Doorways to Other Worlds

Kirsten McGavin is a mixed race woman of Aotearoa New Zealand Pākehā and Papua New Guinean (Lavongai, New Ireland Province) descent. She has a PhD in anthropology and, more recently, completed a master’s degree in creative writing. Her research interests—in both fields—include: identity, place, representation, belonging, material culture and popular culture. Kirsten is the compiler and editor of World Beyond: An Anthology of Papua New Guinean Speculative Fiction - the first book of its kind from PNG.

Trent Jamieson is the Award-winning author of the novels The Stone Road, and Day Boy, as well as the Death Works Trilogy, and Roil Duology. His children's book The Giant and the Sea, illustrated by Rovina Cai, won the 2021 Environment Award for Children's Literature Picture Fiction. His latest book is Mr Impoppable, illustrated by Brent Wilson. Brent and Trent are currently working on a series of graphic novels together.

Aimée Lindorff is an Australian cultural producer, arts reviewer, podcaster, and story editor. She's developed and produced projects for the likes of Netflix, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Universal Pictures, Discovery Channel, and Gold Coast Film Festival, and is in-demand as an event host, appearing for Brisbane Libraries, Supanova, and at festivals across the country. She produced and hosted SQ On Air podcast for Screen Queensland, and is co-founder of cross-platform production team Inside Voice.

MYKAELA SAUNDERS is a Koori/Goori and Lebanese writer, critic and editor. Mykaela’s debut speculative fiction collection ALWAYS WILL BE (UQP 2024) won the David Unaipon Award, was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Indigenous Writers’ Prize and longlisted for The Stella Prize. Mykaela edited THIS ALL COME BACK NOW (UQP 2022), the world’s first anthology of blackfella spec fic, which won an Aurealis Award. Mykaela has won other prizes for fiction, poetry, essay writing and research, including the Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize and the Oodgeroo Noonuccal Indigenous Poetry Prize. Mykaela is a postdoctoral research fellow at Macquarie University researching First Nations speculative fiction. Mykaela worked in Aboriginal education in various capacities from 2003 to 2023, and has been teaching at the tertiary level since 2012. Her research explores her people’s past, present and future.

C.S. Pacat is the New York Times and USA-Today best-selling author of Dark Rise, the Captive Prince trilogy, and the GLAAD-nominated graphic novels Fence, as well as a writer for DC Comics.

Educated at the University of Melbourne, C.S. Pacat has since lived in a number of cities, including Tokyo and Perugia, and currently resides and writes in Melbourne.