Rita Yazdani is currently ekeing out a living doing whatever it takes to allow her time to ponder and write. She is currently working on a novel entitled Ooty Memories which is loosely based on her time living in a boarding school in India with sixty other children - all in some way, orphans of the Islamic revolution in Iran. Email: fxyazdani@gmail.com.
Alice White is a Melbourne poet whose work has appeared in a range of publications including Blue Dog, Cordite and The Mozzie. 'Heartstricken' a book she co-wrote with Nick Hamer-Smith was published by Ginninderra Press in 2001. Alice is also a teacher of English and Literature and runs creative writing workshops for students and teachers. Website: http://alice.mi.white.googlepages.com.
Peter Uhlenbruch - Owls of the Swamp (named after the English translation of his German surname) is the solo music project of this 26-year-old Melbourne artist. Described by critics as a unique style of 'monastic swamp-folk', Owls of the Swamp uses organic and ethereal instrumentation combined with a creative approach to songwriting to develop music that resonates with the heart and soul of the listener.
Sophie Springs is a Melbourne writer who spends some time at the Royal Children's Hospital as part of a women's auxiliary, fundraising for research money to help fight disease which afflicts children. Her work has been published in literary journals in Australia and overseas.
Ian C. Smith lives in the Gippsland Lakes region of Victoria. His work has appeared recently in The Dalhousie Review (Canada), Eureka Street, Heat, Meanjin, The Sleepers Almanac and Westerly. His latest book is Memory like Hunger (Ginninderra).
Donna Smith is a Melbourne based writer.
Vicki Ponsford Vicki Ponsford grew up in Glen Iris and graduated from the University of Melbourne in Arts and Social Work. She has continued to study languages and loves learning about other cultures, travel and cuisine. She was posted to Manila to work at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport from December 2007 to April 2008.
Tricia Peak born in Moss Vale, NSW. She majored in English at Sydney University. She has travelled widely. As well as cruising on a sailing yacht, she's resided in the USA (at Key West) and England (Oxfordshire and Dover). She has been writing poetry since age 10, with many publications, prizes and readings to her credit - including that of Poet in Residence at the 3rd London Poetry Festival in 2007. She also writes travel pieces and fantasy fiction. Currently Tricia is putting together some of her many poems, with a view to publication. Email: tricia@paintedocean.org.
John Tomaino, by his late teens, had won awards from the Australian Songwriters Association and published his songs with a New York publisher. His brand of acoustic-based folk/pop/rock is a showcase for his eclectic songwriting style, driven by the vision that songs should do more than just provide short-term entertainment. John recorded his debut EP with multi-platinum, Grammy-award winning producer Scott Mathews of Orbison, Bowie, Cash, Stones, Beach Boys, and Clapton fame. In 2008, John was nominated in the Toronto Music Magazine Awards and won 'Best International Adult Contemporary EP'.
Liz Robinson has always loved words and language. Her many years in the professions of Medical Science and Training limited her writing and editing to Procedures and Lesson Plans - not very creative! A mid-career u-turn has given her time to refocus on the craft of creative writing. She savours the opportunity to read, to look at the world in a different way, and to reconnect with emotional and expressive writing, especially poetry and short stories.
Tim McMillan performs at venues around Melbourne, inc. Manchester Lane, and at community events. He toured Germany in 2006 and 2007. His most recent release is entitled Tim McMillan and features his original works.
Bob Morrow grew up in Sydney. He lived in South-East Asia and the United States for many years, and settled in Melbourne in 1981. He fell into writing poetry while in Ireland searching for his forebears' roots. His poems frequently explore the interactions between family, belonging and a sense of place, and, as well as publishing, he has presented his work in readings in Melbourne and regional Victoria. A keen body-surfer, he now divides his time between the city, the bush and a Bass Strait beach. Email: morrowb@bigpond.net.au.
Ray Liversidge's work has been widely published in Australia and overseas. His first book of poetry 'Obeying the Call' appeared in 2003. His verse novel 'The Barrier Range', which draws on the expeditions of Burke and Wills, and Charles Sturt, was published by Flat Chat Press in 2006 and reprinted in 2007. He is currently working on a manuscript on the work and the lives of dead poets. Website: http://www.poetray.wordpress.com.
Joanna Kozakiewicz was born in Warsaw, Poland, and moved to Australia in 2005. She has always loved to travel. Cycling with her husband, she explored Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. After completing her MA in Political Science, she worked in public relations. Occasionally, she wrote to Polish travel magazines about her travels to Spain, Portugal, Ukraine, Croatia, Australia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Malaysia. Her next journey will be to Laos, in April 2009.
Jakub Kozakiewicz was born in Warsaw, Poland, and came to Australia in 2005. He is an IT professional but his real passion is photography. He loves to travel and meet interesting people. You could spot him chatting to an old lady on the train from Lisbon to Lagos in Portugal or on one of the famous Dalat’s 'Easy Rides' in Vietnam. To see some of his photographs, visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/qbakozak/.
jeltje has convened poetry performances at La Mama Poetica in Melbourne since 2004. In 2005 jeltje collaborated with musician Harry Williamson on the CD Dreaming in English, and published her English translation of The Sun and the World from the Dutch original by the Netherlands poet Arjen Duinker. Other publications include her collections Living in Aboriginal Australia (1988), Catching Worms (1993), Poetry Live in the House (2004), and the CD anthology Poetry for Peace (2003) and the 2008 CD tribute to the late Lisa Bellear entitled Heart to Heart/Reconciliation Poetry at La Mama Poetica (2004-2007). Email: yelchee@bigpond.com
Mark Hilton is a singer songwriter guitarist who performs solo and in duo or trio format. He has toured Australia with his band and has several CDs to his name. His most recent album is A Good Man, released March 2009. Email: hum@markhilton.tv. Website: http://www.markhilton.tv.
Natasha Hurst In an industry drenched with bubble gum pop, electrified rock and computerised beats, Natasha Hurst's music and performance heralds an essence of truth and originality.Biographical tales, personal idealism and messages of compassion and inspiration are conveyed through her soulful guitar melodies and intimate, poetic lyrics. Although influenced by a wide array of country, folk and blues artists, Natasha prefers to avoid the conditions and constraints that conformity places on people, singing only what she holds in her heart and soul. Website: http://www.myspace.com/tashahurst.
Kathryn Hamann lives in Blackburn with her two cats providing the distraction no writer can be without. Her work pops up here and there rather like the bright orange fungi that ornament her lawn in autumn. One poem even travels free on Connex. She has had five books of poetry published. Her latest collection The Threshold of Silence appeared in 2008. Recently she won the Poetica Christi Press competition. Email: hamann_k@optusnet.com.au.
Steven Goldate is a ceramic artist, web page designer and closet writer.
Claire Gaskin has taught literature and professional writing for twenty years. Claire's poetry has been published in literary journals since 1985. Her first full-length collection A Bud, published by John Leonard Press (2006) was shortlisted in 2008 for the John Bray Award for Poetry. She is the Victorian editor for the literary journal Blue Dog.
Peter Finlay is a founding member of Theatreworks St Kilda. He performs and writes in Melbourne.
Robert Eales is a sometime industrial designer who has travelled and worked in India and is starting to get a sense on the love/hate relationship that country can create. He is planning on travelling back to investigate this phenomenon in more detail.
Dominic Eales is a busker, singer/songwriter currently living in Brisbane.
John Egan is a Sydney poet who also lives on the South Coast of NSW. His book Not the Rain, the Wind is published by the Melbourne Poets Union. In the last five years, he has been published in Australia, New Zealand and the United States. John teaches English for Academic Purposes at Uniworld College in Sydney. He often thinks of himself as a poet of water and memory.
Marietta Elliott-Kleerkoper is of Dutch-Jewish origin. She was hidden from the Nazis between 1942 and 1945. The family immigrated in 1949. Having taught foreign languages and ESL in schools and universities, Marietta now works as a freelance writer and editor. She has been published in Australian journals and anthologies, and has won several poetry prizes. She has been published in the Netherlands and has performed there. Her Dutch-English poetry collection 'Island of wakefulness' appeared with Hybrid in 2006. She was President of the Melbourne Poets Union from 2002 until 2004.
Allen J. Davies is a young Melbourne poet. His first poetry chapbook Even Diamond Men Weep is nearly finished and he has completed a debut novel - Floating Pages. He is a bit of a workaholic and is organising an exhibition of travel documentary photos entitled 'Amazing Thailand - Watching Buddha series', at the Fire Station Gallery/Café, High St, Preston, Victoria - running throughout April 2009. In downtime he enjoys men and friends, and wine and cheese parties, not necessarily in that order!
Jean Cabon was born in Mauritius and came to Australia in 1988. In the last 10 years he has worked as a session musician, notably on Kavisha Manzella's Aria-nominated 'Half Moon Tango. He released his album Sega sans frontiers in 2008. He tours with Celtic band Loftlorien to festivals such as the Woodford Folk Festival. He has a new album and poetry book coming out in 2009.
Michelle Cahill is an Anglo-Indian migrant who writes poetry and fiction. Her collection The Accidental Cage (IP) was shortlisted for the 2007 Judith Wright Prize. Michelle edited Poetry Without Borders (Picaro, 2008). Her work has appeared in Muse India, Heat, Meanjin, Jacket and Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, and is forthcoming in Antipodes. Her forthcoming poetry collection, Vishvarupa is themed around Hindu gods and other deities. She is also working on a fiction manuscript entitled 'Riding Without Krishna'.
Anne M. Carson is a Melbourne writer who is passionate about the creative process. She writes poetry and prose and has just completed a memoir about her friendship with a woman with an intellectual disability. She is also a visual artist.
Angela Costi is the author of three collections of poetry: Dinted Halos (chapbook, Hit&Miss Publications, 2003), Prayers for the Wicked (CD, Floodtide Audio, 2005) and Honey and Salt (Five Islands Press, 2007). Honey and Salt was shortlisted for the Mary Gilmore Prize 2008. In April 2009, funding from Australia Council for the Arts and Vic Arts takes her to Japan to work on an international collaboration involving her poetry, the Japan-based Stringraphy Ensemble and an Ancient Chinese musical instrument known as the Sheng.
Rijn Collins is a Melbourne writer with an abundance of red notebooks, a degree in linguistics, and a passion for snakes and Berlin. Her work has been published in Going Down Swinging, Ten Years of Things That Didn't Kill Us (Paroxysm Press), Eclecticism, 400 Words and The Age. She's speaking at the Emerging Writers' Festival in May 2009, and is currently working on a novel, in which snakes and Berlin are likely to appear. Email: therednotebooks@gmail.com.
Linda Briskman holds the Dr Haruhisa Handa Chair in Human Rights Education at Curtin University in Perth. She has a social work background and her areas of policy, practice and research focus are Indigenous rights and asylum seeker rights. She publishes widely in both areas. Recent publications include Social work with Indigenous Communities (Federation Press 2007) and Human Rights Overboard: Seeking Asylum in Australia, co-authored with Susie Latham and Chris Goddard (Scribe 2008).
Connie Barber has had four poetry collections published - most recently Between Headlands (Five Islands Press, 2006). Her most recent poetry prize (December 2008) is from the NSW Writers Centre and Glee Books for her winning entry to the 'Inner City Life Competition'.