Great Escapes

Ashley Hay is an award-winning novelist and essayist whose work includes The Railwayman’s Wife, A Hundred Small Lessons and Gum: The Story of Eucalypts and Their Champions. A former editor of Griffith Review, she also works as a mentor and facilitator, and as editorial consultant for the Climate Justice Observatory.

Charlotte Wood is the author of ten books — seven novels and three non-fiction works. She has won the Stella Prize and the Prime Minister's Literary Award, among others, and her features and essays have appeared in The Guardian, New York Times, Sydney Morning Herald, The Monthly, Saturday Paper and others. She lives in Sydney.

Annabel Abbs is a writer of fiction and non-fiction. Her first novel, The Joyce Girl, tells the story of James Joyce's daughter, won the Impress New Writer Prize, was translated into 10 languages and is currently being adapted for the stage. Her second novel, Frieda: The Real Lady Chatterley, was a Times Book of the Year 2018, and was translated into seven languages.

Her memoir and history of wild walking women, Windswept, was published to great acclaim in June 2021. Her third novel, The Language of Food, tells the story of poet and cookery writer, Eliza Acton. It has been translated into 20 languages, and is currently being adapted for the screen by CBS Studios.

Annabel has a degree in English Literature from UEA and is a Fellow of the Brown Foundation. She grew up in Wales but now lives in London and Sussex where she spends her time cooking, walking, reading and writing.

Emily Bitto is an award-winning writer of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. She has a Masters in Literary Studies and a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Melbourne. Her debut novel, The Strays, was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript, and the published novel went on to win the 2015 Stella Prize. The Strays was published in the US, UK, Canada and Portugal, and rights for a television adaptation are currently under option. Her second novel, Wild Abandon, was published in October 2021 by Allen and Unwin. Emily's work has appeared widely in Australian publications including Meanjin, The Age, The Monthly, The Saturday Paper and The Big Issue. She has been teaching creative writing for over a decade, and is currently a teacher and course advisor at the Faber Writing Academy. She also co-owns Carlton wine bar Heartattack and Vine, and a new bar in Brunswick West called Shabooh Shoobah.