The Search for Self

Sam Elkin is a writer, event producer and co-editor of Nothing to Hide: Voices of Trans and Gender Diverse Australia (Allen & Unwin, 2022). Born in England and raised on Noongar land, Sam now lives on unceded Wurundjeri land. Sam’s essays have been published in the Griffith Review, Australian Book Review, Sydney Review of Books and Kill Your Darlings. He hosts the 3rrr radio show Queer View Mirror and is a Tilde Film Festival board member. Detachable Penis: A Queer Legal Saga is his first book.

Dominic Gordon is from Melbourne. His work has appeared Meanjin, The Suburban Review, and other literary journals. In 2016, he created and produced a radio play that was broadcast on Radio National’s, Soundproof program, called Cooked in the Big Smoke. In 2018, Dominic was awarded a Berry Family Fellowship at the State Library Victoria, where he began what would become his first book, Excitable Boy: Essays on Risk. 

Bebe Oliver is a descendant of the Bardi Jawi people of the Kimberley region of Western Australia, and an award-winning writer based in Naarm. A leader in Aboriginal advancement, he is Chairperson of Blak & Bright First Nations Literary Festival, and a Board Director of Magabala Books, Australia’s leading Indigenous publishing house. A writer, poet, illustrator, speaker, and facilitator living on unceded Kulin land, Bebe's widely published work encompasses love, loss, identity, Aboriginal and gay existence, place, and Country. Bebe’s debut solo poetry collection is more than these bones (Magabala, 2023).

Winnie Dunn is the General Manager of Sweatshop Literacy Movement and the editor of several critically acclaimed anthologies, including Another Australia (Affirm Press, 2022). She is a writer of Tongan descent from Mount Druitt and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Western Sydney University. Her work has been published in The Guardian, HuffPost Australia, Griffith Review, Meanjin and SBS Voices. In 2022, she was a finalist for Western Sydney University's Breakthrough Alumni Award. Winnie is currently completing her debut novel, Dirt Poor Islanders (Hachette, 2024), which has been assisted by the Australia Council for the Arts.