Small Town Big Problem

Cass Moriarty’s novels include Parting Words (UQP 2017) and The Promise Seed (UQP 2015), longlisted for the 2017 Dublin International Literary Award, and shortlisted for both the 2016 Queensland Literary Awards (People’s Choice Award) and the 2013 QLA (Emerging Author category). The Saturday Paper has published her short fiction and her creative non-fiction. Her work explores the silences and secrets in families. She is a book reviewer and critic, a writing mentor, an Australia Council recipient, a Queensland Literary Awards judge, and she presents workshops and hosts literary conversations. Cass is a staunch supporter of Australian authors and believes in the power of a supportive literary community.

Garry Disher lives on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula and has published over 50 books, including the widely translated Hirsch, Wyatt and Peninsula crime novels, which have been on best-seller lists and won several best-crime-novel awards in Australia and Germany. The recipient of a lifetime achievement award from the Australian Crime Writers Association, his latest titles are The Way it is Now, a stand-alone crime novel, and the best-selling Hirsch novel, Day’s End. 

Born in Adelaide in 1945. Patchy school attendance. Arts degree with University of Queensland as Adult Student. Working life spent in the bush on stock routes and cattle properties. Started writing as a child and have never stopped. Freelance writer for many years then published two autobiographers and many Outback mystery novels with Penguin/Random House.

Hayley Scrivenor is a former Director of Wollongong Writers Festival. Her first novel, Dirt Town, was published internationally in 2022, and is a #1 Australian bestseller. Hayley lives on Dharawal country, on the east coast of Australia, and has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Wollongong.

Sean Wilson is a writer from Perth, now based in Melbourne. His short stories have been published in Australia and internationally, including in Island, The Big Issue and Narrative, and he was shortlisted for the Patrick White Playwrights Award by Sydney Theatre Company. His debut novel is Gemini Falls.