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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.

Psycho-siren Leah Shelton creates stylized, guttural, renegade feminist performance art soaked in cult references and dark humour. Her work has taken her from the glamour of Las Vegas to the back streets of Kings Cross, from rigorous training in Japan to live art festivals in New York. With Lisa Fa’alafi, Leah is Co-Director of artist collective Polytoxic, with whom she creates hyper-visual works underpinned by intersectionality, diversity and collaboration. As a solo artist, Leah has played on and off London’s West End and graced the cabaret stages of La Clique, Little Death Club and Vegas Nocturne. Her triptych of solo works interrogating gender and identity have received critical acclaim: ‘Terror Australis’ received numerous awards and toured Australia and France; ‘Bitch On Heat’, directed by UK Performance Art luminary Ursula Martinez, toured major festivals in Australia and Soho Theatre London; and her most recent work ‘Batshit’ premiered to sell-out audiences and 5-star reviews at Brisbane Festival and Melbourne’s Darebin Arts Speakeasy in 2022.

“Simply magnificent … don’t think I’ve ever seen an audience so totally gobsmacked.” (Seesaw Magazine)

Patience Hodgson (she/her) is a singer, songwriter and performer, best known as the bold and energetic lead singer for ARIA-nominated and much loved Meanjin (Brisbane) indie-rock band The Grates. The band enjoyed much success, touring nationally & internationally, over a period of 15 years. They consistently received high rotation and support from Triple J and graced the main stages of every major contemporary music festival in Australia. Adored by audiences for her dynamic and engrossing performance style, Patience still takes to the stage, regularly performing as a part of cult music trivia night Not On Your Rider. While her list of creative endeavours is long, some highlights outside of her time in The Grates include: Collaborations with multidisciplinary artist Rachel Burke The Minutes podcast she co-produced with comedian Melinda Buttle Her work with John Patterson creating and operating Southside Tea Room, Death Valley and Red Robin Supper Truck Hosting and facilitating Splendour In The Craft for 5 years Multiple national tours with Rockwiz Countless one-off appearances on stage.

Claire G. Coleman is a Wirlomin Noongar woman whose ancestral country is on the south coast of Western Australia. Born in Perth she has spent most of her life in Naarm (Melbourne) or on the road. She has written 3 novels Terra Nullius (2019), The Old Lie (2019), and Enclave and a non-fiction book Lies Damned Lies: A personal exploration of the the impact of colonisation (2021). Her art criticism has been published in Spectrum, Artlink and Art Collector and in exhibition catalogues for NGV, AGSA and NGA and others. Her conceptual/video work Refugium won the Incinerator Art Award in 2021 and she will feature in a number of exhibitions in 2022. She writes novels, poetry, short-fiction, drama and essay and has featured in the Saturday Paper, the Guardian, Meanjin, Australian Poetry and many others. Her short fiction and poetry has been published in multiple anthologies.

Kris Kneen is the award-winning author of fiction, poetry and non-fiction including An Uncertain Grace which was shortlisted for the Stella Prize, Wintering, shortlisted for the Davitt award and three QPLA awards, and The Three Burials of Lotty Kneen which was shortlisted for two QPLA awards and the Margarey Medal. Their poetry collection Eating My Grandmother won the Thomas Shapcott Prize. Their latest book Fat Girl Dancing is shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award. They have written and directed broadcast television documentaries and were the Copyright Agency Ltd Non-fiction Fellow in 2020. 

Fiona Kelly McGregor’s most recent novel Iris, is shortlisted for the NSW Premiers Awards and was longlisted for the Stella Prize. Previously, Indelible ink won Age Book of the Year and was published in French by Actes-Sud. Non fiction includes essay collection Buried not dead, shortlisted for the VPLA, genre-busting photoessay A novel idea, Strange museums, a travel memoir of a performance art tour through Poland, and the underground classic chemical palace. Short story collection Suck my toes/Dirt won the Steele Rudd Award. McGregor has decades’ experience as a performance artist as well as curator of events, and writes for The Saturday Paper, Sydney Review of Books, Art Monthly and more.