Sophie Cunningham, Chair (VIC) 

Sophie Cunningham has worked in publishing for more than 25 years. She began her working life as an editor at McPhee Gribble Publishers where she had the opportunity to work with Drusilla Modjeska, Dorothy Hewett, Helen Garner, Kerryn Goldsworthy, Kaz Cooke, Kerry Greenwood and Steven Carroll.

When McPhee Gribble became part of Penguin books her role was publisher of McPhee Gribble/Penguin. Here Cunningham was responsible for the first publication of Richard Flanagan, Fiona McGregor and Timothy Conigrave (Holding the Man) amongst others.

Cunningham was Trade Publisher at Allen & Unwin Publishers for 10 years where she was responsible for writers including Dr Roberta Sykes, Ruby Langford, Dr Catherine Lumby, Dr Mark Davis, Dr McKenzie Wark and Paul Kelly (singer). At first her publishing was notable for the development of emerging fiction writers, and later for serious non-fiction engaging with and challenging the cultural issues of the day. She was a publisher, briefly, at Lonely Planet.

From 2008 – 2011 Cunningham was the editor of Australia’s second oldest literary journal, Meanjin Quarterly, 2008 – 2011. While in this position she co-founded (with Jeff Sparrow, Overland editor) the Meanland series of discussions on reading, publishing and writing in the digital age.

Cunningham has spoken and lectured at a range of institutions, conferences and festivals on these subjects around Australia, including the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Adelaide Festival of the Arts, Adelaide Film Festival, ASAL, Brisbane Writers Festival, Byron Bay Writers Festival, Melbourne Writers Festival, Melbourne University, Midsumma Festival, Monash University, National Library, Newcastle Young Writers’ Festival, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, State Library of NSW, State Library of Victoria, Sydney Writers’ Festival, University of Technology, Victoria University, Writers Victoria, Women In Publishing and the Wheeler Centre.

Her journalism, fiction and interviews have been published by a range of newspapers and magazines over the years including Griffith Review, Meanjin, The Age, Crikey, The Drum and The Monthly.

She is the author of Melbourne(2011), New South; Bird (2008), Text Publishing and Geography(2004) Text Publishing & Transworld (UK). Geography was shortlisted for the Best First Book category in the SE Asia & South Pacific Region of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize.

Cunningham is currently writing a book on Cyclone Tracy and the long term effect of disaster on people, culture and the environment, and a third novel, This Devastating Fever, about Leonard Woolf. Extracts from that work-in-progress have been published in Wordlines, Meanjin, and Best Australian Stories 2007.

Cunningham is the co-founder and chair of the Stella Prize, an organisation that aims to reward excellence in published women writers. Cunningham is also the director of the Faber Academy’s ‘How to Write a Novel’ Program in Melbourne.

Brenda Walker (WA)

Brenda Walker is Winthrop Professor of English and Cultural Studies at the University of Western Australia. Her early research was on the fiction of Samuel Beckett. She currently works on Australian and American literature and autobiographical narrative. 

Walker is a novelist with a particular interest in historical fiction and her most recent novel, The Wing of Night is an exploration of the experiences and consequences of the First World War. She has also written a novel, Poe’s Cat, set in contemporary Australia and in America in the nineteenth century.

The Wing of Night won the 2006 Nita B. Kibble Award and the 2007 Asher Prize. Her memoir, Reading by Moonlight, won the 2010 Victorian Premier’s Award for Non-Fiction and the 2011 Nita B. Kibble Award.

Patricia Cornelius (VIC)

Patricia is a founding member of Melbourne Worker's theatre. A playwright, novelist and dramturge, she has been the recipent of many awards including a fellowship from the Theatre Board of the Australia Council, the NSW Premier's Literary Award, the Patrick White Playwright's Award, the Richard Wherrett Prize, the Wal Cherry Award, the Jill Blewitt Award and the R. E. Ross Trust Award.

Her plays have earned her 10 Awgies for stage, community, theatre for young people, and feature film adaptation. She has written over 25 plays, and her most recent works are Do Not Go Gentle, Savages, Slut, Love and The Call.

Jason Nelson (Qld)

Jason Nelson is a Gold Coast-based digital poet and electronic literature writer. Jason is a lecturer of digital art and writing at Griffith University, and a founder and board member of the Electronic Literature Organisation of NetPoetic.com - a think-tank for all things E-lit.

Jason's work has won numerous awards, including the Paris Poetry Biennale Prize for New Media, The Vinaros Prize for both digital fiction and poetry and has been exhibited widely. And while he is considered one of the world’s top digital poets, he is most proud of the millions of visitors/reads who visit his secrettechnology.com each year. Jason adds his expertise in all forms of new media and technology mediated creative writing to the Literature Board. 

James Roy (NSW)

James Roy is the internationally published author of some twenty books for young people, including the Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Honour Books Captain Mack and Billy Mack's War, several CBCA Notable Books, and work that has been shortlisted for the Queensland Premier's Award and the Western Australian Premier's Award. In 2008, his collection of short stories, Town, won the Golden Inky teen choice award and the NSW Premier's Award (Ethel Turner Prize) and was recently nominated for the prestigious German Youth Literature Prize.

In addition to writing books, James also works as a freelance writer and photographer, teaches at the NSW and Sydney Writers' Centres, and visits around fifty local and international schools a year. He plans to commence his research Masters in 2012.