Mena Abdullah

Mena Abdullah was born in 1930 in Bundarra, NSW, and lives in Sydney. She attended Sydney Girls High, before training as an accountant and later becoming a Commonwealth officer, working for the CSIRO. She is a writer of poetry and short stories and was regularly published in The Bulletin, and other Australian journals including Quadrant and Hemisphere. Her first published poem was The Red Koran (1954) – included in Australian Poetry (1955). Her short story collection The Time of the Peacock was first published in 1965 by Angus & Robertson (Australia), andRead more

Ben Walter

Ben Walter is the author of What Fear Was (Puncher & Wattmann, 2022). He is a writer of lyrical fiction and poetry who has been widely published in Australian journals, including Meanjin, Island, The Lifted Brow and Griffith Review. He has twice been shortlisted in the Tasmanian Premier’s Literary Prizes, and was guest editor of Overland’s special anti-/dis-/un-Australian fiction issue. Consistencies My writing has a texture, but it is the texture of a material that can be woven in various ways. This is perhaps true ofRead more

Natasha Lester

Natasha Lester’s third book, A Kiss from Mr Fitzgerald, will be published by Hachette Australia in April 2016, with her fourth book, Her Mother’s Secret, to follow in April 2017. She is the author of the award-winning What is Left Over, After (2010) and If I Should Lose You (2012). The Age newspaper has described her as ‘a remarkable Australian talent’. She has been the recipient of grants from the Australia Council, and a writing residency from Varuna, The WritersRead more