Ryan Knighton completed a BA (Hons) in English at Simon Fraser University in Canada and then, after teaching in South Korea for a year, began his MA, again at SFU, completing it in 1998.

He is a published poet, fiction writer and journalist and has taught contemporary literature, pop-culture, rhetoric and creative writing. He is also the author of Swing in the Hollow and co-authored Cars with George Bowering, Canada’s first poet laureate.

Ryan is in the final stage before total blindness. His most recent book is Cockeyed: A Memoir.

Ryan Knighton’s participation in Sydney Writers’ Festival is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.
www.ryanknighton.com

appearing at...
59: Not Another Misery Memoir...
164: Ryan Knighton in Conversation
185: As Slow As Possible

MALCOLM KNOX (LOCAL)
Malcolm Knox is the author of three novels, Jamaica, Summerland and A Private Man. Formerly literary editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, Malcolm broke the Norma Khouri hoax, for which he was awarded a Walkley Award. He is also the author of Secrets of the Jury Room. He lives in Sydney.
www.malcolmknox.com.au

appearing at...
14: A Fraction of the Whole: Steve Toltz in Conversation
79: Secrets and Lies
345: Fact, Fiction or Fake?
175: Bound to the Track
207: But I Don’t Like You

SARA KNOX (LOCAL)
Sara Knox is the author of Murder: a Tale of Modern American Life, and teaches cultural history and creative writing at the University of Western Sydney. The Orphan Gunner is her first novel; it was shortlisted for the 2008 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for First Book.

appearing at...
70: trope: Promoting New Writing in Second Life
94: Love and War
118: Sara Knox at Newtown Library
211: Readings from the 2008 Commonwealth Prize Shortlist

ELENA KNOX (LOCAL)
Elena Knox makes work across text, video, sound, installation and performance. She has contributed to the curation, conceptual design and sonic topography of trope.

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

ANDY KO (LOCAL)
Andy Ko is a tutor and teacher's aide in drama for ESL students at Fairfield Intensive English Centre. In 2007, Andy presented two of his works of writing at Sydney Writers’ Festival.

Andy is a Fairfield resident and is committed to furthering his work in facilitating the arts in local educational and community settings. As both a performer and writer, Andy possesses a highly sophisticated standard of writing and understanding of sound and language and transcends this through his poetry and short stories. He is a contributor to Westside.

appearing at...
285: Westside at the Wharf

THOMAS KOHNSTAMM (INTERNATIONAL)
Thomas Kohnstamm became one of Lonely Planet’s most sought-after writers after the success of the first book he worked on, Lonely Planet Brazil. He spent the next two-and-a-half years on the road and has been involved with almost every one of their Latin American books in some capacity.

Thomas has been interviewed by The New York Times and written travel articles for The Miami Herald, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle and The Denver Post. He currently lives in Seattle.

Do Travel Writers Go To Hell? is his first book.

Thomas Kohnstamm’s participation in Sydney Writers’ Festival is supported by Murdoch Books.
www.thomaskohnstamm.com

appearing at...
38: Workshop: Approaches to Place with Thomas Kohnstamm
176: Traveller’s Tales
248: Brazil
286: Enjoy the Trip

MARY KOSTAKIDIS (LOCAL)
Mary Kostakidis was a member of the management team that set up SBS television in 1980. She subsequently presented the public broadcaster’s main evening national World News bulletin for 20 years.

Mary was a founding board member of the James Joyce Foundation, a member of the Kazantzakis Society, and the Advertising Standards Board. She hosted The Talk Show on SBS and has occasionally worked as a broadcaster on ABC radio. She is currently a citizen with more time for books. Hooray!

appearing at...
46: Writers as Readers
96: Matthew Condon in Conversation with Mary Kostakidis
108: Writers as Readers

RAMONA KOVAL (INTERSTATE)
Ramona Koval has a regular program, The Book Show, on ABC Radio National each weekday and on Sundays. She has also written several books including the novel, Samovar and two Jewish cookbooks.

appearing at...
350: Jeanette Winterson on ABC Radio National’s Book Show
125: An Evening with Anne Enright
128: David Rieff on ABC Radio National’s Book Show
165: Booklust
224: Junot Díaz in Conversation with Ramona Koval

DAVID KOWALSKI (LOCAL)
David Kowalski is an obstetrician and gynaecologist practising in Western Sydney. He has been published in professional medical journals but this is his first work of fiction. The Company of the Dead took David seven years to write.
www.djkowalski.com

appearing at...
31: Right Down to the Plumbing: Speculative Fiction and World-building

KARL KRUSZELNICKI (LOCAL)
Dr Karl Kruszelnicki used to be a ‘proper pukka scientist, engineer and doctor’, but is currently a popular author and a science commentator on radio and television. He appears on Triple J and other ABC radio stations, on BBC radio and is one half of the ‘Sleek Geeks’ on ABC TV.

Dr Karl is the Julius Sumner Miller Fellow at the University of Sydney, in the Science Foundation of the Physics Department. Please Explain is his 26th book.
www.drkarl.com

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

MARTIN KRYGIER (LOCAL)
Martin Krygier is Professor of Law, and co-director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of Law at the University of New South Wales, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences. His writings are generally concerned to explore the moral characters and consequences of large institutions, among them law, state and bureaucracy. A particular focus of his research is institutional and social development in post-communist Europe. His undergraduate degrees were in politics, philosophy and law, and he has a doctorate in the history of ideas.

A book of his selected essays, Civil Passions appeared in 2005. He delivered the 1997 Boyer lectures, Between Fear and Hope. Hybrid Thoughts on Public Values. He has written, edited and co-edited a number of works, including Spreading Democracy and the Rule of Law? (Germany, 2006); Rethinking the Rule of Law after Communism (Hungary, 2005) and he publishes extensively in academic journals and books, and in journals of ideas and public debate.

Since 2005 he has been recurrent Visiting Professor at the Centre for Social Studies, Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, and in 2005-2006 he was a fellow of the Centre for Advanced Study in the Behavioural Sciences, Stanford.

appearing at...
334: Robert Manne in Conversation

KYLIE KWONG (LOCAL)
Kylie Kwong is a fourth-generation Australian-Chinese, well known as the proprietor of the celebrated Billy Kwong restaurant in inner-city Sydney.

Kylie’s first book, Kylie Kwong: Recipes and Stories, introduced the wonderful home cooking that nourished her as a child and helped shape her future. Her next two books, Kylie Kwong: Heart and Soul and Simple Chinese Cooking, along with their accompanying TV series, expanded her repertoire of recipes and demystified the intricate techniques and exotic ingredients that have produced one of the world’s great cuisines.

Her latest book, My China: A Feast for All the Senses (soon to be accompanied by a TV series) continues Kylie’s exploration of the culinary delights of the land of her ancestors, while taking a deeply personal journey into the history, cultures and people of China and Tibet.
www.kyliekwong.org

appearing at...
237: Kylie Kwong’s China