Weekend of Reading festival guests
ROBBIE ARNOTT
Robbie is the author of Flames (Text Publishing, 2018). He lives in Hobart, Tasmania.
Justine hyde
Justine is a writer, critic and librarian whose essays, short fiction and reviews are published in The Saturday Paper, The Age, The Australian, Meanjin, Kill Your Darlings, Literary Hub, Seizure and a range of anthologies. She is the former Director of Experience at the State Library of Victoria and is now Manager of Cultural and Economic Development at City of Port Phillip.
ADAM OUSTON
Adam is a writer and performer. His writing has appeared in various literary and news publications. He received the 2014 Erica Bell Literary Award and the 2017 University of Tasmania prize as part of that year’s Premier’s Literary prizes. His novel The Fetish was published in 2018 as part of A Published Event's People's Library. As a musician, he performs under the name Costume.
Katherine johnson
Katherine is the author of four novels: Pescador’s Wake (Fourth Estate, 2009), The Better Son (Ventura Press, 2016), Matryoshka (Ventura Press, 2018) and Paris Savages (Ventura Press, 2019). Her manuscripts have won Varuna Awards and Tasmanian Premier’s Literary Prizes. The Better Son was longlisted for both the Indie Book Awards and the Tasmania Book Prize.
Katherine holds both arts and science degrees, has worked as a science journalist and published feature articles for magazines including Good Weekend. She lives in Tasmania with her husband and two children and recently completed a PhD.
john retallick
John is a lifelong comic reader and advocate for the medium and has chaired panels at the Adelaide Writer's Festival, the Tasmanian Writers and Readers Festival and the Homecooked Comics Festival, among others. He was also the founder of an annual camp for Australian comics creators, Camp Chugnut. For a decade, he covered Australian comics and graphic novels through producing and hosting the radio program and podcast TheComicSpot (2006-2015). TheComicSpot covered the burgeoning Australian graphic novel scene from the grass roots, highlighting the work of comic artists, zinesters and scenesters.
ELIZABETH FLUX
Elizabeth is a freelance writer and editor based in Melbourne, Australia. Her nonfiction work has been widely published and includes essays on film, pop culture, feminism and identity as well as interviews and feature articles. She was the winner of the inaugural Feminartsy Fiction prize, has been twice shortlisted for the Rachel Funari prize, was shortlisted for the Liminal Fiction Prize, was longlisted for the Peter Carey Short Story Award and her fiction has been published in multiple anthologies.
Elizabeth was a Hot Desk Fellow at The Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas, a judge for the 2019 Award for an Unpublished Manuscript for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, and an editor for Reading Victoria.
JUSTIN HEAZLEWOOD
Justin (aka The Bedroom Philosopher) is a word-wooing writer, musician and humorist. Born in Burnie, he attended the University of Canberra before chasing some girl to Sydney and then basing himself in Melbourne. In 2002 he scored a songwriting segment on triple j’s Morning Show. As The Bedroom Philosopher, he has released three albums including the ARIA-nominated 'Songs From The 86 Tram' which he deserved to win but was beaten by The Chaser.
In 2012, Justin self-published his first book The Bedroom Philosopher Diaries, which he printed and collated on a vintage risograph (which is pretty hip). In 2014, he launched his first nonfiction book Funemployed, about being an artist in Australia, published by Affirm Press. In 2018, he unleashed his childhood memoir Get Up Mum, about growing up with a mother with schizophrenia. It was commissioned into a 10-part radio series for ABC RN Life Matters in 2019. It has been described as “Angela’s Ashes meets The Castle” and Benjamin Law says he is cool.
Ruth QUIBELL
Ruth is a sociologist and writer. Her first book The Promise of Things was published in 2016. She has written for Island magazine, Womankind, Meanjin, Dumbo Feather, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. She is working on her next book on the politics of home.
TONY THORNE
Tony is of the Trawlwoolway people of North East Tasmania. He designs and directs the kids animated TV show ‘Little J and Big Cuz’ and illustrates books of Tasmanian Aboriginal poetry and stories as well as doing work for Redback Graphix and Streetwize Comics disseminating information to local communities.
In 1984, Tony graduated from the Tasmanian School of Art. In 1998, he moved into animation, and worked on a number of feature films including ‘Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince’ and ‘District Nine’. His first love is comics and he tries to draw every day.
ERIN HORTLE
Erin is a Tasmanian-based writer of fiction and essay. Her writing has been published in Island, Australian Humanities Review and Meanjin. In 2017, she won the Tasmanian Young Writer’s Fellowship as a part of the Tasmanian Premier’s Literary prizes.
Erin’s debut novel, The Octopus and I (Allen & Unwin, 2020), is an eco-feminist literary work that tells the story of a breast cancer survivor’s fascination with the octopuses at Eaglehawk Neck.
BEN WALTER
Ben's poetry, essays and experimental short stories have been widely published in Australian journals, including Meanjin, Griffith Review, Southerly, Overland, and The Lifted Brow. His debut novel manuscript won the people’s choice component of the 2017 Tasmanian Premier’s Literary Prizes.
Ben’s latest book is Conglomerate, published as part of A Published Event's Lost Rocks series has been longlisted for the 2019 Tasmanian Premier’s Literary prizes.
tania walker
Tania is an author, copywriter, illustrator, designer, art director, and former Disney animator. She blames her colourful work history on the fact that everything is quite interesting, making it impossible to stick to just one pursuit. Her speculative fiction has appeared in Reckoning, PodCastle, and Andromeda Spaceways, she makes her living writing for the art app Procreate, and she’s currently studying Honours in Creative Writing. She lives with a white dog and a black cat, ensuring no garment is safe from visible fur. Her home is insulated by a book collection that is far too vast for someone who moves house as often as she does.
stuart kells
Stuart is an Australian author and historian whose writings have been published around the world, including in the Paris Review, Smithsonian Magazine, The Guardian and National Geographic Traveller. He has won the Ashurst Business Literature Prize twice, and his books have been shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Award and the NSW Premier’s General History Prize.
RACHEL EDWARDS
Rachel is the editor in chief of Transportation Press. A writer herself, she has been published in The Australian, The Mercury, Crikey and Island magazine. She was the host of the long running Book Show on Edge Radio, in the guise of Paige Turner and in the past has been a guest on Radio National and ABC Tasmania, where she currently works as a radio producer.
Rachel is a former editor of Island magazine and guest-edited a volume of the Review of Australian Fiction which featured Tasmanian authors exclusively. She runs a consultancy on the writing, editing and publishing processes called Paige Turner and has worked as Writer in Residence with younger onset dementia clients at Alzheimer’s Tasmania, and run slam poetry workshops with lower literacy inmates at Risdon Prison. In 2018 she managed the Storytelling Tent at NAYRI NIARA Good Spirit Festival and in 2019 she returned to the Huon Valley Mid-Winter Festival as producer and host of Tasmania’s pre-eminent storytelling event, the Storytellers Cup.
JOSHUA SAnTospirito
Joshua writes and draws comics. He is most well known for The Long Weekend in Alice Springs (2013) which surprised him by being quite popular. He has been vainly trying to live up the reputation of that book ever since with short work in Meanjin, Island magazine and The Monthly as well as other graphic novels such as his Swallows series. He lives in Moonah, Tasmania and grows his own veggies.
claire pendrigh
Claire is an Australian visual artist whose practice includes installation and painting. After graduating from a Bachelor of Visual Arts with Honours at the Australian National University in 2009, she has continued to develop her practice by participating in artist residency programs around the world including NES Residency in Iceland, Studio Kura Residency in Japan, Tiapapata Arts Centre in Samoa and Awesome Arts Creative Challenge residencies with schools in regional and remote Western Australia. In 2017/18 she was a studio resident at Contemporary Art Tasmania.
Claire has exhibited in the ACT, Western Australia, Victoria, Tasmania, the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan and Samoa. She now lives and works in Hobart.
RUTH DAWKINS
Ruth is a freelance writer who was born on a tiny island in the north of Scotland. She moved to Tasmania in 2013 and has found that the beautiful sunsets, cold winters and generous measures of whisky make her feel very much at home. In addition to the copywriting she does for clients like Tourism Tasmania, the Antarctic Science Foundation and Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service, Ruth has written features and essays for publications including The Guardian, Washington Post, SBS Australia and The Lifted Brow. She writes regularly about her family, travels and life in Tasmania on her blog, and when she's not at her desk you'll almost certainly find her reading.
suzy cooper
Suzy is a writer, sketcher and colourful communicator. She’s always been a voracious reader and describes herself as a 'raving infomaniac’. The common strand in all her pursuits is a love of communication and helping people to find and express their voices.
pete hay
Pete is a Tasmanian author of academic works, collections of poetry, collaborative works and a collection of personal essays. He left the University of Tasmania a decade ago but holds an adjunct position there and continues to pursue the occasional academic project.
These days, Pete is much more interested in poetry and other modes of creative writing. He curated, with Carol Bett, the widely acclaimed 'Poets and Painters at the Big Punchbowl' exhibition (presented by Bett Gallery and the Tasmanian Land Conservancy).
Pete's books Physick: Catharsis and The Natural Things were shortlisted for Tasmanian Premier's Literary prizes and his chapbook, Girl Reading Lorca, was republished by Bright South in 2017. Most notably he has collaborated in two shows for guitar and voice with acclaimed Spanish guitarists, Paul Gerard.
JUNE SCULTHORPE
June is a palawa woman whose ancestors lived on the north east coast of Tasmania around Cape Portland for many thousands of years. She grew up with her family at Nicholls Rivulet, not far from putalina (or Oyster Cove), where her grandmother's grandmother, Fanny Cochrane Smith, was taken to live with her family and other Aborigines removed from Wybalenna on Flinders Island.
June remembers being taken to the Cygnet library and choosing her first book at the age of 4. She grew up with Enid Blyton and the Famous Five, the Secret Seven, the Bobbsey Twins and also treasured the picture book by Axel Poignant, 'Piccaninny Walkabout', which was awarded the 1958 Children’s Book of the Year and is still in her family.
June has worked in the Australian Public Service in Aboriginal Affairs, has taught Indonesian at high schools in Tasmania and worked in a policy role at the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre (TAC) until she retired two years ago. She is now doing casual work back with the TAC in the palawa kani program, researching and reviving the language of Tasmanian Aborigines.
damon young
Damon is a philosopher and author. He's written or edited twelve books, most published internationally in English and translation. His latest nonfiction book is The Art of Reading. His latest children's picture book is My Dad is a Dragon. He has also published poetry and short fiction, and once played a mafia thug in a Jackie Chan film.
liz jack
Liz is Executive Director of Libraries Tasmania. In this role, she is responsible for a statewide network of library services, community learning, adult literacy and the state’s archive and heritage services. She has over 20 years' experience working within the Tasmanian Government in leadership roles across a range of sectors, including property development, small business, community development, the arts and culture, and sport and recreation. She is a member of the Tasmanian Library Advisory Board, the State Library and Archive Trust and the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts Management Committee. She is also a current Leadership Champion with Tasmanian Leaders. She graduated with an Honours degree in Modern Languages from McGill University in Montreal and, as a former Olympic diver and coach, is a member of the Tasmanian Sporting Hall of Fame and the Tasmanian Honour Roll for Women.
Liz has always loved reading, and as a child, was known to avidly pour over the cereal boxes at breakfast since books were banned at the table.
PETER TIMMS
Peter is a freelance journalist and author who was born and educated in Melbourne and currently lives in Hobart. Between 1971 and 1988 he held curatorial positions in a number of public art galleries and museums, including Shepparton Art Gallery, Manly Art Gallery and Museum and the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. He was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 1984 and an Australia Council for the Arts Senior Writers’ Fellowship in 1994.
Since 1988, Peter has contributed to publications both within Australia and overseas. He was editor of Art Monthly Australia for five years and has served as art critic for The Age and The Australian. He has published eleven books of nonfiction, including Making Nature, What’s Wrong with Contemporary Art?, Australia’s Quarter Acre, Private Lives: Australians at Home since Federation and Hobart. A novel, Asking for Trouble, was published in 2014 and his most recent book is Silliness: a Serious History.
lUcy adelaide
Lucy is an illustrator living in West Hobart. When not doodling she studies zoology, which is lucky as the animal world provides good inspiration for her comics. She has done drawings for Happy Mag, VICE, World Vision and more.
ZOE DOUGLAS-KINGHORN
Zoe is a young writer living on stolen land in lutruwita/Tasmania. Her work has been published by Island magazine, Meanjin, Voiceworks, Cordite Poetry Review and The Lifted Brow. In 2018, she won the Scribe Nonfiction Prize for her essay on fracking and climate change, 'The Invisible Sea'.
NICOLE GILL
Nicole is a Tasmanian environmental writer. Her writings on nature, humans and other animals have featured in The Monthly, Island magazine, The Guardian, Good Weekend Magazine and in The Best Australian Science Writing. Her first book for children, 'Animal Eco-Warriors', was published by CSIRO Publishing in 2017, and was listed as a Notable Book by the Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA). Her favourite place to read is under the story tree in her backyard.
Nicole is also working with her trainee conservation detection dog, Zorro, to find out more about Tasmania’s mysterious, endangered masked owls. Like Nicole, Zorro is an avid consumer of books, albeit in a more literal sense than Nicole would like.