Student Sessions

10am | The Craft of Short Fiction with Tony Birch & Ellen van Neerven

Short fiction may be limited in terms of word count but not when it comes to imagination, narrative complexity, creativity, lasting impact and form.

Explore why certain ideas are more suitable for shorter formats and discover firsthand the writing processes favoured by our featured panellists. Tony Birch’s latest release is Pictures of You, a collection of his best short fiction from the past two decades. Ellen van Neerven’s award-winning work includes the collection of short stories Heat and Light.

10am | Spotlight on Critical Response with James Bradley & Beejay Silcox 

Book critics are often depicted as villains, tearing into the hard work of innocent creators.

So why do we need critics and how do they approach their daunting task? This session delves further into the analytical, argumentative, discursive and interpretive skills needed for constructing reviews and critiques that are fair, well-considered and make invaluable contributions to the health of our literary ecosystem.

Our panellists are James Bradley and Beejay Silcox, both renowned critics across multiple high-profile publications.

11.30am | The Craft of Creative Non-Fiction with Lech Blaine and Sarah Krasnostein 

Creative non-fiction is currently experiencing a resurgence.

How are narrative fiction techniques being used to engage readers in real-world stories? What responsibility does the author have in maintaining a clear line between fact and fabrication? We explore the research and writing processes involved with creative non-fiction, from memoirs and biographies to crime reporting.

Sarah Krasnostein is the multi-award-winning author of many non-fiction books, including most recently The Mushroom Tapes, co-written with Helen Garner and Chloe Hooper. Journalist Lech Blaine’s celebrated non-fiction work includes a personal memoir and a dive into his family history, Australian Gospel.

11.30am | Spotlight on Studying Shakespeare with Huw Griffiths and Daniel Hahn 

Two top Shakespearean scholars come together to answer your burning questions.

“Should we even be studying Shakespeare in 2026?” “What are the most common misconceptions about Shakespeare’s work?" Discover some of the key aspects of Shakespeare’s use of language and dramatic structure and explore why the themes and content of his plays still connect with contemporary audiences.

”When is Shakespeare not Shakespeare?” We’ll also discuss the difficulties with translating Shakespeare and the challenges faced with adapting his work.

Huw Griffiths specialises in Shakespeare studies at The University of Sydney. He is joined by Daniel Hahn, who serves on the Council of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.

1pm | The Craft of Poetry with Maxine Beneba Clarke

Poetry is a powerful medium that inspires active reading.

It’s a chance to feel, reflect and make connections. In what ways are poetic structures and restricted word counts limiting and in what ways do they allow for greater creativity and expression?

As Sylvia Plath once said, “You’ve got to go so far so fast in such a small space; you’ve got to burn away all the peripherals.”

Two esteemed poets discuss the power of verse and share insights into their writing processes. Maxine Beneba Clarke is an award-winning Australian author and slam poet who writes poetry for all ages. Her latest collection is beautiful changelings. David Stavanger is a poet, producer, and former psychologist. His latest collection is The Drop Off.

1pm | Spotlight on Editing with James Bradley and Rachel Scully 

Ever wondered what process a book goes through from submitted manuscript to published novel?

Well, wonder no more! Here we take an author and their editor and guide you through the process – from structural edit, through to copy edits and finally proofreads. What feedback do editors think writers struggle to hear? What suggestions do authors reject and what do they adopt? How polished does an author or an editor expect a manuscript to be at the point of submittal?

James Bradley is an award-winning author of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. His editor at Penguin Random House is Rachel Scully, who has over 15 years of experience working with an array of Australian talent.

Maxine Beneba Clarke is the author of many books for adults and children, including the short fiction collection Foreign Soil, the memoir The Hate Race, and the picture books When We Say Black Lives Matter and The Patchwork Bike. Her poetry collections include Carrying the World, How Decent Folk Behave, It’s the Sound of the Thing: 100 new poems for young people, and the recently released beautiful changelings. Maxine was inaugural Poet in Residence at the University of Melbourne (2023-2025).

Tony Birch is an academic, novelist and short fiction writer. His most recent book is Pictures of You - collected stories (UQP 2025)

Lech Blaine is an award-winning writer from Queensland. He is the author of Australian Gospel, Car Crash and two Quarterly Essays: Bad Cop and Top Blokes. His writing has been published in Good Weekend, The Monthly, Griffith Review and The Guardian. He was the 2023 Charles Perkins Centre writer in residence. 

James Bradley is a writer and critic. His books include the novels Wrack, The Deep Field, The Resurrectionist, Clade and Ghost Species, a book of poetry, Paper Nautilus, and a work of non-fiction, Deep Water, which won the 2025 NSW Literary Award for Non-Fiction and a Gold Medal in the 2025 Nautilus Awards and was shortlisted for the Prime Minster's Award for Non-Fiction and the Queensland Literary Award for Non-Fiction. His latest novel, Landfall, is published by Penguin. 

Huw Griffiths is an Associate Professor of English Literature at The University of Sydney, specialising in Shakespeare studies. He is the author of Shakespeare’s Body Parts and Disavowing Authority in the Shakespeare Classroom.

Daniel Hahn is a writer, editor and translator with over a hundred books to his name including If This Be Magic: the unlikely art of Shakespeare in translation. He serves on the council of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. 

Sarah Krasnostein is a multi-award winning writer and critic. She is the bestselling author of The Trauma Cleaner, The Believer, the Quarterly Essay, Not Waving, Drowning and On Peter Carey. The Believer was named by The New Yorker as a Best Book of 2022. She has won Walkley Awards for long form feature writing and arts criticism, and been awarded the Victorian Prize for Literature, the Australian Book Industry Award for General Non-Fiction, the Victorian Premier’s Prize for Non-Fiction, the Prize for Non-Fiction at the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards and the Dobbie Literary Award. She was a finalist for the Wellcome Book Prize (UK), the National Biography Award, the Melbourne Prize for Literature, the Walkley Book Award and the Nib Literary Award. She holds a doctorate in criminal law and is admitted to legal practice in New York and Victoria.

Rachel Scully is an Executive Editor at Penguin Random House. She is passionate about Australian storytelling and has had the privilege of working with some of our greatest writers, including Tara June Winch, Anna Funder, Robert Drewe, Lily Brett, Geoffrey Blainey, Chloe Hooper, Nick Earls, Gideon Haigh and Sonya Hartnett. She has worked on three books with James Bradley. 

Beejay Silcox is a book critic. Her work appears in high-profile publications across three continents, and is renowned for its resolute (some might say, foolhardy) honesty. In addition to her literary commentary, Beejay works as a professional reader: she’s an interviewer, prize judge, festival programmer, editor and educator. And she has stories to tell. Beejay eloped to Las Vegas, escaped from quicksand, and once had to be rescued – unironically – from a picnic at Hanging Rock.

David Stavanger is a poet, producer, and former psychologist. He is the co-editor of Solid Air: Australian & New Zealand Spoken Word (UQP, 2019) and Admissions: Voices Within Mental Health (Upswell, 2022) and the author of The Special (UQP, 2015) which received the Wesley Michel Wright and Thomas Shapcott awards and Case Notes (UWAP, 2020) which won the 2021 Victorian Premier's Prize for Poetry. His latest collection is The Drop Off (Upswell, 2025).

Ellen van Neerven is a writer of Munujali and Dutch heritage. Ellen’s books include Heat and Light, Comfort Food, Throat and Personal Score. Ruby’s Web, to be released in March, is Ellen’s first book for younger readers.