Body and Mind

Carly-Jay Metcalfe is a Queensland-based writer. Her work has been published in Kill Your Darlings, The Guardian and TEXT Journal. She is a passionate advocate for organ donation and for more honest conversations around dying and death. Carly-Jay is an M.Phil. student in creative writing at the University of Queensland. 

Anna Jacobson is an award-winning writer and artist from Meanjin (Brisbane). Her poetry collection Amnesia Findings (UQP) won the 2018 Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize. Anna’s second illustrated poetry collection, Anxious in a Sweet Store was published with Upswell in 2023. Her memoir How to Knit a Human is forthcoming with NewSouth Publishing in 2024. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Creative Writing from the Queensland University of Technology. Anna’s website is www.annajacobson.com.au.

Matt has been an active swimmer since he was three years old, and competed for over 20 years in hundreds of state, national and international competitions, including five Paralympic Games.

He worked in the financial industry for over ten years in change management and currently works in the health sector. A graduate of the AICD Company Director’s Program Matt also holds multiple board, advisory and ambassadorial roles with sporting, community and humanitarian organisations.

In 2014 Matt was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for ‘Service to sport as a Gold Medallist at the London 2012 Paralympic Games’.

In 2015, he was named Athlete of the Year with a Disability at the New South Wales Sports Awards, and in 2018 he was named Swimming Australia’s Paralympic Program Swimmer of the Year.

His fifth Paralympics came to an exciting end when he joined teammates to win the gold medal in the men’s relay.

Going the Distance is Matt’s third book. He has written a children’s book, Brandon Dreams Big, and Keeping Your Head Above Water: Inspirational Insights from a Champion.

Sarah Klenbort grew up in a house in Atlanta with too many books and not enough cleaning products. She’s lived in Beijing, New York, Wales, Sydney and Brisbane. Sarah teaches creative writing at the University of Queensland and Memoir at Toowong Library and the Queensland Writers Centre. Her writing has appeared in The Guardian, Best Australian Stories, Overland, Island, Eureka Street, and other journals and anthologies in the UK, US and Australia.