Literary Death Match

Claire Christian tells stories: she is a writer, theatre maker and facilitator. Her first novel, Beautiful Mess won the Text Prize in 2016 and was released in 2017. Her second novel, It’s Been a Pleasure, Noni Blake was released in 2020. Both have been published internationally. She has had the great joy of directing Michelle Law’s smash hit comedy Single Asian Female since 2017. She is a proud member of the Mama’s Boys theatre collective whose hip-hop theatrical explosion Brothers Book Club premiered in 2022. Her Plays Lysa and the Freeborn Dames, Talking to Brick Walls, Hedonism’s Second Album and The Landmine is Me are available through Playlab Inc. Her second novel, It’s Been a Pleasure, Noni Blake was released in 2020. Both her novels have been published internationally. Claire’s last novel West Side Honey was released in April 2023.

Adrian Todd Zuniga is the host and creator of Literary Death Match; author of the award-nominated novel, Collision Theory; the WGA Award-nominated screenwriter of LONGSHOT (featuring Mahershala Ali); and director of the short film HOLD ME, DON’T TOUCH ME. He just moved to Australia, and is excited to become one of your best friends, and say yes to your house- and dinner-party invites.

Shirley Le is a Vietnamese-Australian writer from Yagoona and Creative Producer at Sweatshop Literacy Movement. Her writing has been published in Overland, The Guardian, SBS Voices and several Sweatshop anthologies including Another Australia. Funny Ethnics (Affirm Press, 2023) is her first novel.

Myles McGuire is a writer, editor and semi-professional conversationalist. After starting at BWF as a clown in 2022, he joined the team as Programs Coordinator in 2023. His writing has been nominated for prizes including the Queensland Premier's Young Publishers and Writers Award and the Peter Carey Short Story Award.

Gabrielle Zevin is the internationally bestselling and critically acclaimed author of The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry; the prizewinning children's book, Elsewhere; and several other novels. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is being developed into a feature film by Temple Hill and Paramount Studios, and the movie version of A.J. Fikry, for which Zevin wrote the adaptation, is currently in production in Massachusetts. Zevin was born in New York and is the daughter of a Korean mom and an Eastern European Jewish dad, who both spent their careers working in computers. Her dad wanted her to work in computers, too, and this book is probably as close as she will ever come. She is a screenwriter, an occasional critic and a graduate of Harvard University. Zevin currently splits her time between Los Angeles and Stardew Valley, where she owns a farm on a once rocky plot of land.

Jess Ho is best known for their take-no-prisoners opinions on the hospitality industry. They were the food and drink editor for Time Out Melbourne. Jess has also been published in The Guardian, The Age Spectrum, Time and Tide, The Financial Review, Frankie Magazine and Eater. Jess is the host and producer of SBS podcast Bad Taste. Raised by Wolves is Jess’ first book. Jess lives in Melbourne.

Siang Lu is the author of Ghost Cities and The Whitewash and co-creator of The Beige Index. The Whitewash won the ABIA Audiobook of the Year in 2023, the Glendower Emerging Writer Award at the Queensland Literary Awards, and was shortlisted for a NSW Premiers Literary Award.

In 2023 he was one of the Top 40 Under 40 Asian-Australians at the Asian-Australian Leadership Awards.

Siang has written for film and television for Singapore's Beach House Pictures and Malaysia's Astro network.

Benjamin Stevenson is an award-winning stand-up comedian and author. His first novel, Greenlight, was shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Award for Best Debut Crime Fiction, and his second novel, Either Side of Midnight, was shortlisted for the International Thriller Writers Award for Best Original Paperback. Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone, his third novel, was a huge bestseller and has so far been sold in twenty-six territories around the world. It will soon be adapted into a major HBO TV series. It was shortlisted for the Dymocks Book of the Year 2022 and named as one of The Sunday Times's best crime novels 2022. Benjamin has sold out live shows from the Melbourne International Comedy Festival all the way to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and has appeared on ABC TV, Channel 10 and The Comedy Channel.