...To The Bitter End

David Burton is an author, playwright, blogger and podcaster. He has written more than 25 plays, including April's Fool, which toured nationally and is studied in schools nationwide. His newest play, St Mary's In Exile, premieres in September at the Queensland Theatre Company and tells the controversial true story of two rebel Catholic priests in Brisbane. His 2015 memoir, How to Be Happy, won the Text Prize in Young Adult and Children's Writing. He spends a lot of time blogging about food, teaching young people and advocating for mental health.

Taryn Bashford is the author of The Harper Effect, a young adult novel published by Pan Macmillan in Australia and Skyhorse Publishing in the USA (2018), as well as a second novel, The Astrid Notes (2019), also published by Pan Macmillan. Taryn speaks at numerous literary conferences and regularly works as an Author-in-Residence conducting writing workshops with high schools. In addition, she is a writing mentor for unpublished writers with Queensland Writers Centre and the instigator of the new Friends of Libraries Book Feasts – a community event for booklovers. Taryn is currently working on her PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Queensland. Taryn hails from England but has lived in four countries including nearly twenty years in Australia. She now lives in Brisbane with her teen children and a dog who loves cheese. 

Richard Yaxley is the author of eight novels, as well as many short stories and poems. He is a former winner of the Prime Ministers Literary Award and the Queensland Premiers Literary Award, both for Young Adult Literature, and his novel This Is My Song was the 2020 ACU Book of the Year. A secondary school teacher for over thirty years, Richard has master’s degrees in human rights and cultural studies. In 2012, he was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for services to education, literature and performing arts.