AAWP 2026

Graham Akhurst is an Aboriginal writer and academic from the Kokomini of Northern Queensland. He is a Senior Lecturer of Australian Indigenous Studies and Creative Writing and the Director of Indigenous Studies at UTS. He is the author of Borderland published by UWAP (2023).

Eugenia Flynn is Senior Lecturer (Creative Writing and Indigenous Literatures) at Monash University. A writer, academic and creative, Eugenia’s work has been published and exhibited widely; in publications such as IndigenousX and Peril magazine, and in exhibitions such as SOULfury (2021) and Five Acts of Love (2025).

Arpita Das is the Founder-Publisher of the independent Indian publishing house, Yoda Press and Associate Professor of Writing at Ashoka University. In the past, she has set up and led the Word Lab at IIHS University in Bangalore and the Word to Screen Market at the Mumbai Film Festival. She writes a regular column for the NY-based trade journal Publishing Perspectives.

Julie Koh is the author of two short-story collections: Capital Misfits and Portable Curiosities. She was named a 2017 Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelist. Julie has judged more than a dozen literary awards, including the Stella Prize and the Steele Rudd Award. She has also been a Fiction Editor for Westerly and a reader for the Oxbelly Fiction Writers program.

Felicity Plunkett is a poet, critic, and Poetry Editor with Australian Book Review. Her most recent book is A Kinder Sea (UQP). Felicity has a PhD from the University of Sydney and was UQP’s Poetry Editor for a decade. This year she was awarded Island’s Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize. 

Subhash Jaireth (Субхаш Джайрет, सुभाष जैरेथ) writes poetry but is not a poet. He writes imaginative fiction and non-fiction but is not a novelist. He thinks but is not an academic. He loves reading and listening to bilingual editions of poetry. For him translation is a way of being and becoming in the world. His books include a collection of poetry titled Lamentations (Gazebo, 2026) and a collection of essays titled Spinoza’s Overcoat: Travels with Writers and Poets (Transit Lounge, 2020). His essays can be read on Thinking Aloud, his subscription-free substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/sjaireth?r=5u8ah3&utm_medium

Troy Reid is a proud First Nations Dharug man, performance artist, and designer living on Wangal land. A founding member of performance collective Applespiel, Troy has been making theatre locally and internationally since 2010. Troy’s work is centered around collaborative practice and participatory engagement.

Sue Joseph taught journalism and creative writing, particularly creative non-fiction, at the University of Technology Sydney for 23 years. Now as Associate Professor, she is a Senior Research Fellow at Adelaide University, Honorary Ass/Pro at the University of Sydney and the University of Technology Sydney, and doctoral supervisor at Central Queensland University. She is currently Joint Editor of Ethical Space: The International Journal of Communication Ethics and co-editor of the Literary Journalism Palgrave book series.

Jen Webb is Distinguished Professor Emerita at the University of Canberra. Her scholarly books include Gender and the Creative Labour Market(Palgrave 2022), Art and Human Rights (Manchester UP, 2016); and Researching Creative Writing (Frontinus, 2015). Her poetry collections include Moving Targets (2018), Flight Mode (2020), and The Daily News (2024; shortlisted for the ACT Poetry Book of the Year). She is co-editor of the literary journal Meniscus and the scholarly journal Axon: Creative Explorations.

Dr. Lee McGowan is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Queensland. His primary research interests are in the intersections of creative writing, sport (particularly football), and community engagement. His publications include four monographs, Contemporary Literary Sports Journalism (2026), a co-edited anthology, journal articles, book chapters, a digital history, fiction, and a novel-length creative non-fiction on the history of Australian women’s football. 

Dr. Ariella Van Luyn is a senior lecturer in writing at the University of New England. Ariella specialises in historical fiction, biofiction and creative writing pedagogy. Ariella is the author of a novel, short fiction, and scholarly works in these fields. Ariella’s current research is on neuroqueer historical fiction.

Melody Ellis is a Senior Lecturer based in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University. Her writing and research explore questions of power, the body, language, art and knowledge: what counts as knowledge, how it is produced and authorised, and what forms of knowing and experience are culturally valued or devalued. Her writing has appeared in numerous literary and scholarly publications, including Cordite Poetry Review, Meanjin, AXON, Mekong Review and TEXT. Melody has significant expertise in research design bolstered by over 13 years’ experience working in research development prior to her academic career. She is the creative nonfiction editor of Southerly.