Hani Abdile is a writer, student and spoken word poet based in the country of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, in Sydney. Hani was forced to leave her home country of Somalia and came to Australia seeking protection in 2014. During her 11 months in immigration detention, she found healing in poetry and developed a love for writing.

Her first book of 43 poems, ‘I will rise’, was published by Writing Through Fences in 2016 and explores how the power of our collective voices can help shape the world to be a better place, for the next generation.  She has performed her work around Sydney and interstate and continues to write for freedom and human rights.

Hani is an honorary member of PEN International, a lead member of Writing Through Fences, and an Ambassador for the Refugee Advice and Casework Service (RACS).  Her work has appeared in ABC, SMH, Shark Island Productions and has received numerous awards for her community work and creative art.

Sasha Kutabah Sarago is a Wadjanbarra Yidinji, Jirrbal and African-American woman. A former model, Sasha grew frustrated by the invisibility of multicultural women in fashion and media. In 2011, she founded Ascension, Australia’s first digital lifestyle platform for women of colour. As a speaker, Sasha raises awareness around culture, diversity and equity in the business, media and lifestyle sectors. 

Sasha’s TEDx talk, ‘The (de)colonising of beauty’, was selected as TED.com 2021 Editor’s Choice and has fuelled her passion for redefining beauty and sparking conversations around femininity and womanhood from a First Nations woman’s perspective. As well as appearances on NITV Awaken ‘Black Is Beautiful’, SBS Insight ‘Growing Up Mixed Race’, and ABC TV’s The School That Tried to End Racism, Sasha has been featured in BuzzFeed, Huffington Post, 10 Daily, Sydney Morning Herald, Frankie and Fashion Journal magazines. Her writing has been published in the Guardian and SBS Voices. Sasha has also written and directed the documentaries Too Pretty to Be Aboriginal and InsideOUT, which premiered at the Melbourne Women’s Film Festival in 2020. Her book ‘Gigorou’ is out now through Pantera.

Tim Baker is an award-winning author and journalist specialising in surfing history and culture. 

He is the best-selling author of The Rip Curl Story, Occy, High Surf, Bustin’ Down The Door, Surf For Your Life, Century of Surf and Surfari.  He is a former editor of Tracks, Surfing Life and Slow Living magazines, and a two-time winner of the Surfing Australia Hall of Fame Culture Award. 

 His latest book Patting The Shark documents his experience living with advanced prostate cancer.

 He has been nominated for the CUB Australian Sports Writing Awards and his work has appeared in Rolling Stone, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian Financial Review, the Bulletin, Inside Sport, GQ, as well as surfing magazines around the world.

Omid Tofighian is an award-winning lecturer, researcher and community advocate, combining philosophy with interests in citizen media, popular culture, displacement and discrimination. He is adjunct lecturer in the School of the Arts and Media, University of New South Wales; and honorary research fellow at Birkbeck Law, University of London. His publications include Myth and Philosophy in Platonic Dialogues (Palgrave 2016); translation of Behrouz Boochani’s multi-award-winning autobiographical novel No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison (Picador 2018); co-editor of special issues for journals Literature and Aesthetics (2011), Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media (2019) and Southerly (2021); and co-translator/co-editor of Freedom, Only Freedom: The Prison Writings of Behrouz Boochani (Bloomsbury 2023).

Jessie Cole is the author of four books. Her first novel, Darkness on the Edge of Town, was shortlisted for the 2013 ALS Gold Medal and longlisted for the Dobbie Literary Award. Her second novel, Deeper Water, was released in 2014 to much critical acclaim.

Jessie’s memoir, Staying, was released in 2018, and was shortlisted for the 2019 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Non-fiction & longlisted the Colin Roderick Award, with Tim Winton describing it as ‘a wounded, lovely, luminous book about grief, trauma and the strange healing potential of words.’

Her latest memoir, Desire, is out now.

Dr Sally Breen is an Australian writer, editor and academic. Author of the iconic grunge memoir The Casuals (2011) winner of the Varuna Harper Collins Manuscript Prize and Atomic City (2013) shortlisted for the QLD Premiers People’s Choice Book of the Year. Sally’s short form creative and non-fiction work has been published widely both nationally and internationally with major features in The Guardian London, Asia Literary Review, Griffith Review, The Age, Overland, Meanjin, The Australian, Best Australian Stories, Sydney Review of Books, Hemingway Shorts, Meniscus and TEXT. She is a regular contributor to The Conversation. Dr Breen is Executive Director of Asia Pacific Writers and Translators the largest and longest running organisation of its kind in the Asia Pacific and Senior Lecturer in Writing and Publishing at Griffith University. Her most recent publications are ‘Don’t You Know You’ve Got Legs – A Gold Coast Surf Culture Manifesto’ in Lines to the Horizon out now with Fremantle Press and ‘Away from the Edge – On the Road Where Two Stories Meet’ in Griffith Review. Samples of her work can be viewed at  sallybreen.com.au @breensally

Mohammad Ali-Maleki is a tailor and prop-maker by trade. He spent seven years in detention in Manus Island for no reason other than requesting asylum, seeking safety away from his homeland of Iran. 

In 2016 Mohammad’s poem ‘The Strong Sunflower’ was the impetus for, and first work published on, Verity La’s  Discoursing Diaspora project. It also appeared in Southerly’s Writing Through Fences – Archipelago of Letters. 

Writing Through Fences has also published two of his poems ‘The Strong Sunflower’ & ‘The Fox’ as small books illustrated by numerous artists.

His writing has been published by many online literary journals, and he has written a chapbook, Truth in the Cage (Verity La and Rochford Street Press, 2018). His poem ‘Brother’ was made into a poetic film by documentary filmmaker Siân Darling. Mohammad continues to create poetry, saying “You can find my whole life in my poems, like a letter to God.”

His latest exhibition ‘From the Land of Silence’, a series of canvas-printed poems by Mohammad Ali Maleki written during his time as a detainee on Manus Island just finished showing at the Queensland Multicultural Centre.

Jarrah Dundler was raised on Bundjalung country in the Northern Rivers region of NSW. His debut novel Hey Brother, about the challenges faced by a teenage boy when his brother returns from war in Afghanistan, was selected for a Byron Writers Festival Residential Mentorship, a Varuna fellowship and shortlisted for the Australian/Vogel Literary Award. Jarrah has recently been working co-editing Fire Stories: Reflections from Northern Rivers locals on the 2019/2020 bushfires, and editing audio-narratives for the Fire Stories website.

Aunty Loretta Ethel Parsley is a Walbunja Yuin Elder and custodian of country. She is a direct descendant of Jimmy and Ethel Governor and the Governor family historian. She is a prolific artist and storyteller. She is the creator of the work Blood On His Hands, Cleansed By Saltwater which is referenced in The Last Outlaws podcast animation.

Loretta is a knowledge holder of Aboriginal family history, a school teacher and director of her privately owned company Doolagarl Dreaming.

Loretta lives with her husband Trevor on Walbunja Yuin country.

Kaitlyn Sawrey is an award-winning journalist and the host of ‘2022 Podcast of the Year’ winner The Last Outlaws and Who is Daniel Johns? for Spotify. Previously she co-founded Science Vs and was the Executive Producer of Hack on triple j.

Francisco Lopez is an award-winning senior producer and lead writer of ‘2022 Podcast of the Year’ winner The Last Outlaws and Who is Daniel Johns? for Spotify. He has credits from Audible Studios, Pineapple Street Media, and Gimlet Media.

Mandy Nolan is a feminist, trouble maker, and wordsmith warrior. As a stand up comedian, regular columnist and author of 5 books. She has used her writing to inspire change, and to shine the light on injustice. Sometimes funny, sometimes vulnerable, sometimes confronting, but always on point. She has always believed that words have power. To change minds, change hearts and change government. A stand up comedian of nearly 4 decades Nolan is as at home on the stage as she is on the page. Unselfconscious, insightful, reflective, and confrontational, Nolan believes her job is to navigate the margins. To say the unsaid.

Odette Nettleton started performing stand up in 2019 after attending one of Mandy Nolan’s famous writing workshops and meeting Vanessa Larry Mitchell. Inspired by Vanessa’s dedication to the local comedy scene and diversity in comedy, Odette started performing around the Northern Rivers. She has performed in Sydney, Brisbane, and places in between, and has shared the stage with Mel Buttle and Ellen Briggs.

Lisa Sharpe, originally from Ballina, began stand-up comedy at 48 years old and found the perfect platform for her voice and writing skills. She became a QLD Raw Comedy state finalist from her second time on stage and made the finals again, a year later. Lisa’s delivery is warm, charming and surprising. Her stories will twist, turn and weave their way into your heart. Fresh from Adelaide Fringe and The Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Lisa is bringing her brand new show ROAR to Literary Allsorts.

“The respect she earns from her audience is proof enough that she is a gifted comedian and a captivating raconteur and audiences should not delay in seeking out what she has to say” Theatre Haus 2022.

Thor Phillips is a  singer-songwriter and guitar virtuoso whose passionate, powerful performances are stirring up storms across the nation. A professional musician for over 17 years, playing guitar and supporting artists in the blues, rock, country and folk scenes, Thor has recently been stepping into his own force. Thor has released 2 studio albums and recently a live single. thorphillips.com

Katherine Biber is a legal scholar, historian and criminologist and Professor of Law at the University of Technology Sydney. She is the author of Captive Images: Race, Crime, Photography (Routledge, 2007) and In Crime’s Archive: The Cultural Afterlife of Evidence(Routledge, 2019).

She writes about evidence and archives, photography, documentation, and legal history. She is currently writing a book about Australia’s last proclaimed outlaws, the brothers Jimmy and Joe Governor. The podcast trilogy The Last Outlaws arose from this research.

Leroy Parsons is an actor across film, stage and television. He has appeared in The Circuit (2007), Something Fishy (2010) and in 2011, played his great-great-grandfather Jimmy Governor in Clare Britton’s theatre production Posts in the Paddock.

Leroy also starred in the short film Man Real (2015), and played Australia’s first Aboriginal President in JUTE Theatre Company’s performance of Proppa Solid (2016).

In 2020, Leroy starred in Jane Harrison’s work, The Visitors which was presented by Sydney Festival, Moogahlin Performing Arts and Carriageworks.

He is the proud great-great-grandson of Jimmy Governor. The role of Narrator in The Last Outlaws series was voiced and co-written by Leroy Parsons.

Sarah Temporal is a prize-winning performance poet and the founder of Poets Out Loud. Her upcoming debut ‘Tight Bindings’ explores embodiment and the stories that bind us. Sarah’s work appears in Best of Australian Poems, Cordite, Australian Poetry Journal and more. As a performer she has won the Nimbin World Cup and Bunker Slam, and been a finalist of the XYZ Prize for Spoken-Word three times. She also collaborates with circus artist Britt Portelli on ‘The Birth Suite’.

Vincent Stead writes and performs poetry in the Northern Rivers area of NSW Australia. He is a member of the Kyogle Writer’s Group and is involved in the promotion and running of a number of poetry events that can be found at North Coast Poetry and Spoken Word.

Dr Jenny Fraser, is a Migunburri Creative Researcher.  Her poetry has been published with Yellow Arrow Journal (USA), IndigenousX, Rabbit Journal and in the anthology ‘This country anytime anywhere’ by IAD Press.   Jenny is a recipient of many  Residency Programs including Varuna House and Apex Arts in New York City. She has also written for the Havana Biennale, NAICA (Native American Indigenous Cinema and Arts), Conundrum Magazine (Canada), SBS and others. She also runs Solid Screen Healing Arts Retreats and maintains a creative practice alongside lecturing and publishing.

 Jimmy Malecki is an award winning photographer and filmmaker from Seattle, Washington,  and has called the Northern Rivers home for the past 22 years.  He started using his camera to tell stories at the 2009 Repco Rally in the Tweed and Kyogle Shires, interviewing event patrons and protesters. This is when he realised the power of citizen journalism and peaceful protest to achieve positive outcomes for the community.  His recent work with writer and producer Susanna Freymark, ‘Tinnie Heroes’ won the Flicker Fest 2023 Byron All Shorts audience award for best short film this year and has been received warmly around the region.

Carlie Daley Nekrasov lives in Northern NSW where she steals time to create poems in between work and mothering. She has had pieces published in The Long Paddock, Southerly, Gargouille, Capsule, Frostwriting, and the Australian Poetry Anthology. She was the winner of the City of Stonnington Literary Festival – Poetry Open Age – Non-Stonnington prize in 2018, and published her first chapbook with Dancing Girl Press in 2019.

Huda Fadlelmawla (aka Huda The Goddess) is a nationally recognised spoken word poet, educator, and community activist. Huda is the Australian Poetry slam champion 2021, the 2021 QLD poetry slam champion and the 2020 QLD poetry slam champion. She has been a poet for over 6 years. Her spoken word is centred around using art as a tool for education and an expression of her own life experience. 

Jeanti St Clair is a storycatcher, a journalist, a documentary and audio walk producer, and media academic. She is the creator of Lismore Flood Stories, a series of audio walks about the 2017 Lismore flood, and the highly acclaimed Rescue project, an exhibition featuring 29 stories and portraits of 41 civilian rescuers from the February 2022 floods in the Northern Rivers, which she produced in collaboration with photographer Raimond de Weerdt. They plan to tour Rescue and reproduce the stories and portraits in book format.  Jeanti is an advocate of creative recovery practices. She brings a trauma-informed interview practice to her work and recognises the psycho-social benefits of story-sharing for individuals and communities following a disaster or other traumatic event. 

Don McQueen performs poetry by “traditional” poets like Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson, as well as poems by modern poets like himself.

Don says ,‘To me poetry is a one person play, so I approach a poem that way, by attempting to become the characters in the poem. Entertaining an audience is my main aim.’

Paddy O’Brien is of Scottish and Irish heritage with a wee bit of Australian dingo.

He has performed for over twenty years in New Zealand, Canada and around Australia, winning multiple awards for bush poetry and yarn spinning.