Gillian Rubinstein is a multi-award-winning author, born in England and based in Australia since 1973. Her first novel for children, Space Demons, was published in 1986. It was an immediate success, winning several awards and going into many Australian and international editions.

Since then she has written over thirty books for children of all ages, many books for teenagers, and a number of plays both original and adapted. Under the pseudonym of Lian Hearn, her Tales of the Otori series, its prequel series Tales of Shikanoko and its sequels Orphan Warriors and Sibling Assassins, have sold around five million copies internationally and been translated into more than 38 languages. Lian Hearn has also published two stand-alone adult novels.

Her latest book, again in the name of Gillian Rubinstein, will be published later this year by Flying Islands. A memoir in poetry it is called Screaming and Euphoria.

An acclaimed author and journalist, Xinran began her career as a radio host in China, rising to success reporting on the lives of women across the country. She left China to publish her first book, ‘The Good Women of China’, an impactful account of the experiences of many women throughout the development of modern China; it quickly became an international bestseller. 

She has gone on to publish 11 books on China,  the acclaimed Sky Burial; the novel Miss Chopsticks; the groundbreaking book of oral history China Witness; The Promise, a study of love in China over four generations; and most recently, The Book of Secrets. She is also a regular contributor to The Guardian and the BBC. In 2004, Xinran founded the Mother's Bridge of Love, a charity which seeks to support adopted Chinese children living outside China.

Isabelle Li is a Chinese Australian writer and translator based in Sydney. She has published in various anthologies and literary journals including The Best Australian Stories, Sleepers Almanac, New Australian Stories, Southerly, Westerly and UTS Writers’ Anthology.

Her collection of short stories A Chinese Affair was published by Margaret River Press in 2016. Her prose translations have appeared in Sydney Review of Books and her poetry translations in Mascara, and World Literature and Works in China. Her Chinese translation of Sebastian Barry’s novel The Secret Scripture was published by Zhejiang Literature & Art Publishing House.

Her script MOONCAKE AND CRAB was made into a short film, funded by Screen NSW and premiered at the 60th Melbourne International Film Festival. She is a fellow of Varuna and was the inaugural winner of the Mascara Bundanon Writer’s Residency. She received her Doctor of Creative Arts from Western Sydney University.

Beth Yahp is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Sydney. Her articles have been published in a/b Auto/Biography Studies, Life Writing and TEXT, and her fiction and creative non-fiction include: The Red Pearl and Other Stories; a memoir Eat First, Talk Later, shortlisted for the 2018 Adelaide Festival Award for Literature (Non-Fiction) and a prize-winning novel, The Crocodile Fury.

Beth also wrote the libretto for composer Liza Lim’s opera Moon Spirit Feasting, which won the APRA Award for Best Classical Composition (2003). She developed and performed a season of performance-lectures as part of the Seymour Centre’s Art + Information production, fusing poetry, drama and academia (2022).

Mirandi Riwoe’s Stone Sky Gold Mountain won the inaugural ARA Historical Novel Prize and the Queensland Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Stella Prize and longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award. Her novella The Fish Girl won Seizure’s Viva la Novella and was shortlisted for the Stella Prize.

Her novel Sunbirds was shortlisted for the Barbara Jefferis Award, while The Burnished Sun is a collection of her short stories and novellas. Mirandi has also written three crime novels set in 1860s London under the name MJ Tjia, which feature a Eurasian courtesan sleuth.

Mirandi has a PhD in Creative Writing and Literary Studies (QUT). Her novel A Short History of Longans will be out in early 2026.