Sydney Writers' Festival

LORETTA NAPOLEONI (INTERNATIONAL)
Loretta Napoleoni is the author of Rogue Economics, and the bestselling Terror Inc.: Tracing the Money behind Global Terrorism, which has been translated into 12 languages.

She is an economist and has worked for international banks and financial organisations. One of the world's leading experts on money laundering and terror financing, she has worked as London correspondent and columnist for La Stampa, Le Monde and other newspapers.

A former Fulbright scholar, she holds an MA in international relations and economics from SAIS, Johns Hopkins University, and a MPhil in terrorism from the London School of Economics. In the early 1990s, she was one of the few people to interview the Italian Red Brigades. For her work as a consultant on the commodities markets, she travelled regularly to Pakistan, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria and other Middle Eastern countries, where she has met senior financial and political leaders. She lives in London.

www.lorettanapoleoni.com

appearing at...
41: Lunch with Loretta Napoleoni and Leigh Sales
53: Loretta Napoleoni Business Breakfast
140: Fundamental Facts
218: Loretta Napoleoni in Conversation

MARGOT NASH (LOCAL)
Margot Nash is a screenwriter and a director with a background as a cinematographer, a film editor and an actor. She holds a Master of Fine Arts by research from COFA UNSW. She has produced, written and directed a number of award winning short films and documentaries as well as working as a film and video lecturer and consultant.

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

KIRSTY NEEDHAM (LOCAL)
Kirsty Needham grew up in Sydney and has worked as a journalist for The Sydney Morning Herald for 10 years, covering the dot.com boom and bust, consumer affairs, and as a general news feature writer. She is currently the newspaper's deputy foreign editor.

In 2004 she accepted a Medialink/Australia-China Council fellowship to spend three months in China working as a journalist with the China Daily in Beijing, a city she continues to visit and practice her Mandarin.

Her latest book Season In Red is a deeply observant, sharply-written exploration of the tension between state control and the liberation of ideas in modern China. During her time working as a ‘foreign expert’ on a Chinese newspaper, Needham gained a unique insight into how even the smallest freedoms in China still carry an anchor attached.

appearing at...
216: Foreign Correspondents

GEORGE NEGUS (LOCAL)
George Negus has made an enormous contribution to the Australian news landscape as founding presenter of 60 Minutes (1979-86) and Foreign Correspondent (1992-99) as well as hosting the live-to-air Australia Talks series, where debates were held around the country tackling national issues prior to the 2001 Federal election. George’s trademark laidback Aussie style continued as he fronted a prime time trends and issues program on the ABC called, appropriately, George Negus Tonight (2003-4). These days, his penchant for stirring the conversational pot flows through to his role on Dateline.

In his career, George Negus has amassed an extraordinary list of interviewees and profiles. He’s interviewed many Australian Prime Ministers, politicians and newsmakers from around the globe and national icons including Cathy Freeman and Paul Hogan. In his incisive tracking of both the Middle East and Northern Ireland conflicts, he has spoken to world leaders and international peace-brokers. His passion for international affairs has also found expression in two recent books The World From Italy (2001) and The World From Islam (2003). His talent for communicating global issues to an Australian audience is confirmed by the fact that both publications have become bestsellers.

appearing at...
140: Fundamental Facts
277: Peter van Onselen in Conversation

CAMILLA NELSON (LOCAL)
Camilla Nelson was born in Wollongong and grew up in Sydney. She is the author of Crooked, a novel about organised crime and political corruption set in Sydney during the Askin years, which will be published by Random House in September. Her first novel Perverse Acts, a satire about sex, power and politics, was published in 1999, and she was named one of the Sydney Morning Herald’s Best Young Australian Novelists of the Year.

Camilla worked in politics, before turning to journalism. She has an MA in History and a Doctorate of Creative Arts. She lectures in Writing and Cultural Studies at the University of Technology, Sydney.

appearing at...
310: Heroes and Criminals
283: Sydney’s Underbelly

ROBERT NERY (LOCAL)
Robert Nery is a poet, critic, video artist and filmmaker.

His short videos (in collaboration with Gabrielle Finnane) have been shown in various places in Australia. His 90-minute video essay Black Nazarene centres on the Holy Week crucifixions in a town north of Manila. He co-wrote I, Eugenia, directed by Gabrielle Finnane. He is a member of The Boondocks, and is at work on its first project, I, On A Tropical Night – on Ferdinand Marcos and life during the Cold War – to be installed in Casula Powerhouse in 2008. He has also a forthcoming video essay, The Hero Takes A Walk, shot during a recent Asialink residency in Manila.

Nery studied social anthropology and philosophy at the University of Sydney. He is currently enrolled in the Doctorate in Creative Arts program at the University Of Technology.

appearing at...
314: Salu-Salo: in Conversation with Filipino-Australian Writers

NORM NEWLIN (LOCAL)
Norm Newlin is a Worimi elder and poet. His publications include Where There’s Life There’s Spirit and My Worimi Lovesong Dreaming.

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

JOHN NEWTON (LOCAL)
John Newton is a freelance writer, journalist, novelist and restaurant reviewer. He won the Gold Ladle for Best Food Journalist in the 2005 World Food Media Awards.

appearing at...
2: Hanoi to Beirut Express: A Tour of Bankstown
25: Chinatown: Feng Shui, Fashion and Yum Cha Walking Tour
134: Hot Chocolate: The Dark Sweet Side of the City

PAULINE NGUYEN (LOCAL)
Pauline Nguyen, author of Secrets of the Red Lantern, along with recipe writers Luke Nguyen, Pauline's brother, and Mark Jensen, Pauline’s partner, are the proprietors of Red Lantern, the acclaimed modern Vietnamese restaurant in Sydney’s inner-city area of Surry Hills. They hold in their hearts and their heads the Nguyen family’s amazing stories and food secrets.

In her moving memoir, Pauline Nguyen tells the honest, difficult story of the Nguyen family, following the journey of her parents from their homeland in Vietnam on their escape to Thailand as refugees, and then on to their eventual resettlement in Australia. They moved to Sydney’s most vibrant and notorious Vietnamese enclave where Pauline and her brothers grew up.

A shared passion for food is at the heart of this family's journey. Food helped to placate homesickness, became central to the family’s early success in Australia and was sometimes the only language the family could use to communicate with each other. In the end, it was what reconciled the family and helped to create the success that Red Lantern now enjoys.

appearing at...
19: Secrets of the Red Lantern
210: Triumph Over Adversity
294: Food as Communication: Secrets of the Red Lantern

BARBARA NICHOLSON (LOCAL)
Barbara Nicholson is a senior Aboriginal woman from the Illawarra district of New South Wales, traditional lands of the Wadi Wadi people.

Barbara Nicholson has been active on the issues of land rights, assimilation and criminal justice. She is an executive member on the committee of the Link-Up NSW Aboriginal Corporation, and was President of The Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Watch Committee for five years. She holds an Honorary Senior Fellowship in the Faculty of Law at Wollongong University.

She writes and performs poetry, and her work has appeared in a number of anthologies, including the Link Up collection Life, Love and Pain and The Strength of Us as Women: Black Women Speak.

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

CAMILLA NOLI (LOCAL)
Camilla Noli is a graduate of the Varuna Writing Program. Still Waters is her first novel.

appearing at...
30: Writing Obsessions: New Australian Fiction
231: Motherlove
207: But I Don’t Like You

JUSTIN NORTH (LOCAL)
Justin North’s career as a chef has been a whirlwind from the beginning, including numerous awards and accolades and training under the likes of Raymond Blanc and Guy Savoy.

North is the talent behind award-winning Sydney restaurant Bécasse and at the heart of his food is a love of great produce. After opening Bécasse he was awarded with Best New Talent in the Australian Gourmet Traveller. In 2007 Bécasse was named Restaurant of the Year in The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide.

North’s first book Bécasse was a sumptuous collection of recipes, photographs and travelogue. In his latest book, French Lessons, he shares his experience and passion for French food in over 300 recipes. His simple and straightforward approach will entice any budding Francophile to expand their repertoire and become a must-have for every kitchen benchtop.

appearing at...
39: French Lessons: Lunch with Justin North