2026 Judges
Sharlene Allsopp
Sharlene Allsopp was born and raised on unceded Bundjalung Country into the Olive mob. Her work has been published widely, including in Griffith Review, Portside Review and Aniko Press. Her debut novel, The Great Undoing, published by Ultimo Press, won the QLD Literary Awards Fiction Book of the Year 2024. She is currently developing her next novel—Through a Glass, Darkly—due for release in 2027.
Ben Ball
Ben Ball is the Publishing Director of UQP, having previously worked at Penguin and Simon and Schuster. Authors he has published include Joe Aston, Peter Carey, Anna Funder, Chloe Hooper, Nam Le, Fiona McFarlane, Leigh Sales, Steve Toltz, Don Watson, Tara June Winch and Tim Winton.
Judith Beveridge
Judith Beveridge has published eight books of poetry. Her books have won major prizes including the Prime Minister’s Award for Poetry for Sun Music: New and Selected Poems. Her latest book is Tintinnabulum which was short-listed for the UK Laurel Prize and the Judith Wright Calanthe Award. She taught poetry writing at Sydney University for 16 years. She was the poetry editor of Meanjin for 10 years and has recently joined the editorial team of The Marrow. In 2025 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Creative Australia.
Kristy Bushnell
Kristy Bushnell is an experienced freelance editor and mentor. She works with award-winning, bestselling and emerging authors, and publishing houses such as the University of Queensland Press, HarperCollins and Walker Books. Kristy is an alumni of the Australian Publishing Association’s Residential Editorial Program and was longlisted for the 2025 Rosanne Fitzgibbon Editorial Award. She thrives on encouraging connection through story and promoting literature to the community in school and public libraries.
Jeann Campillo
Jeann Campillo is a Brisbane-based book blogger and reviewer who has a keen interest in young adult and fantasy and sci-fi books, particularly Australian reads and diverse representation. With a reach of over 20,000 readers across social media, she has been an active part of the bookish community for many years through her reviews, social media and reader engagement. She has previously run a booktube channel, hosted a fantasy book club and regularly appeared on monthly radio segments discussing books. With her bubbly and engaging style, Jeann is passionate about supporting the Australian book community and enjoys connecting with authors and readers on her social media channels @happyindulgence.
Megan Daley
Megan Daley is Head of Education at StoryBox Hub and Artistic Director of Somerset Storyfest and co-host of the Your Kid’s Next Read podcast. She is an experienced and award-winning teacher librarian, and early years educator, with professional experience spanning early childhood classrooms, school libraries, and nature-based learning environments. Megan has been recognised with the ASLA Australian Teacher Librarian of the Year Award, the QSLA Queensland Teacher Librarian of the Year Award, and the national Dromkeen Librarian’s Award. As an author, her books include Raising Readers (UQP, 2019/2025), Teacher, Teacher (Affirm Press, 2023), and The Beehive (Walker Books, 2024), which received an Apimondia International Beekeeping Award.
Terri-Jane Dow
Terri-Jane Dow is the owner of independent bookshop, Cursive Knives. From London, she’s a regular columnist at Mslexia and a writer with bylines in The Saturday Paper, The Skinny, AnOther, and Evening Standard, and is co-manager of Florence Welch’s book club, Between Two Books.
Dr David Ellison
David Ellison is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences at Griffith University. His research and teaching span Gothic fiction, Victorian literature and culture, and contemporary writing. He has published widely in his field and is an engaged reader and recommender of new fiction. David brings prior judging experience, having served on the panel for the Voss Prize for the Australian novel.
Samantha Faulkner
Samantha Faulkner is a Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal woman with family links to Badu and Moa Islands in the Torres Strait and Wuthathi and Yadhaigana peoples, Cape York Peninsula, Queensland. Sam is a writer, poet and editor whose publications include: Life Blong Ali Drummond: A Life in the Torres Strait, written with her grandfather; Pamle: Torres Strait Islanders in Canberra; and Growing Up Torres Strait Islander in Australia, published by Black Inc, 2024. Her short stories and poetry have been published nationally and internationally and her poetry has been translated to French, Indian and South Korean. She is currently working on her debut poetry collection.
Gavin Yuan Gao
Gavin Yuan Gao is a poet and translator living on Yuggera and Turrbal Country in Meanjin. They hold an MFA in Poetry from the Michener Center for Writers. Their first collection, At the Altar of Touch (UQP, 2022), received the 2023 Prime Minister’s Literary Award, the 2023 Victorian Premier’s Prize, and the 2024 John Bray Poetry Prize at the South Australian Literary Awards. In 2024, they were also awarded the Queensland Premier’s Young Publishers and Writers Award.
Mindy Gill
Mindy Gill is an award-winning poet and critic. She is Australian Book Review’s fifth Rising Star, and also writes essays and criticism for the Sydney Review of Books, Kill Your Darlings, Meanjin, and Griffith Review. Her poetry has most recently appeared in The Penguin Book of Indian Poets and the Saturday Paper. Mindy is a recipient of the Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize, and her debut collection is forthcoming with UQP.
Dr Amber Gwynne
Amber is a writer, editor and researcher who lectures at The University of Queensland.
Dr Karen Hands
Karen is a Senior Lecturer and Discipline Lead of the Creative Industries at the University of the Sunshine Coast. Her research examines the intersection of policy and creative/cultural labour in the arts and creative industries. Prior to joining UniSC she was Associate Publisher of Griffith Review. She has served as peer reviewer for the Australia Council (literature) and Arts Queensland. Her research is published in leading journals including International Journal of Cultural Policy, International Journal of Arts Management and Gender and Education, and her essay about university teaching was published in Teacher, Teacher, Stories of Inspirational Educators (Affirm Press, 2023).
Allanah Hunt
Dr Allanah Hunt is a queer Kurnu-Barkindji and Malyangapa writer, editor and academic. She is interested in social justice, mental health, Blak feminism, First Nations storytelling, queer identities and she is now writing about her disease of endometriosis. She has published short stories and essays through places like Griffith Review and Overland, winning a Queensland Literary Award for her body of work so far. In her PhD, she wrote an MCU fan fiction novel exploring affective learning and ownership of women’s bodies. Her first novel, a YA called Forever and Ever, has just been released by TEXT Publishing.
Ella Jeffery
Ella Jeffery is a poet, scholar and critic. Her debut book of poems, Dead Bolt, won the Anne Elder Award, the Puncher and Wattmann Prize for a First Book of Poems, and was shortlisted for the Mary Gilmore Award. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in journals and anthologies including The Kenyon Review, Ambit, Australian Book Review, HEAT, Best Australian Poems, Island and many others. She lives in Brisbane.
Darby Jones
Darby Jones is the Editorial Assistant at Griffith Review and a bookseller at Cursive Knives. He is an alumnus of the blackandwrite! Indigenous Writing and Editing Project and the Open Book Internship and has dedicated his career to diversifying the publishing industry.
Joy Lawn
Joy Lawn is a book advocate, critic and interviewer. She writes for Books+Publishing, Magpies magazine and Good Reading. Her reviews and interviews have also appeared in the Weekend Australian, Australian Book Review, SMH/The Age, Artshub and professional journals. She has judged the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards and other major awards; blogs about literature at Paperbark Words and loves moderating at writers’ festivals. Joy is fascinated by ideas and images and how authors and illustrators express these with truth and originality.
James Chin Moody
James Chin Moody is an author, speaker and leading thinker on the interface between sustainability and innovation. He was the co-author of The Sixth Wave: How to Succeed in a Resource-Limited World which has been published in English, Korean, Japanese and Chinese. As co-founder and CEO of Sendle, a global parcel delivery service dedicated to helping small business thrive through delivery that is simple, reliable and affordable he pioneered Australia’s first technology B Corporation and only 100% carbon neutral delivery service. Previously James has held roles as Executive Director, Development at the CSIRO, Australia’s national research agency. He was an Australian National Commissioner for UNESCO, member of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology and Australian Bureau of Statistics Advisory Boards and Trustee for the Australian Museum. He was also formerly the Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Digital Economy and Society. From 2004-11 he was a panelist on the ABC TV television program The New Inventors. James has a PhD in innovation theory from the Australian National University and was Chief Systems Engineer for the Australian Satellite FedSat, the first Australian satellite to be launched in 30 years.
Professor Michael Ondaatje
Michael Ondaatje is Dean (Research) in Arts, Education and Law, and Professor of History, at Griffith University. Michael is a prize-winning researcher and teacher and a regular commentator on American history and politics in the media. He is a recipient of the Max Crawford Medal – ‘Australia’s most prestigious award for achievement and promise in the humanities.’ In 2026, the US Consulate General in Sydney formally recognised Michael for his ‘extraordinary and enduring contribution to fostering understanding of the United States and its history among Australian students and scholars’.
Sandhya Parappukkaran
Sandhya Parappukkaran is an award-winning picture book author, library assistant and avid reader. She writes stories inspired by her childhood experiences that encourage readers to embrace their cultural identities. Her books have been published all over the world and, among Sandhya’s many accolades, Stay for Dinner (illustrated by Michelle Pereira) won the Multicultural NSW Award at the 2024 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and The Boy Who Tried to Shrink His Name (illustrated by Michelle Pereira) won the 2022 CBCA New Illustrator Award. Sandhya believes that when we explore and celebrate our cultural identities, we show one another greater respect and empathy. She is a writer today because she is a reader, and she is a reader because of public libraries. Sandhya resides in Brisbane with her husband, three children and a backyard brimming with mango trees, curry trees and green chillies.
Alex Philp
Alex Philp writes short fiction and screenplays. Her short fiction has recently appeared in Griffith Review, Going Down Swinging, and elsewhere. She was a recipient of Screen Queensland’s The Writers’ Room initiative (2025) and was recently shortlisted for the Peter Carey Short Story Award (2026). She is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at Griffith University.
Raeden Richardson
Raeden Richardson is a novelist and essayist. His first novel, The Degenerates (2024) was nominated for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, the Voss Literary Prize and the ALS Gold Medal. His writing has appeared in Griffith Review, Meanjin, Kill Your Darlings, The Sydney Morning Herald and New Australian Fiction. He is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. His writing has been supported by Creative Australia, the American Australian Association and the Ian Potter Cultural Trust. He is currently working on his second novel.
Mirandi Riwoe
Mirandi Riwoe is the author of A Short History of Longans. Her other works include Stone Sky Gold Mountain, The Fish Girl, Sunbirds and her short fiction is collected in The Burnished Sun. Mirandi has a PhD in Creative Writing and Literary Studies (QUT).
Kristina Schultz
Kristina Schulz has worked as a children’s and young adult publisher, editor and consultant for over twenty-seven years in Brisbane, Sydney, New York and London.
Kristina has spoken at writers’ festivals, contributed to industry boards, conferences and panels, has helped authors and illustrators at pitching sessions and with manuscript feedback, structural work, editing, proofreading and mentoring. She loves working with Australian voices and is always drawn to books with strong themes and stories with heart. She is passionate about getting books into the hands of readers and would love to see a teacher librarian in every school across the country.
Ian See
Ian See is a publishing professional with almost 20 years of experience in the book industry. Over his career, he has worked in editorial roles at the University of Queensland Press, Text Publishing, The Saturday Paper and Scribe Publications. He has also taught in RMIT’s Professional Writing and Editing program, of which he is a graduate.
Yasmin Smith
Yasmin Smith is a poet and editor of South Sea Islander, Kabi Kabi, Northern Cheyenne and English heritage. Her poems have appeared in Frankie, Meanjin, Island, Griffith Review, Overland, Australian Poetry Journal, Best of Australian Poetry and more. In 2024 she won the Nakata Brophy Prize for Young Indigenous Writers and the Gwen Harwood Poetry Prize, and received the First Nations Flagship Fellowship at Varuna. She is currently an editor at UQP working across fiction, non-fiction, children’s books and poetry where her work includes overseeing their groundbreaking First Nations Classics series.
Jane Sullivan
Jane Sullivan is co-founder of Birds of a Feather, Australia’s fastest-growing book club for women. She also co-hosts three hugely popular online book clubs for kids, tweens and teens: Rebel Readers Alliance, The Wild Readers and The Midnight Readers. A former English teacher turned professional Book Club Host, Jane helps readers of all ages discover stories that spark conversation and connection. At home, she’s mum to four sons who she hopes will share her lifelong love of reading.
John Tague
John Tague is a writer and editor based in Brisbane.
Vicky Tosh
Victoria Tosh is the events and bookclub manager at Riverbend Books, where she has been a bookseller for twelve years. She also co-owns a small arts event business, Darling Citizen. Prior to this she lived and worked in London in antique jewellery and optics, and in Canada where she worked as a children’s bookseller.
Sita Walker
Sita Walker is a high school English teacher, freelance writer and award-winning memoirist whose first book, The God of No Good (Ultimo Press, 2023), won The Courier-Mail People’s Choice Award at the Queensland Literary Awards and the University of Sydney People’s Choice Award at the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards. Sita has written for The Guardian, The Griffith Review, Red Magazine (UK) and others. In a Common Hour (Ultimo Press, 2026) is her debut novel.
Sue Wright
Sue Wright is the Director of Tiny Owl Workshop, a Brisbane-based micropress. She is an editor and author, and an award winning sculptor. Sue’s publishing and creative drive has seen Tiny Owl win awards like the Print Industry Craftsmanship Award (Gold Medallist), a Shorty Award for an Australian-Canadian multi-media project, and, most recently, an Aurealis Award. She is a sometime literary awards judge and past Chair of the Children’s Book Council Australia (Queensland).